Math is everywhere ... and it's fun!
Babies can be lifted by smiling parents high, higher, and highest on the count of one, two, three.
Infants who can sit can be taught how to count, patiently touching their index finger to each one of small set of objects while counting out loud for them, with a big silly grin on your face to make it fun.
Suddenly an entire countable universe opens up, and when kids begin to talk, counting objects first to three, then ten, then all the way to 20 and beyond becomes a cause for celebration and elation.
After learning to scribble, toddlers can be shown how do draw basic shapes, integrating dots, lines, crosses, circles, triangles, squares, and rectangles into art time.
Patterns can be illustrated, too (big elephant, small elephant, big elephant, etc.). Specialty graph paper can be used to assist young children in creating geometric designs of their own.
Stories drawn by kids and parents can be used to introduce addition, subtraction, and even simple problem solving and work with unknown numbers.
Manipulatives can be utilized to make "sense" of key ideas, clarify important processes, and make learning math a fun, engaging experience.
Eventually, puzzles can be tackled and thinking games played.
A few ideas to get things going:
Self-Correcting Wooden Number Puzzles
EAI Education Snap Math
XY Axis Board: Centimeter Grid
Dry-Erase Board: Centimeter Grid
Reusable Dry Erase Pockets
-----
Copyright © 2006-present: Christopher R. Borland. All rights reserved.
