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.

Most of you know we only do Saxon math three days a week.  The other two days of math time are spent doing living math, logic, critical thinking activities and/or math games.  Over nine weeks of last semester, one day a week was spent with Mahayla (7th grade) doing the lessons from a Prufrock Press book called Moving Through Dimensions.  It a very hands-on, out of the text book approach to teaching 3-dimensional geometry concepts.  Take a look at some of the fun we had together.

For a homeschooling family, it’s kind of expensive at nearly $40.00.  (I got it free for review.)  But Mahayla (and I) learned a lot – and both of us loved the hands-on, critical thinking approach.  One of the neatest things we learned was how to transfer 3-dimensional objects into 2-dimensional drawings and vice-versa.  I was also amazed at how simple very in-depth concepts became after the explanations and activities.  Hey, even I understand polycubes and Sierpinski Triangles now!  Even though the learning was from a text of sorts, I still consider the lessons to be living math.  We were learning skills and doing projects that will easily translate into real world tasks.

We are having SO much fun with this book!  A little break from the regular math schedule has turned out to include such exciting math and science that my kids are actually asking to do more. 

Here are some photos from one of this week’s investigations….

Cylinder structures – Using various sized cardboard tubes and homemade paper cylinders, the kids had to estimate and find out how many books each cylinder would hold.  Their estimations and actual results were kept on a data sheet provided in the book.  We then went on to talk about why cylinders are so strong, why certain heights might be better than others and where in creation and the man-made world we find the use of cylinders.

I’ve also recently discovered a wonderful blog called Think! that offers weekly math/science/art related challenges for children.  To go along with the math investigations, I gave the kids this challenge.  Using only 12 straws, 12″ of tape and a pair of scissors, they had to create a structure that would hold an egg at least 1″ off the ground.  No tape was allowed to adhere the structure to the surface or the egg to the structure.  Fun!

Caleb’s structure.

Mahayla’s structure.

Today, math was in the form of a cookie baking day in preparation for our annual cookie baking and exchange party at my mom’s house tomorrow.  I’ll probably post pictures and few recipes soon.  Have a wonderful weekend!