Now that I am retired???

People often as what we are doing now that we no longer have a store front.

It has taken me a while to really settle in to not working 40-60 hours a week but I am finally making it work.

One of the things that has been great fun is teaching watercolor and silk painting classes at Centralia College. You can find the Spring schedule here. ( you will have to scroll down). I also host a Tuesday morning “painting ladies” group at my home for busy women committed to working on art at least once a week.

Reping  Math-U-See curriculum  continues to be the best job in the whole world. I am able to work out of my home and since Kelly and I share this territory we are able to be pretty flexible.  We are  getting ready to head into conference season. It is hard work but it is so much fun once we get there and set up.  Math-U- See has a new look coming out soon. Get ready to be amazed.. it is so beautiful!

Another project I have worked on this school year is to develop a staffroom service route for schools. I leave a couple baskets at the local schools once a month. The teachers shop from the basket when I leave the display in thier staff room for the week. Almost 20 schools have been gracious thus far to allow this service .

So roll that all together with family and friends and I have a full time life and its finally feeling  good and normal!

Sue

A Great day at the beach!

As much as I love my job as a sales rep, I know that next month is going to be a whirl wind with 3 conferences in a row. So, when the weather forecast called for the first heat wave at the beach Jeni and I had to pack up the puppies and go. The only thing that would have made it better would have been to have my other grandpuppy Kalle there! We even got sun burns!!

New Artists in the house

Friday I had the privilege of teaching a batik/silk painting class. First time painters are my very favorite because it feels almost magical as a new art discovery awakens even from the most timid & fearful artist.

This is the gallery of works from the newest silk painting artists that I know of!! They are so amazing!!!

Math U See Cake Recipe

Kelly’ granddaughter, Hailey is 4 yo and her favorite math activity is making a cake. While she isn’t officially in Primer she is well on her way. As you will see when you read her cake recipe, she already as some math mastery just from playing and talking to granny about it.

I asked her for the recipe.

Math-U-See Big Red Cake with Designer Frosting 

First you make the cake by stacking ALL the red ones on top of each other.

There are different ways to make the frosting and this is the method used for the design in the picture:

First you put as many blues (5’s) as possible around the outer edge. There will not be enough room to finish the edge in blue  so you will need to fill in with pink. Put the remaining blues on the inside top.

On the inside edge add 2 of the 2’s followed by 8 greens

At this point fill in with the rest of the pink  because it is important to use as many pink as possible before running out of room because a princess always uses pink.

There was a spot just right for a yellow. When asked what size would fit in there Hailey immediately said “Four”!!! Who hoo good job Hailey you have mastery! When you get to the lesson on solving for the unknown it will be a piece of cake for you!

Add 3 more 2’s and finish it off with 1 green.

Serves as 1 math lesson and a whole lot of fun.

Hailey sometimes call the blocks by color and other times by number.  Granny can be proud of how well she and Hailey are progressing in their maths!

Hailey will be checking in. So please leave her a comment.

Thanks

Sue

Math U See the Luker Man Way

When the older siblings are working on math the younger ones tend to naturally want to get involved. Such is the case with Luke and Hailey. When Hailey is making cakes and fences with the blocks Luke looks for window of opportunities to do a little Math U See too.

This is Lukes version:

First you put the dvd in the player. (Luke has mastered opening the player, putting in the dvd [sorta] and closing the lid.)

Then you get the blocks out… er dump the blocks out.

To get things exciting from the get go always go for favorite blocks (the units) first. The trick is to grab quick, run, and try to get them in your mouth before being stopped by an adult or your big sister. (Luke is pretty good at this but thankfully because units are the #1 choking hazard in the box, has not reached 3 second mastery. ) When units are unavailable the 2’s get pretty much the same response.

Under a VERY watchful eye 8’s, 9’s and 10’s seem to not cause such a stir and are better than nothing.

Hmm so what DO you do with a fist full of blocks ????

You can give them to pa pa….

Offer them to “Sugar” the dog to lick..

and/or lick them yourself… licking them after the dog is optional and can actually get almost as good of a reaction as units and 2’s

Please note: These photos and story was for the purpose of a fun post for the blog. We are not suggesting to start using the blocks with your 1 yo. Luke will be much older before he is given this much freedom with the blocks again. Math-U-See blocks are a choking hazard and not recommended for children under the age of 4.

Math-U-See question??

Ok, all you Math-U-See fans who ski.

Using Math-U-See language, how do you convert a Math-U-See user(or rep) into a Math-U-Ski user (rep)??

We are heading for the slopes tomorrow… we think we already have an answer but what is yours?

Sue

Is there an artist in the house?

The other day my Tuesday painting ladies were over when Kelly and her grandkids Luke and Hailey stopped by. Since Luke is only 1 yo we did not invite him to paint with us (yet). However, Hailey (4yo) gladly accepted and joined us at the table. “I am going to give you the good stuff,” I told her as I cut her a piece of 140 lb cold press, handed her a pallette of Winsor Newton watercolors and gave her a good brush.

As you can see we got a master piece which I matted, framed and hung in my gallery!!! The photo really doesn’t even give it justice.

I am a firm believer in giving children… even young children good quality materials for painting. The success rate in so superior. Another thing I always do is only give them translucent paint. Opaque colors tend to muddy things up and make a mess. However, as you can see from Hailey’s painting, even though she mixed her colors together they stayed clear and vibrant.

If there is a watercolor artist growing in your home these are the paints and papers recommend:

www.cheapjoes.com has pretty good prices.

3 Primary colors of Artist quality watercolor paint in the tubes. If you can swing it at all get Winsor Newton… If you have to get cheap at least get Grumbacher Academy… NOT Cotman.

Blue- Prussian

Red- Rose Madder

Yellow- Winsor Yellow

If your artist loves pink and purple they will appreciate it if you add a tube of Quinacridone Magenta

If you want to be able to make greys Prussian and Burnt Sienna make a really nice one.

Buy one of those small round white plastic or metal watercolor trays (the 7 hole ones fit perfect in a sandwich bag). Put a blob of each color of paint in a hole and let it dry solid. You now have artist grade equality watercolor pans that easily mix to make lots of colors.

Here are just some of the great colors you can get from Prussian, Rose Madder and Winsor Yellow ( I also used the Burnt Sienna to get the grey at the top)

Let me know when you have your supplies and maybe I will give a quick and successful beginner lesson. Oh… and be sure and get 140 lb cold press paper I would never hand anyone less. You will be amazed at the difference it will make.

Sue

PS I love the signature on Hailey’s painting! I told her to sign it and she said ” I can’t write my name.” I told her to just make squiggly lines… Later, when Kelly was working on her with handwriting she said, ” I want to make squiggly lines like SueSue showed me.” Oops! Not to worry Granny got her straighted out on that one, she only gets to sign with squiggly lines on her artwork.

Greek Alphabet

This is a fun way to help your students learn the Greek alphabet!

Centralia- flood

We are fortunate that neither Kelly nor I live where houses are flooding.

However our niece’s apartment may have had up to 5 feet of water. We just recieved an e-mail from her this evening with a link to a photo of her home Nicki’s house . Please say a prayer for the hundreds of people who are displaced because of this storm. Especially those who do not have family close by to help.

Getting the blocks out in Special Education

One of our Special Ed customers once said, “It should be a state law that Math-U-See is used in every special Education classroom.”

Well, it is not yet a state law  . However, we now are not only researched based but have data to back it up. MUS_data

Math-U-See works best with small group tutoring or 1 on 1 instruction.

If you are working with a small class, individual student or just need another great tool for your math tool box  and are not yet using Math-U-See you may want to check it out.

Those of you who are using Math-U-See in your class please check in with us and let us know how you are doing. We would love to hear from/ support you.

Sue