Nines Multiplication Tool

Peanut is working on memorizing the multiplication table. My daughters, just like me, struggle with pure memorization so we've been using different stories and techniques to help her memorize them.There are some facts that are easy and some that are really tough. Many of you may know the fingers trick for the nines. I showed this trick to Peanut but being very visual she needed to see the numbers so I came up with this tool for her. It worked!

So here's how it works. You ask the child what 9 times any number from 1 to 10 is. For example, what is 9 x 7? You flip up 7 and the answer is revealed! 9 x 7 = 63. This works for 9 x (1 through 10) because the first number of the product (answer) is the number before the non-nine factor (in this case the factor is 7 so the first number in the product is 6)

I color - coded the numbers in the product so that it would pop-out. I used a sheet of 8 1/2" by 11" card stock and folded it in half length-wise. Then I measured out 10 equal parts for the numbers and cut the flaps. After, I numbered each flap 1 through 10 and the bottom layer (under the flaps) 9 through 0. I glued the top half where I wrote "9 x __ = __". Once I finished I showed it to Peanut and she loves it. She has memorized her 9s and enjoys practicing with this tool.

Thanks for reading! Let's make math fun!

We Made Baby Dolls

We thought that it would be fun to make tiny baby dolls after seeing some cute handmade ones on the internet. The timing was perfect with reading "Little House In The Big Woods". We had just read about Laura and Mary's baby dolls. Here is a picture of Sweetpea's, Peanut's and my baby dolls.

Sweetpea's (purple), Mama's (floral) and Peanut's (pink)

Here is a brief and rough tutorial on how we made them:
To make the head, we drew a circle onto flesh colored knit fabric. We used one of our glasses with a diameter of about 3-4". Cut out the circle. Sew closely inside of the circle with a long running stitch. When you get around to where you started, pull the thread to draw up the fabric. Stuff with fluff and pull the opening closed. We used a thin nylon fabric and covered the head. We wrapped the thread around the "neck" a few times and then tied it.

To make the body I drew a template and then traced it onto the fabric, cut it out and then cut it into 2 equal pieces (see photo below). 

Stitch along the sides and rounded bottom leaving the top open. Turn right side out and stuff with fluff. Insert the "neck" part of the head into the body and stitch closed. We added eyes and cheeks.

Mama's baby doll

Peanut's baby doll with eyes and cheeks

We used squares of flannel and wrapped them up all snuggly.

We sewed all of the edges down to hold the blankets on the babies. And here are Peanut's and Sweetpea's Babies.

Thanks for reading!