4 March 2016

Maths, Chores, and Thanking Our Kids

For the past couple of weeks, we’ve been living a quiet life. We haven’t done anything exciting. No music video shoots. No picnics by the lake. We haven’t even been running. The reason? We’ve all been unwell.

It can be frustrating having to slow down, especially when there are a million things we want to do. But there was one thing I did do while resting on the sofa: I went on a search for more real life maths resources. Yes, I’ve been hopping over the Internet, pinning links from here and there. And now that my girls are almost better, we’ve begun exploring some new games, podcasts, websites and videos.

In this week’s podcast, I chat about all the things I found. Some of them could also be described as geography resources.

Also, I discuss the following questions:

  • Why do little kids love doing chores but older ones don’t?
  • Should we thank our kids more often?
  • Should we avoid talking to people about their grief? Perhaps it’s better not to upset them?
  • What’s wrong with a lot of real life maths resources (in my opinion!)?

I hope you’ll listen to episode 61!

Show Notes

Yummy Math website

The Australian Bureau of Statistics

Run That Town game

Spotlight census animation

More or Less: Behind the Stats podcast

The Maths Dude: Quick and Dirty Tips to Make Math Easier podcast and website

The Joy of Stats video

The Joy of Stats on the Open Learn website

Calculord game

Google Earth Pro, free to download

Real World Math website

Google Earth 3D Video Animation

READ  What Do Unschoolers Do Each Day?

Follow Sue’s board unschool maths on Pinterest.

Follow Sue’s board Unschool Geography/ History on Pinterest.

Podcast Music: 60’s Quiz Show by Podington Bear(CC BY-NC 3.0)

If you listen to this week’s episode… thank you. And if you’d like to stop by to say hello or comment on my podcast, please do!

Sue Elvis

I'm an Australian blogger, podcaster, and Youtuber. I write and speak about unschooling, parenting and family life. I'm also the author of the unschooling books 'Curious Unschoolers', 'Radical Unschool Love' and ‘The Unschool Challenge’. You'll find them on Amazon!

8 Comments

    • Kelly,

      100 podcasts? Perhaps I will make it. Your encouraging words always help me to keep going. Thank you! And thank you for listening to this week's episode!

  1. oh sorry to here that you were unwell dear hope you and family are now perfectly alright,have a blessed pleasant winter

    • baili,

      We are feeling much better. Thank you for your concern. Oh yes, winter is coming. Before it arrives, I'm looking forward to enjoying autumn. It's my favourite season of the year! Thank you for stopping by.

  2. Very enjoyable podcast, Sue! I hope you all are feeling better. We got hit with a bad cold last week, but are climbing out of it.

    I loved the math ideas! I think you are right about the "workbook" style problems. I want to try thr Google Earth tour idea and some of the census based ones. Eric (my husband) does a lot of work with old census data when he does geneology.

    I also loved Andy's Thunderbirds shirt! We have been watching the newer version and enjoying it. The only problem was that my youngest thought the actual rocket resupplying the ISS must be Thunderbird 1!

    • Wendy,

      I'm sorry to hear you've been unwell too. I hope you're feeling better soon.

      The census data is fascinating, isn't it? A history snapshot. Of course, all those facts and figures aren't perfectly accurate. I found this out by experience. We handed back an incomplete census document last time by mistake. I'm sure other people do this too. I did find some statistics on the accuracy of the data on the Australian Bureau of Stats site. Everything has associated stats!

      Geneology is such an interesting area. Is your husband tracing his family tree? My parents did that for my father's side of the family. I can remember, as a teenager, spending weekends in cemeteries looking at headstones!

      Andy's T-shirt was a gift from my eldest daughter. It might have come from the Red Bubble website. Yes, we like Thunderbirds too!

      I've enjoyed chatting with you. Thank you so much for listening to this week's episode!

  3. I've got to give my tweens room to move. Find common ground when we can, then give them space when they need it. We feel like we're on-call 24/7.

    • Stephen,

      I agree with you: Parents are on duty around the clock. Like you, we have times when we share activities, and at other times, my kids go off to do things of their own. Yes, they need space. And so do we. I have found it gets easier as kids get older. I get lots of time for myself these days. I'm still on call, ready to put down my own interests when my kids need me, but there can be long stretches of time when no one claims my attention. That can be good and bad!

      Thank you so much for stopping by!

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