In your experience, what have been your favorite math manipulatives for teaching math?

Besides all the free objects that can be counted, added, subtracted, etc. in the world around us, which tools were the most fun and effective?

There are so many, from Montessori, Singapore Math, toys, etc. that it's hard to choose which to go with.

TIA
mom2ross

We've been practicing counting and DS can count up to ten and sometimes he'll veer into 11's and 12's every once in a while...

Is this about the time that kiddos start to count?

I am at a complete loss for how to introduce any kind of addition concepts.
When and how did you introduce addition? With an abacus or something else?

TIA
mom2ross

Hi,

It's been a while since my last update, but I wanted to share our progress.

My boy never really took to whole word identification of words through Little Reader, but he learned his alphabet pretty young (around 14 months), using Leap Frog's Letter Factory DVD and a set of those jumbo foam letters for the bath, and so we naturally focused on phonics instead. When he was in his alphabet learning phase, he was completely obsessed, playing with, arranging, stacking, sounding out and handling his foam letters daily.

This is not to say that Little Reader isn't amazing, because it is. Our boy has an awesome vocabulary in general, and I attribute that to LR. We still use it for English and Russian vocabulary comprehension.

Since learning his alphabet he's been reinforcing the letters for a solid year just by identifying them wherever they happen to be in real life and also through the materials on starfall.com. We slowly but surely try to use the more advanced features on starfall.com too as we feel ready.

He's at the point now where he can very easily pronounce 3 letter words if we slowly sound out each letter together.
For example, I will see a word in a book, like "big". If I sound out each letter, he'll tell me the word with no problem.
If I ask him to sound out each letter instead, he's not usually successful, but will sometimes string the word together.
Sometimes we share the task, with me sounding out the first two letters, and him sounding out the last letter, and then he'll pronounce the word.
Even if the actual word doesn't sound like the letters sounded out individually, he will usually tell me what the word is, which is surprising to me.

I also started using his easel to write 3 letter words, and to get him used to the idea that writing is a form of expression.
So, if he's missing papa, or hungry, I'll write those words on his easel to get him used to that idea.

What's fascinating also is how much he likes to just guess words based on context if we are reading, which I think is a fine skill too.
He's learning to comprehend pictures and scenarios, and tries to guess at what is written based on the illustrations.

At this point, we're actively printing and laminating Flesch Cards and planning on using them daily in the coming weeks. So far, we only printed and laminated the first two pages from the first set, and our boy has most of those memorized (or read?) now. We resisted with the Flesch cards up till now because our boy didn't like using them. He was pretty resistant.

At this point, I feel like the big challenges are around a sense of purpose. Our boy is getting into the plots of longer books and is developing a rich imagination, and it's almost like he doesn't want to slow down to continue to learn to read. It's hard to explain to him the purpose of learning to read at this point when mom or dad can read the book so much better and faster. He plays along with pronouncing words as I sound them out, but quickly gets impatient as he wants to get on with the story.

Anyway, lots of progress!
mom2ross

Every once in a while I come across an article that describes a writing or art contest or scholarship contest of some kind or another.
Now I'm wondering if there is any website or portal that conveniently lists all available contents like this.

Perhaps there is a scholarship database for all endowments or foundations or government programs that are in the business of awarding money for students or other endeavors?

TIA
mom2ross

Hi,

I am trying to compile a list of fun math-skill-enforcing games for a time in the future when we'll host "math game night" with other children or have "family board game night".

What games do you know of for very young kids up through older ages?

Of the top of my head I know:
Shut the Box
Dominoes
Uno

What else?
TIA
mom2ross

Hi all,

As my boy gets older, we are trying to read more actively, asking questions about what we see in the pages of books, etc.

What are some of your best techniques for "active" reading to improve comprehension and make connections?

TIA
mom2ross

If I got pregnant again, I'd focus as much as possible on nutrition.
You ask, to what extent would I go?
Well, I'd probably go farther than before to eliminate chemicals and toxins from my diet and to eat the best quality foods I could afford.

I would also focus a lot more on stress relief, meditation, exercise and many hours of sleep.

I wouldn't go overboard with the in-womb practices, beyond talking a lot in general and to the belly, playing music and tapping at regular intervals.

The studies I read are more about the diet and health of mom while pregnant.

mom2ross

I'm curious how people have customized their settings and how they present the lessons to their LO's.

What settings do you maintain?

mom2ross

aangeles,

Was there much phonics prep. before she started reading words and phrases, or mainly YBCR and LR categories?

I know the later LR categories have short phonics lessons, but besides that?

mom2ross

A quick chime in to add to R S Mum's review of Shape Builder. It's my boy's current favorite.

We don't have that many apps. on our iPhone (less than 10), but Shape Builder has become a huge hit in the past week.

Something just clicked, and after watching me drag the puzzle pieces a lot, he can do nearly all of them on his own.
He asks for this app. in earnest and seems to feel a lot of pride in working through the puzzle.

It's not as challenging or creativity-inducing as Tangrams in some ways, because it shows you the shape of each puzzle piece to match, but the reward for matching all the pieces is a real digital image of the object and some sound effects/affirmations.

So, another vote for Shape Builder!

Oops! I didn't notice the distinction, sorry!

Yes, YBCR, not YCCR.

Well, hmmm...maybe I'll be able to acquire the lift-a-flap books separately some day.
And more slider cards...

mom2ross

Just bought the 5 DVDs and 50 sliding word cards for $50 used on Craigslist.

The Deluxe Kit for $200 on the main site includes a lot of goodies, but didn't want to spend that much.

Does anyone have the "lift-a-flap books"?

Are they awesome? Are they sold separately anywhere?

And what about the parents' goodies?

TIA
mom2ross

kosasih,

I would just say that Ella is advanced amongst all the parents and children that use LR and post on this forum.

I would even go so far as to say that Ella's progress is not extremely typical...Ella (and a small handful of other children) is definitely on the advanced end of the scale for her age.

Would people agree with this?

Congrats!!!!

Yeah, this testing aspect makes me fear the onset of perfectionistic behavior too early which is just so destructive.
It can cause severe under-achievement later in life.

Ugh.

You would think that for the pre-school aged program it would be something different and more fun, like songs, manipulatives and such.

Champdiva, are there Mandarin speakers in your house?

We are north of the Golden Gate Bridge, but willing to make a special date to meet.