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Practice Math Facts with Smarty Buddy App

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Practice addition, subtraction, and sequences with Smarty Buddy Grade 1 math App.

Smarty Buddy Grade 1 App
Smarty Buddy Grade 1 App

Math Grade 1 app features 3 test topics and 3 levels of difficulty. With 135 questions to play, this fun game can complement or replace any worksheet math practice.

Test Topics: Addition 0-20, Subtraction 0-20, Number Sequences

Features: Positive reinforcement through game badges designed to teach dog and cat breeds; Progress reports for parents. Perfect for homeschool math study and testing with mom and dad!

Developed by an ex-NASA scientist. Kid tested, kid approved!

Check our Smarty Buddy Books!

https://apps.apple.com/…/smarty-buddy…/id1294307778

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New Homeschool Logic Lessons Workbook for Kindergarten

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We are excited to announce the arrival of the new Homeschool Logic Lessons Workbook for Kindergarten. It is available on Amazon: e-book and workbook.

This full color book contains a step-by-step logic lesson workbook and a Full Length Gifted and Talented Practice Test for preschool and K classes: over 165 verbal, non-verbal and quantitative questions to practice with your child.

This workbook is designed to practice reasoning and problem-solving skills in three different sections: verbal, quantitative, and nonverbal.

This practice workbook can be used to prepare pre-school and elementary school aged children for standardized tests such as COGAT®, Inview™, NNAT2®, OLSAT®, etc.

The Cognitive Abilities Test (COGAT®) is a nationally standardized, normreferenced test (NRT) that is used by some school districts to screen gifted and talented students for advanced educational programs. The COGAT® measures reasoning and problem-solving skills in three different batteries or test sections: verbal, quantitative, and nonverbal. This workbook walks through each type of question and also includes a full length test based on the types of questions your child will encounter on test day.

Paper Folding Practice Question

Look for more books in this series for increasing difficulty levels. And check out our Smarty Buddy game on all App Stores to reward your child for worksheet learning. Our app offers over 670 additional questions in a fun game environment, offering positive reinforcement badges for solved levels and surprises along the way.

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Kindergarten Letter Tracing Workbooks

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Kindergarten Letter Tracing Workbooks are here!   Practice capital and lower case letter tracing in two fun workbooks.  Print writing is an important fine motor activity for brain development and great additional to your homeschooling routine .    Get ready for a long summer with these fun workbooks on Amazon:


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Welcome to Home School, Mom!

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It does not matter whether you agree with the decision to close schools due to COVID-19, the new reality is home schooling for all!  Some U.S. school districts are way ahead of their game, others are lagging behind.   If you came across this post, you are probably looking for meaningful material for a home schooling curriculum.

I have to admit, I started looking into home schooling, as I started researching the new traveling and blogging lifestyle.   Just as I realized that homeschooling is really not for me as a parent, life threw a curve ball.  Now I am a working  and blogging parent with three home students :  we have a preschooler, a 5th grader and a 7th grader in the household.

I gave our school system a chance.  And without criticizing the school system too much, I realized that I need more!

This week we landed on Khan Academy!  They have a wonderful sample schedule for each age group.

In this post let’s start with the preschooler, who is way ready for Kindergarten and started reading Phonics Books.  My daughter loves doing  a preschool style schedule that she still remembers from preschool – complete with Show and Tell and Snack Time!

We are excited the release of our newest product on Amazon!

Sample Schedule:

8 – 9 am     Wake Up Morning Chores: Get Dressed, Breakfast, Make your Bed, Brush you Teeth, Brush your Hair

9am – 9:30am – Show and Tell; then Khan Academy Kids App

Do Khan Academy kids App together with your child.  This App starts at the
basics of letters, numbers, and social emotional learning and goes through the first grade standards in math, reading, writing and social emotional
learning.

9: 30 am – 10 am – Music 

Use Youtube to find Khan Academy Circle Time or any other fun songs for kids this age.  Today we did (Masha and the Bear Songs).

10 am – 10:30 am – Snack Time

11 am – 11:30 am – Khan Academy App Math
For students with stronger literacy and motor skills use Khan Academy App or login on your Chromebook.   We started with Preschool Math Lessons.   Ideally a parent or older sibling sits next to them while doing this.

11:30 am – Quick Recess

11:40 am – 12 am – Phonics Book Reading 

I like Apps, but books are a gold standard. I love the Hooked on Phonics Reading Program.

We have a reading reward poster hanging in the living room.  Once my daughter completes each workbook passage and phonics, we get a sticker on the reward poster!  Stickers are magic, when you are 5!

We made it to lunch and outdoor time! Now enjoy the fulfillment of having taught your child reading and math!  Enjoy lunch and head outdoor!  After all home schooling is no fun without outdoor time.  Playgrounds are closed due to COVID-19, but your can bike, roller blade and watch birds … at least in our state.

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COGAT practice for Kindergarten

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We are excited the release of our newest product on Amazon!

Have a preschooler in the house? Are you getting ready for Kindergarten ?  This fun colorful workbook is here to save the day!  Get ready for Kindergarten Gifted and Talented Programs in your school , or simply get ahead with not your straight ABCs and 123s.

This book features over 165 logic games and puzzles to work through with your bright little one!  Good luck and have fun!

-Smarty Buddy

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How to deal with queen bees at school?

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Dealing with bullying can be painful and excruciating for both the child and parents.  For parents who still remember bullies from their own childhood,  dealing with their own child’s problems might be even more painful.  I wanted to discuss how to deal with a special friendship type of bully – a queen bee.

The epitome of queen bees have been shown in the Mean Girls movie.  These are girls that at first might appear friendly and nice.  They have a following of minions or lambs who are loyal to the queen bee.  The queen bee manipulates friendships within the group of friends and any new girl is at first loved and welcomed.  Then manipulations start kicking in.

 

How to deal with queen bees:

  1. Get involved – talk and listen to you child
  2. Don’t initiate with the Queen Bee’s parents:  I made the mistake of contacting the mother of a mean girl — she hung up on me.  I  realized that ‘Queen Bee’ girls are usually the daughters of ‘Queen Bee’ mothers.  These mothers can actually turn on your daughter faster than you can get any help.
  3. Encourage your child to make new friends, and separate herself from the bullying clique as much as possible.
  4. Contact  the school  – start with the school counselor.  Do not take the bullying lightly.  Ask your school counselors  exactly how they plan to deal with these types of bullying incidents.
  5.  Don’t reinvent the wheel
    Queen bees and bullying are a generation old problem.  Get some books on pareting and psychology in your books store or Amazon.

    I recommend the book, Queen Bees and Wannabees, by Rosalind Wiseman.

     

For my daughter, it was very helpful to understand the hierarchies within a clique and the roles the members play.  Seeing the situation with that objectivity made the ‘meanness’ seem less personal to her.  She recognized how the mean girls at her school were using power plays and emotional games that she didn’t want to feed into.

 

 

 

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Math Analogies

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We all remember analogies from the SAT tests we took back in high school.  But did you know that mathematical reasoning can be trained with math analogies? This is a pretty fun way to work with your child on short math problems.

Check out these sample math analogy problems:

Find the analogy:

2 hours : 120 :: 3 hours : ?

123 : 12 tens :: 567 : ?

Pentagon : 5 :: Octagon : ?

45 : 55 :: 65 : ?

10, 20 : 30 :: 40, 50 : ?

Math Analogy
Math Analogy

For more sample problems check out the Math Analogy Workbook, now on sale on Amazon:

 

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How to get ready for the Geography Bee

Geography Bee
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The official National Geographic Bee started in 1989, a time when the world was changing rapidly. Today, over ten thousand schools—12% of the nation’s total—and approximately four million students participate.[1] With such stiff competition, the eventual winner will have to be prepared!

Gather your materials. You will need a world map, an atlas, a geography textbook, and blank map outlines to practice labeling. There are also books dedicated to succeeding in the bee itself. Make sure that all of your materials are up to date.

  • Since many people no longer rely on maps to get where they need to go, reading and understanding one may not come naturally to you. Make sure you know what you are looking at, how different features are represented, and what the map can tell you.
Understand that geography is a broad field and that you will need to know about much more than the Earth’s physical features. At its core, it is about people, the places they live, and how these people and places affect each other. To succeed in the bee, you need to learn as much as possible about how culture, society, and politics have evolved across the globe. Geographers have developed different categories for doing this.[2]
  • Physical geography describes the Earth’s physical landscape, including its seasons, climate, soil, water, and land. It also takes into account how human have changed these systems. Climatology, for instance, is a part of physical geography that looks at both the natural world and human behavior.
  • Human geography is even more interested in humans both affect and are affected by location. It explores where people live and why, as well as how people’s behavior affects those living both around them and across the globe. It also focuses on how beliefs and behaviors travel from one area to another.
  • Geographic techniques involve different ways of describing and representing the Earth’s landscape and processes. Cartography (map making) has long been an important geographic technique, but today the field also involves data culled from satellites and analyzed by sophisticated computer programs.
  • Regional geography involves characteristics of the other categories, but its practitioners focus their attention on a specific region. A regional geographer will use different geographic techniques to study the landscapes and people of their chosen region, be it a continent or a city.

 

Pay attention to the news. Although the earth’s features usually change slowly, national borders, international relations, and scientific knowledge can change very rapidly—sometimes overnight. Know that any of these developments are fair game in the bee.

  • Newspapers, radio, television, and the Internet are all good sources for news, but make sure your sources are reliable. Consume a wide variety of sources to make sure you are getting the most comprehensive picture possible.

Learn from previous years’ competitions. This will help you learn the kinds of questions to expect and where to focus your studying.

  • Talk to older students who participated in the bee. What was their most effective study habit? What do they wish they had done differently? Take their advice into consideration when planning your own preparation.
  • However, don’t think that you can just focus on the same subject areas as other people. Talking to them can give you a sense of the level of detail exam runners will be looking for, but not the content. You’re on your own for that!
  • Emulate previous years’ winners. 2015 winner Karan Menon has said that he studied for at least one or two hours per day. He also stressed the importance of using different kinds of sources and studying all aspects of geography, including current events.[3]
Involve friends and family. It will be up to you on test day, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get help along the way.
  • Recruit a parent or other adult to quiz you on bee questions. They will probably be learning something, too.
  • If you are studying with a group of friends, stage mock bees. Try to mimic the conditions of the bee as closely as possible. The friendly competition will give you practice answering questions under pressure.

Q & A: What kind of questions will the judges be asking me?

The questions change every year. Remember your capitals, bodies of water, mountain ranges, and mountains, as well as currencies and demographics.

What should I study for the geography bee?

Know the locations and facts about countries, cities, capital cities, continents and major bodies of water.

What if you study a lot, and lose the school bee?

That’s okay. A lot of people are going to study a lot, but only one person can win. Just do your best and accept it if you don’t win.

Where is the national geography bee located?

Washington DC, at the National Geographic headquarters.

*Source: Wikihow, 2019

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