As I have mentioned I have been trying to find different ways to do math with the girls. The sort of do math at school, but big-sis is pretty quick and sneeky, so she has figured out that she can do everything with her fingers and doesn’t need to memorize anything.

So today as I was downloading Killer Soduku puzzles from the Times Online about Tetsuya Miyamoto. He has developed a new way of motivating kids in math through puzzles (Times Article). Here’s is his official website. You have to love Japan.

I have a thing for old books. The picture above is from Grandfather Stories. It has a great version of the Bremen Town Musicians. When I was little we lived about 35 miles north of Bremen for two years in a town called Osterholz-Scharmbeck…fascinating I know, but it was very cool living so close to a real fairy tale.

My latest favorite are the Harper’s readers from the late 1800’s.

This is from the third reader. The illustrations are amazing, and it is interspersed with science, history, poems, and stories.

Here’s a list of some of the books available in Google Books.  I could spend days on these!

Not the most exciting thing ever-but we are practicing addition. This is a worksheet math puzzle. You do the problems and then fill in the blanks to get an Egyptian joke.

Anything to try to make 9 + 5 more interesting….

We’re finally getting some chilly weather here. Lots of hope for snow this winter. Last year, after the move back from Florida we got about 3 flakes, so my little flakes really do not remember what snow looks like.

We’re starting to work on our Christmas list. Last spring I made the girls a Family Memory game. I think we might duplicate this for their cousin in Williamsburg. The girls have love this, and it’s been a fun way to remember everyone.

We’re also starting to think about teacher gifts. This is a hard one for me personally. I teach, and the last thing I want is to saddle someone else with a bunch of “apple-crap”. I am also on a public schoolteacher’s budget, and like the idea of hand made.

So we’ve been working on a hot chocolate recipe, and think we’ve hit the final formulation. Little-sis likes to play Top Chef when we do our taste testing which is pretty funny. The plan is to put this in small cellophane bags and put this in a holiday mug.

Hot Chocolate:

• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon Cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl. Put in small jars or gift bags.

For the tag:

Mix 2 teaspoons with 1 cup of hot milk. Stir and enjoy.

Materials:

• Freezer Paper
• Acrylic Paint
• T-Shirt or other fabric
• Washable fabric glitter

Tools:

• Iron
• X-actoacto Knife
• Sponge brush

Note: Be careful with the iron and the freezer paper. You should never touch the iron to the shiny side of the paper, it will stick and can ruin your iron!

Directions:

1. Transfer the design onto the non-shiny side of the freezer paper. To save time you can print a design directly onto the paper by cutting it to fit in your printer.
2. Cut out the design using aactoacto knife.
3. Set the iron to the highest setting.
4. Put a piece of freezer paper and iron it onto the back side of the fabric you are stenciling. Make sure the shiny side is touching the back side of the fabric as you iron.

   

5. Position the stencil pieces shiny side down on the fabric. Remember that any place where the freezer paper is placed will show the fabric.
6. Hold the iron on the freezer-paper stencil. Check every few seconds until the paper is sticking to the fabric.
7. Use the sponge brush to apply a light coat of the acrylic paint. Make sure no fabric is showing through.

   

8. Optional: Sprinkle glitter over the wet paint.

   

9. Wait a few minutes until the paint dries, then carefully remove the stencil.
10. You can reuse the stencil. Just use a regular piece of paper over the stencil before you iron so the paint doesn’t stick to the iron.

Freezer Paper Stencil:

I am trying to learn a bit of conversational Japanese right now. My sister and I are planning a trip to Tokyo to visit our brother in August, so we are both trying to keep from getting totally lost.

According to a teacher pal of mine (she teaches French) as you work you get a few breakthroughs, then you plateau for a bit.

That’s me right now…I sort of get the sentence structure, but all I know how to say is:

Watashi wa kippu no doko des ka?

Which I think means “Where is my ticket”?

Useful, no? I can totally see surviving for a week with just that phrase.

Along those lines, here’s a website full of Japanese anti-smoking ads. They are hilarious…this one has a Haiku theme.

My dad, who knows about 6 languages conversationally, if not fluently, says the best thing to do is learn about 5 action verbs. The nouns you can communicate with hand gestures. I figure I can add a few please/thank you type things. Can’t hurt.

Anyone know Japanese? Any hints?