Cheaper by the Dozen

We have had many wonderful classroom read-aloud stories this year, but one the children particularly enjoyed was Cheaper by the Dozen.

We followed the book up with some special video resources. This is rare in our classroom, but I thought the children would get a lot out of it!

To begin with, yesterday we watched some excerpts from Frank Bunker Gilbreth's original motion study silent films:

start to 5:12

19:44 to 20:30

21:46 to 22:55

Then today we watched the 1950 movie version of Cheaper by the Dozen (which is an adaptation of the book; later versions are not).

Note that Amazon Prime labels this movie as being PG-13 but I'm not sure why. There's nothing objectionable in it. Here is the IMDB Parent's Guide.

The children really enjoyed seeing if their favorite parts of the book made it into the movie, and comparing the two of them. We finished up with a bit of Lillian Gilbreth: First Lady of Engineering from Purdue University.

start to 1:10

1:57 to 3:15

Here is the complete list of our lunchtime chapter books so far:

Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren

Pippi in the South Seas by Astrid Lindgren

Comet in Moominland by Tove Jansson

Cheaper by the Dozen by Frank Gilbreth Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey

We will finish the year with Minn of the Mississippi by Holling Clancy Holling.

This post contains affiliate links to materials I truly use for homeschooling. Qualifying purchases provide me with revenue. Thank you for your support!

Zoetropes!

Last week in SWI, we had a grand exploration of the word < zoetrope >.

https://www.zoetrope.org/zoetrope-history

What does it mean, the children wondered. Why did the guy who invented this give it such a strange name? And is it related to the word < zoo > ?

Plus, this exploration gave me a chance to finally use my zoetrope kits!!!
I brought these kits all the way with me from Maryland 11 years ago.

We started by hypothesizing word sums. How might this word be built?

Some children saw familiar words inside it such as < rope > and < trope >. One child argued that < -ope > might be a suffix and gave < microscope > and < stethoscope > as his evidence. Then we hopped over to the etymology dictionary, etymonline, to see what it had to say.

We learned that zoetrope comes from the Greek zoe "life" and zoology comes from the Greek zōion "animal." This means that technically they are not related. However, as one child pointed out, maybe there's an even more ancient word that zoe and zōion BOTH come from, since they are so similar in both sound and meaning. And she's right! This is the kind of observation linguists use as evidence for Proto-Indo-European!

PIE root *gwei- "to live"

Finally, we built our zoetropes.

Then, that day's lunchtime read aloud chapter -- Cheaper by the Dozen by Frank & Ernestine Gilbreth, chapter 16 -- was all about going to the movies, so we were able to talk about filmstrips and projectors (and how old animated movies were all drawn by hand, and quite like our zoetrope strips).

And I got out an old filmstrip that I had in my teaching things from when I was 23, and they were absolutely amazed! (They want me to track down an old projector so they can watch it.) The fact that the filmstrip has little places down the sides where it was threaded on to the projector tied in really well with the dot matrix printer paper we looked at on Earth Day too!

For one of our Earth Day activities I gave the children a huge stack of dot matrix printer paper, donated by Miss Jennifer, and showed them how to tear it at the perforations and separate the pages and remove the little dotted edges. They then added it to our pile of blank paper for writing rough drafts. They LOVED it!

Reuse, reduce, recycle!

It is always so fun to see how the things we learn about connect!

Educational Game: Adsumudi

I'm currently working on a series of blog posts about Educational Games, in case you are looking to add to your collection before the Summer Vacation!

previous posts:

The Allowance Game - coins

Gnoming A Round - negative numbers

Poetry for Neandertals - syllables

Today I'm writing about Adsumudi by Evermade!

There are other variations available on their website but I haven't yet tried them.

Adsumudi is a fantastic game for mental math using all four operations. The name was created using the first two letters of each word (+, -, x, ÷).

The cards are sturdy and really attractive.

Children of different ages (and adults) can join in simply by playing at different levels. Everyone plays at the level that is right for them!

The goal is to use a combination of operations to arrive at the target number. If you are a beginner, you only have to use 2 of the outside numbers to get to the center number.

24 ÷ 8 = 3

Too easy? For the next level of challenge, you must use 3 of the outside numbers in your solution.

24 - 13 = 11
11 - 8 = 3

To make it harder, use 4 numbers. To make it monstrously hard, use all 5!

Although the game rules state that when you see a way to get to the target number you should yell "Adsumudi," we play that you slap the card when you've found an equation that will work.

Yelling "Adsumudi" doesn't really work in a classroom setting. Slapping the card is also much more satisfying. That pauses the game, and you have a chance to explain your solution. If your math checks out, you win the card. If not, play resumes.

First person to five cards wins!

P.S. This game is also satisfying and fun to play by yourself. See if you can figure out the solution to each card at each level!

This post contains affiliate links to materials I truly use for homeschooling. Qualifying purchases provide me with revenue. Thank you for your support!

Educational Game - The Allowance Game

I'm currently working on a series of blog posts about Educational Games, in case you are looking to add to your collection before the Summer Vacation!

previous posts:

Gnoming A Round - negative numbers

Poetry for Neandertals - syllables

Today I'm writing about The Allowance Game by Lakeshore!

This is ON SALE (4/22/2025) right now at the Lakeshore website for $12.99!

This is a great game for adding and subtracting coins (quarter, dime, nickel). Each corner is a special space.

Akin to Monopoly, you get $3.00 in allowance every time you pass Home. However, this is a more child-friendly math game as the instructions for each space are far clearer. For many of them you simply spend or receive money. The three strategy spaces (the other three corners) are as follows:

BANK - you can choose to deposit $2.00 to open a bank account. From then on, you'll earn $0.50 in interest each time you land on that space.

MALL - you can choose to spend $1.00 at the mall to buy a "roll again."

LEMONADE STAND - you can choose to spend $1.00 to set up a lemonade stand (this can only be done by ONE person each game). From then on, any child who lands on that space is required to spend $0.40 to buy a glass of lemonade from you.

Unlike the inherently brutal nature of Monopoly, for any player who lands on a space and is unable to pay, their gameplay simply resets. They do lose their next turn as a penalty. However, they may turn in any remaining money, move their token to home, receive their $3.00 in initial setup money, and rejoin the game.

First person to $20.00 wins!

P.S. If your child has trouble identifying which silver coin is which, I would suggest swapping the plastic coins out for real ones. The weight of a real coin is an important part of knowing which one is which. This would also help your child see all the different designs that are possible on a quarter.

Fishing Trip

We have been having so much fun visiting a different local farm each month (my spin on the classic Waldorf grade 3 Farming block). For March, we dove (no pun intended) into Illinois aquaculture!

Here are some pictures from our morning at Little Grassy Fish Hatchery.

a tour of the facility

we learn about the process for raising channel catfish

time to go fishing in the stock ponds!

the first fish!

everything was catch and release

we finish with picnic lunches outside on a beautiful day

A great follow up to this field trip would be Minn of the Mississippi by Holling Clancy Holling, which we will read after we finish our current lunchtime read aloud story, Cheaper by the Dozen!

This post contains affiliate links to materials I truly use for homeschooling. Qualifying purchases provide me with revenue. Thank you for your support!