Math Connecting Our Lives Report on a "Connecting Math to Our Lives" project involving parents and children from six schools. Coordinated by Velga Blaua and her colleagues  http://www.smigi.edu.lv/iearn/vecaku/index.htm

There is a problem in Latvia – how to involve parents in learning process of school, to get them closer to education problems and to have them understand school’s ways and possibilities of work.

We created this kind of project to help them understand IT that wasn’t at their education time and what their children are doing at school, to raise their competitive abilities in labor market by acquired skills of using IT. It was important to try to teach them to support and cooperate with their children in solving different problems connected with education tasks. 

The project's purpose is to involve the family as a team in using IT to promote: 

1. Skills for using IT in everyday life;
2. Co-operation between the members of family and society;
3. Creative way of solving mathematical problems.

Brief Summary

The project is running in 6 Latvian schools, where in computer classes 6 families study IT in each of them. The family team is – one of parents and one or two children from grades 3-6 (9-12years; they haven’t studied computer science yet). The special program has been made, which envisages acquiring the basis of Internet, MS Paint, MS Word, MS Excel and the simplest actions with IT.

The families gain theoretical knowledge and some practical training in the courses, but the consolidation of gained knowledge is taking place at home by doing home exercises. These exercises are connected with other international project “Math Connecting our Lives”, so they are about Math in our everyday life.

We chose the doing home exercises by using IT, that’s why one of conditions for participating in the project was a computer at home or in the parents` work. As a result of project each family makes and edits their own newspaper by using IT, where they sum up their knowledge. 

Objectives and innovations
 

1. To achieve the involving and more active collaboration of parents in schools` learning process;
2. To provide courses for parents and children who have not studied IT at school to use IT by definite program;
3. To use skills of computing in doing tasks, which are necessary for solving everyday needs;
4. To create new communication forms between the members of family and society (work in teams, e-mail, videoconferences, Chat possibilities).

Results
 

We have some results (outcomes) up to now:
* Parents have joined and integrated in schools` learning process;
* Good stimulus for using home computers for educational purposes;
* Formation and strengthening the link “school – parents – children”;
* WWW page with families' done exercises
* Book, summarizing the whole work of families;
* Participation in international project.

Our planned results:

* Graduated courses for parents that raise their competitive abilities in labor market and give chance for their further education; 
* Graduated courses and given previous knowledge for children.

Barriers

1. Parents are busy;
2. Courses are not at the same time in all schools that’s why we can’t use another possibilities of IT (videoconferences, Chat). 

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