Attack of the Blob!

Jump right into geography with one of my favorite exercises: the blob map.

This lesson is adapted from the geography section of the book The Core by Leigh Bortins --a great read. 

Geography is truly the easiest subject to teach classically, yet it is one of the most neglected of all the subjects in every methodology of education. All you really need is a map, drawing utensil, and paper. You can replicate a map with your finger and dirt if you needed to! Sounds like the crucial part of an exciting adventure story, huh?

Hopefully, this will inspire you to add the <10min exercise that is geography to your school day at home and you will be SO amazed at how well your student will be able to replicate a simple world map in just a few weeks!

Blob map:
1. Fold a piece of paper in half, hot dog style [landscape!].

2. Unfold and draw a line on the crease you just made. Label your equator.

3. This step can be done in one of two ways:
a) use a student atlas or atlas that has a picture of the world with the Great Circles labeled. Match your equator with the equator in the picture, then draw the Tropics and the Arctics.

b) (our choice most of the time at home) This works best with manila paper, but we've managed to use the year's supply up already and must use 8.5x11. First, fold the bottom edge of the paper up the distance from the tip of your finger to the first palm-side knuckle crease.

Keeping that edge folded, bring that fold up to the equator.

When you unfold it, you should have two creases that are roughly proportional to the actual lines the tropics and arctics make [the tropic line are closer to the equator and the arctics are closer to the edge of the paper]. Draw in the circles and label them. From north to south, Arctic Circle, Tropic of Cancer, Equator, Tropic of Capricorn, Antarctic Circle.

4. Using the Great Circles as a drawing reference and your world map, draw blobs to represent the continents. Encourage your child to make the blobs more closely resemble the actual continent each time they draw the map.

Here's my atlas boy blob-mapping away...

And my dear oldest knight who rushed through it but still gets the point across...

Blob maps can be used in conjunction with actual tracing--trace the continents first, then make rough ovals/blobs around them, or reverse it and draw your blobs, then trace directly onto your blobs and see how close you are.

Geography is the subject that most utilizes the basic drawing shapes used in our first quarter drawing lessons.  It is very gratifying to our students to watch their curved lines, angled lines, dots, straight lines, and circles slowly changing over the weeks into recognizable countries!

"Did you ever go to ---  I think it was called Norway?"
"No. No, I didn't."
"Pity. That was one of mine. Won an award, you know. Lovely crinkly edges."

Math Tricks...Divisibility Rules Rule!

Numbers are our friends, not foes!  Math need not be feared, my friends.  Mathematics is an amazingly beautiful language through which God communicates so much information about His Creation. 

We NEED to impart to our children an understanding of this amazing language of computation.  They must be well-armed to face life in this world full of this…

Number sense is the understanding of numbers and their relationships with each other using basic operations. In our house, rote memorization of the math facts is essential and required.  I also like for my kiddos to know some tips and tricks to spot factors and to work quickly when they are applying multiplication in their problems.

First, we need to master some basic number sense vocabulary.

In addition, the numbers that are added are called addends and the answer is the sum.

addend + addend = sum

In subtraction, we subtract the subtrahend from the minuend to find the resulting difference.

minuend – subtrahend = difference

Numbers that are multiplied are called factors.  The result is the product.

factor x factor = product

We divide the dividend by the divisor to find the resulting quotient. 

dividend / divisor = quotient

RULES FOR FACTORS AND TESTS FOR DIVISIBILITY

2	All numbers multiplied by 2 are even.	All even numbers are divisible by 2.
3	The sum of the digits of any multiple of 3 is 3, 6, or 9.	All numbers whose digits add up to a multiple of 3 are divisible by 3.
4	All multiples of 4 are even.	All numbers whose last two digits are divisible by four are divisible by four.
5	Odd multiples of 5 are odd and even multiples of 5 are even.	A number is divisible by 5 if the last digit is 5 or 0.
6	The sum of the digits of any multiple of 6 is 3, 6, or 9.	A number is divisible by 6 if it is divisible by 2 AND 3.
7		This one’s a bit tricky, but it does work: If you double the last digit and subtract it from the rest of the number and the answer is 0 or is divisible by 7, then the original number is divisible by 7. (Note: you can apply this rule to that answer again if you want) Really, it’s often faster just to check it the old fashioned way.
8		If the last three digits are divisible by 8, then the entire number is.
9	All multiples of 9 have digits that add up to 9.	If the sum of the digits is divisible by 9, then the entire number is.

This chart is required copywork for my 5^th and 6^th graders until complete mastery.  This, in addition to rote memorization, has been very helpful to them in computing faster.

Check out a much more complete list of algorithms on the Divisibility Rules wikipedia page.

Now, go teach your children math.  Be mean. Be cruel.  Be consistent.  Release your inner dragonlady.  Your child deserves to know what’s wrong with this…