Math Progress!

[Wolfwind]

After reading the inspiring stories of others in this forum, I ordered "Marshmallow Math" a little over 3 months ago.  I tried to figure out how to apply math to everyday life with my almost two year old daughter.  I spent lots of weeks feeling like I wasn't getting anywhere.  But I started finding chances to do math: counting her toys when she got them out, counting out how many toy food pieces she needed for her toys, taking one away and counting how many were left, etc.  She also started saying, "Mommy, tell me a story," and I tried to fit in some math to each story.

Just this week, suddenly, she's doing math!  When she's playing on her own, I hear her say, "How many ducks?  One, two, three, four!  I take two away.  Now how many?"  At dinner the other day, she said, "How many food?  One, two, three!  How many people?  One, two, three!"  She is doing math herself!  For fun!  We had refridgerator magnets out the other night, and I was just doing one quick math problem: "How many?  Mommy takes three.  Now how many?"  And she kept bringing more, counting with me, and then taking them away and asking me to count, for ten minutes!  She likes it!  It's working!

She can't consistantly count above four objects by herself yet, though she knows the numbers up to twenty.  But she likes doing math up to four!  And we're working on larger groups.  Now that I'm seeing some success, I'm excited and confident that larger numbers will come.  It really works!  I thought this might be encouraging to some people who feel as discouraged as I did a few weeks ago.

[CVMomma]

Yes, it is encouraging to others!!!  Thanks for the update. 

My LO has never seemed to enjoy math like she does reading.  She endures it and we are seeing sloooooow results.  We just started MEP (we are on lesson 12 today) and she has asked for that by name.  That made me very excited!!!  I am trying to convince our library that we need the book Marshmallow Math, since my hubby has said, "No more EL books!!!"  Also, since my LO loves writing, she loves to "write" math papers that I make!  I look for anyway that I can inspire her to enjoy math. 

[Kerileanne99]

Yeah Wolfwind!
I am absolutely convinced that the key to early math success is actually quite simple: when they learn to see it as fun and enjoyable, the connections come a mile per minute! Keep up the great work and I can't wait to hear how things are going!
Now that she is progressing, you might try a couple of simple card or board games with her.  A Game called Hi-Ho Cheery-O was particularly fun for my kiddo at that stage...basic concept is to put a total of ten pieces of fruit in the basket, based upon various spins...sometimes needing to take some out and sometimes getting to put them in, but always a total of ten pieces of fruit! ( I should say the total game lasts about 5-10 min max, always a bonus with a toddler I think I have played unimaginably long games of chutes and ladders )

Also, a game of card goFish was her favorite, not with adult cards but with colored, stylized children's cards- so many opportunities for making pairs, calculating more/ less number of pairs to determine the winner, etc...
Here is a rip that made things a bit simpler for us...the first few times she played with a partner, but quickly wanted to do it herself! I took two plastic round lids, similar to butter tubs, etc, and cut a tiny hole in the center.  If you slip a brad through, (we taped ours over to keep out curious little fingers!) it makes the perfect holder for a toddlers hands, so they can hold up cards like a pro!
Keep us updated, can't wait to hear...

[Mandabplus3]

Oh Keri I tried to teach my preschoolers how to play go fish this week. What a disaster! I will be taking in mathtacular next week to try again. I figure if they watch the clip a few times they will be more capable of matching numbers rather than random characteristics. Oh plus it gives me a week to be sure they all are very confident on their numeral recognition. Don't want any 6s and 9s paired up now 

[Kerileanne99]

Manda-
Don't know if it is what you have, but I have a childrens set of GoFish cards- brightly colored with the corresponding number of sea creatures on the card. Since the are directional as well, they automatically so which end is 'up'. Also, the kids see the grouping of the correct number of Objects constantly alongside the number. Extra bonus, the cards are slightly oversized, which we appreciated, but they also come in a miniature version.
Btw-
I cannot imagine the utter chaos of teaching a roomful of preschoolers to play GoFish
I actually laughed at the mental picture! I tried teaching it to three preschoolers at a playdate and when one child threw the cards in the air and some went underneath some heavy furniture I was SO relieved!
I finally ended up spreading all the cards in a pile and having the kids dig through to 'make pairs' as this seemed a baby step!
Please, please keep us updated on the progress

[Wolfwind]

Kerileanne, I love Hi-Ho Cherry-O!  We found it at a Salvation Army a few months ago and I bought it on a whim.  My daughter thinks it's awesome!  She can do most of it herself, but sometimes "four" means "a handful" in her mind.  And it's much more fun than Chutes and Ladders, probably because it's faster.  It's a great game for this level!  I need to introduce Go Fish.

CVMomma, I never thought my daughter liked math as much as she liked reading.  But short and simple bits have been growing on her.  If your LO likes stories, try making up stories that involve counting, patterns, or one-to-one correspondence.  For instance:

Counting - Once upon a time there were four little horses and they went looking for carrots to eat.  They found one carrot, but that wasn't enough for all of them.  So they walked a little farther and found two carrots: one, two.  But that wasn't enough for all of them either. etc...

Patterns - Once there was a black dog and a white dog and the brown dog.  The black dog had a black bowl, the white dog had a white bowl, the brown dog had a brown bowl (and blanket and bone...  Then the objects get messed up) The black dog looked and he was laying on the brown blanket!  And the white dog was laying on the black blanket!  And the brown dog was laying on the white blanket!  So what did they do?

One-to-One Correspondence - Once four little ducks were going on a picnic.  They got a big basket and put in four yellow plates and four white napkins and four... (etc, etc.  Then they take everything out when they go on the picnic, eat the food, and clean up the dishes)

My daughter loves that repitition right now, and she asks for variations on these stories almost every day.  It's amazing how little literary merit she demands.   But it's nice when we're in the car or walking the dog or grocery shopping to tell a story with half my mind, keep her happy, AND do math.  The other thing she would put up with was counting everything.  "You have three dinosaurs - one, two, three."  When I started, just that much counting a few times a day was all she'd accept before she'd get bored.  (I guess she didn't like many math stories at first either.)  But with time she got to like more, and now she does it on her own!  Don't give up!

[Mandabplus3]

Interesting thought I had this week.
With just my son at home I often struggled to find enough occasions to count up to 20 ( or higher) We used grapes,toy cars ( yep he has ALOT!) Lego and the trampoline and he learnt to count to 20 ( occasionally skipping 14 or doing the 14,13,15  ) and higher.
What I noticed this week is that it is so easy to count to 20 with 20 kids! Tey really CARE how many of them there are in a room, who is away etc. They want to know if there are more boys than girls, more toes than ears.... Because of this they have learnt counting much quicker than my son did.
My point is the only time my son ever CARED about how many of something their was in a group was when it affected him personally. Something like you can eat 23 pieces of popcorn or you can take 16 cars to the park. So please try to add in some MEANINGFUL counting for your children.
Although I new this, I still had to see it to believe it :sigh: 

[lzp11]

Interesting thought I had this week.
With just my son at home I often struggled to find enough occasions to count up to 20 ( or higher) We used grapes,toy cars ( yep he has ALOT!) Lego and the trampoline and he learnt to count to 20 ( occasionally skipping 14 or doing the 14,13,15  ) and higher.
What I noticed this week is that it is so easy to count to 20 with 20 kids! Tey really CARE how many of them there are in a room, who is away etc. They want to know if there are more boys than girls, more toes than ears.... Because of this they have learnt counting much quicker than my son did.
My point is the only time my son ever CARED about how many of something their was in a group was when it affected him personally. Something like you can eat 23 pieces of popcorn or you can take 16 cars to the park. So please try to add in some MEANINGFUL counting for your children.
Although I new this, I still had to see it to believe it :sigh: 

Manda your post made me think today!  Having been very confident at counting up and down from 20, my DD has over the past few months been disinterested in counting down from 20 (she can easily do from 10).  In fact she can count up to 50 and above if she's willing to concentrate!  But today at the park i remembered your post as I was trying to get her to go home whilst on the swings.  I said, "Would you like 10 swings more or 20?"  She thought and quickly said 20!  So I said she had to count down.  She did so immediately!  And then trying to stay a little longer, said she wanted to count up from 21...   

I totally agree it is all about getting something they are interested and motivated in.  Also maybe counting out the number of cheerios or other cereals at breakfast - you can have them if you can count them...

[Mandabplus3]

Smart kid!  Up from 21 could go on forever! 
Glad you got a chance to use my musing. It is drummed into us early years teachers but to be honest I never really considered that much until this week. Make learning meaningful! Yep I get it now!
 Slap forehead!

[mybabyian]

Wolfwind, I love your the stories you tell your daughter.  I am going to borrow them for my son who is the same age.  I also overhear my son play math sometimes.  It's cute although its not always right.  One thing I overheard him say recently was something like "One red car plus one green car equals red!!!"  While pointing to each color car.     But, I think he actually does get the idea.  He doesn't really count objects like your daughter, but I sometimes overhear him just counting. 

There really are so many opportunities to do math in daily life if you just start paying attention.  My son seems to learn better this way than when I actually try to sit down and teach him.  Like one day we were out on a walk and he said, "That car has two wheels."  I explained to him that you could see two of it's wheels but that it actually had two more that you couldn't see and asked him if he wanted to go look at the other two.  He said yes so we walked around the other side and yep there were the other two.  So then I explained to him that two plus two equals four. 

Now that I think about it he has learned a lot about numbers from wheels.  Just yesterday he was on the potty looking at a picture of a tricycle and he said "That's a bike."  So then I got to explain to him that a bike has two wheels, a tricycle has three wheels, and cars have four wheels.  He told me "A bicycle has two wheels just like a motorcycle has two wheels."  Yay!  So cute.  I've actually told him this before, but I still think it is great that he remembered.  I love my little man. 

I would love to play board games with him but I know he would not be at all interested yet.  He would just want to grab all the pieces and play with them.  I'll have to look forward to that in the future.  Thank you to everyone.  I love hearing everyone's ideas and successes.

[lois1]

My little boy bangs his toy drum while "we" count, he thinks it's hilarious... & of course always wants to go higher & higher. We pick a dot card & count/ bang according to that. Then repeat... can be endless, Mummy gets bored first. Needless to say I haven't brought out anything higher than 50 yet:-)

I have never played go fish but sounds like something we need to do. My version of go fish was when we counted the herring my granda had brought off his fishing boat for us, a long time ago! :-) Nor hi ho cherry-o either for that matter... Thanks for the ideas as usual!

[Kerileanne99]

I taught Alex time, on both the digital and analogue clock, as soon as she recognized numbers...however, I recently came across this idea:
http://independenceinlearning.blogspot.com.au/2011/12/telling-time.html

She turns a simple classroom analogue classroom clock into a flower, with petals every five-minute block, on the numeral.   The stem and petals reinforce the minute and second hand.   This is so easy and such a great idea if you haven't taught time yet.! I wish I had found it a year ago!

Also, Grasshopper apps makes some really great, free apps for teaching both analogue and digital time!

[Mandabplus3]

Hmmm my classroom clock already has flower petals all around it...I wonder how many of them there are? Might be up for some editing tomorrow! 

[CVMomma]

CVMomma, I never thought my daughter liked math as much as she liked reading.  But short and simple bits have been growing on her.  If your LO likes stories, try making up stories that involve counting, patterns, or one-to-one correspondence.  For instance:

Counting - Once upon a time there were four little horses and they went looking for carrots to eat.  They found one carrot, but that wasn't enough for all of them.  So they walked a little farther and found two carrots: one, two.  But that wasn't enough for all of them either. etc...

Patterns - Once there was a black dog and a white dog and the brown dog.  The black dog had a black bowl, the white dog had a white bowl, the brown dog had a brown bowl (and blanket and bone...  Then the objects get messed up) The black dog looked and he was laying on the brown blanket!  And the white dog was laying on the black blanket!  And the brown dog was laying on the white blanket!  So what did they do?

One-to-One Correspondence - Once four little ducks were going on a picnic.  They got a big basket and put in four yellow plates and four white napkins and four... (etc, etc.  Then they take everything out when they go on the picnic, eat the food, and clean up the dishes)

My daughter loves that repitition right now, and she asks for variations on these stories almost every day.  It's amazing how little literary merit she demands.   But it's nice when we're in the car or walking the dog or grocery shopping to tell a story with half my mind, keep her happy, AND do math.  The other thing she would put up with was counting everything.  "You have three dinosaurs - one, two, three."  When I started, just that much counting a few times a day was all she'd accept before she'd get bored.  (I guess she didn't like many math stories at first either.)  But with time she got to like more, and now she does it on her own!  Don't give up!

Thanks Wolfwind!!  She does have a hard time visualizing imaginary things, but she puts up with my terrible drawing and believes me when I tell her that "that is a duck!!"    So, I guess I will just have to draw out lots of math stories now!  Thanks for the ideas!  Karma!

Keri:  thanks also for the link for turning the clock into a flower.  I have tried unsuccessfully to teach time several times.  Maybe this will help!!  Karma!

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