Hands-on Geometry

Posted by Cindy on April 1, 2010

I continue to be impressed by the materials Prufrock Press sends me for review.  Believe me, if I didn’t like something, I wouldn’t post about it!  And if I don’t actually use it in my homeschool, I won’t post about it either!

Hands-On Geometry is a book we used in our school once a week for the last seven weeks as part of our out-of-the-textbook learning time.  It was awesome for the 5th grader, 7th grader and ME!

Using only a compass and a straight edge, the seven chapters of this book take your children through geometric 2-dimensional constructions.  They learn how to correctly create perpendiculars, parallels, kites, triangles, quadrilaterals and more. And all I had to do was copy the worksheets!

Each chapter consists of four to seven worksheets that include step-by-step directions for completing one of the 2-D constructions.  The directions were so clear that it didn’t matter that I never remembered doing this even in high school geometry.  Man, if only geometry HAD been this “hands-on” in high school, I might have enjoyed it more!  But this isn’t even intended for high schoolers!  It’s written for upper elementary and middle school children.

I’ve been asked many times where I find living/fun/logical/hands-on math to do on “the other two days” of the week when we step away from our Saxon textbooks.  Here’s a perfect example!

If you’re interested in learning more about our living math days, you might read this post.  Also, under the “Categories” section in the right sidebar, click on “Living Math” to find several related posts.