No time for a full write-up

But a quick run-down of yesterday's math lesson:

The problem: Your little brother tells you he gave away fourteen pennies to his friend. It turns out they were fourteen loonies, and he took them out of your wallet, so you're out fourteen dollars! How do you explain the difference to your little brother?

Then I put out base-ten blocks on all the tables and watched while the kids figured out how base-ten blocks could be used to answer a question about money. It was fun, and showed that my kids do have a basic grasp of place value. Furthermore, the problem had actually happened, with different numbers of course, to every kid in the class whose family includes a younger sibling. Now that's engagement. :)