A little bit of an update, first!
So Alex continues to adore math...purely anecdotal, of course, but at when she first shows signs of stirring in the morning, usually around 6 a.m., I put on the music from the MiracleMath system:
http://musicmathsystem.com/She listens about 1.5 hours, still in that twilight sleep. The very strange thing is that her first words, heard through the monitor, are always random math bits: before she is even fully awake she will mumble equations, simple ones like 5+5 is 10.... Absolutely not 'proof' enough for a skeptic like me, especially as she often does random things like this during the day
Still, as she seems to like it I will continue on that old adage that 'it can't hurt!'
Math games, math games, math games are all the rage in this house! My plan had actually been to do a RS lesson every other day, with in between days devoted to reinforcement, games, other programs for math, with time for lots of play, art, music, and languages. ( all around her nap!)
Yeah, well, the best laid Plans and all that.
She has decided that she no longer needs naps at all
However, mommy definitely still needs the quiet time, so she is aloud to take a tray of math manipulatives, the books from Singapore EB, the Critical Thinking Co logic books, Lollipop Logic, or MathStart books (ALL HER CHOICES, not mine!) to her bed for one hour for her 'Quiet time!'
Although her manipulatives may actually be more 'manipulative' than she intends, because if something is confusing her, I will very briefly give her a reply...
So! On to the fun part!
We are to the point in TW where they are doing equations, including multiplication and division, and she is very interested in this, memorizing the parts they are doing? The logical order they are presented, with all operations together, has made me reevaluate our approach, and we have been doing much more integration of all four operations.
We bought a few more math game books, including this great one by Peggy Kaye:
http://www.amazon.com/Games-Math-Peggy-Kaye/dp/0394755103It has a lot of really fun ideas: example, Alex is learning to write her numbers, and the author suggests writing them out on the sidewalk in huge chalk sizes- the have the kids 'walk' them. We did this, of course starting at proper pencil starting points and carefully walking heel-to-toe. (also good for balance!)...within two times of this Alex always knows how they should look, no reversals! Of course, she still needs writing
practice, but this 'clicked' for her.
Another idea from there is the standard grocery store visit, but much more involved! I kid you not, we took a field trip to the store! We picked out single bits of fruit, weighed them, then added another, weigh again, etc..things of the same sizes may not weigh the same, and she got hands on comparison and could 'estimate' what she thought it would weigh after a bit. Prices, reading the list, she was in charge, spotting items on the shelf, comparison of things sold by weight are fantastic. Hands on feel of what a pound of butter (in US
) is. A liter, a gallon, ounces, everything made it's way to a balance or in her hands...finally, after THREE hours (warning! Don't do this if you have some place to be
), we come home and did yet another activity that actually seemed intuitive to me and I had never considered it: let the toddler sort the groceries to be put away by location. Do they go in the refrigerator, the pantry, the freezer, that sort of thing. I was fairly skeptical, but this was not as simple as it first appeared when she explained her reasoning for where she thought it should go! So then we got to discuss the properties. Touch the package, does it feel cool, frozen, dry, etc...great fun and really informative for both of us!
But by far the best bit? The massive, tear-jerking hug I got at the end when She threw her arms around my neck and told me she LOVED being Mommy's helper and could we shop every DAY
Anyway, we have also bought a bunch of new math games, as I found this fabulous site:
http://www.educationallearninggames.com/math-games.aspWe have family game night here and she inevitable picks math related ones!
As I mentioned in a previous post, our absolute favorite was Sum Swamp:
http://thefunwaytolearn.com/Sum-Swamp-Game-LER5052.htmThe only problem was that it only practices addition/subtraction facts up to 10...we recently solved this by purchasing polyhedral dice to go up to 20! Yeah, always nice when the game can be expanded!
A new one we really enjoy is called Smath!
http://thefunwaytolearn.com/Smath-Game-PR5200-06.htmAlthough it is for all four basic operations, it is adaptable for early learning as well!
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