The very first public domain math book that I ever heard of was Ray’s New Primary Arithmetic for Young Readers.
And after skimming the book it quickly became evident that this is an
excellent resource for teaching addition, subtraction, multiplication,
and division. I suspect that the book could be used as the sole means of
teaching arithmetic. But I use it along with a few other free resources
available online to help my kids become proficient in basic math.
Flash Cards are Your (and Your Kids) Friends
Flash
cards are my favorite way to have children memorize math facts. I know
it’s old school. But it worked way back when and it still works today. I
printed off addition flash cards for numbers 1 - 9 from Apples4theTeacher.com.
And I found 10 through 12 on another site, the name escapes me right
now. But there are numerous free printable flash cards available online;
they’re just a search away.
I
printed them out, cut them all to roughly the same size, and laminated
them. Yes, it was time consuming. But I invested some time and now I
have cards that are already being used by 2 of my students and will be
able to be passed down to my youngest when the time comes.
Once
the children have their addition facts memorized then I will go through
the same process for subtraction, multiplication, and division. I teach
in the same order as Ray’s Arithemetic does.
Math Worksheet Generator
To reinforce the math facts I print out math worksheets from Super Kids.
You can customize the sheets to be exactly what you need. For example,
if my daughter has half of the 3s addition facts memorized then I
generate a worksheet with a minimum number of “0” and a maximum number
of “6” and all of the numbers are added to 3. Take a look at the
generator and you’ll see what I mean.
What’s 3 + 5?
I
also quiz the children randomly throughout the day to see if they are
truly memorizing their work. It’s not unusual for me to ask them a few
facts at the kitchen table or while they’re playing with toys or
whatever. I also sometimes make a game out of the flash cards. I quiz
the child and if she gets the answer right then she gets to keep the
card, if not I keep the card. Whoever has the most cards at the end of
the game wins. This was my husband’s idea and the children actually
started learning their facts quite quickly once there was some
competition involved.
As
you can see, it’s not that difficult to use public domain books in
combination with other free online resources and come up with a very
effective way of teaching arithmetic in your homeschool.
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