Math on my Mind

Math and I never were friends. In fact, math scared me. I wrote about my math feelings a couple months ago. I don't want my kids to feel the same way I felt about math. I want my kids to feel comfortable and maybe even a little excited to do math. So I've been trying to change things up a little in our house.

Right now my kids need to get their basic math facts down. We've been using games and flashcards to try to help.

 

I read about this math game idea in a book several years ago and finally got around to implementing it this year. All you need is an egg carton and two erasers (buttons, dried noodles, beans etc.)

 

 

Number the spaces in the carton. Place two erasers in the carton and shut the lid. Next shake the carton and open up. Then have your student add the two numbers or multiply the numbers where the erasers landed. I make my kids write the number sentence on paper or a dry erase board. Since this is different from our normal math stuff, the kids enjoy playing the game.

 

One of my kids was learning how to read large numbers and having some difficulty remembering the place value names. I used different colors to help differentiate between hundreds, thousands, millions. I made them into pockets and then wrote numbers on index cards. Each evening after dinner, the kids mix the numbers up and each have a turn reading the numbers. They've enjoyed practicing this way.

The last thing we've added to the math mix is a new game for the Nintendo DS. I guess when it's on the DS it just doesn't seem like work. I came across the Personal Math Trainer game and bought it knowing that I'd be able to get my kids to practice their facts via this route more than traditional flashcards. So far so good! The three older kids rotate which day they practice their facts on the DS. I usually give them a 15min. time limit but often find them still working past that. This isn't a fancy video game, but rather a tool to practice basic math facts using different drills.

So that's what's working for us right now. I'm still deciding which direction to go with our math curriculum for next year. If you have an math curriculum reviews or opinions, I'm open to hearing (umm reading) them.

I Hate Math

I really hate math. I know it is because when I was in school, that was the one subejct area I struggled with greatly. I remember in 8th grade I switched schools and I was so lost in math. What my classmates were learning was the opposite schedule from my old school. I missed a lot of foundational information that year and never caught up. Thus I began to think that I was just stupid in math. Now that I'm older, I realize that was not the case, but I still have math mental blocks. It is not the subject area that I feel confident teaching my children. I'm more likely to second-guess myself when it comes to math. I don't want my kids to feel this way. So I'm working to change it.

Jimmie, from Jimmie's Collage has been posting many very informative articles about living math and math notebooking.  Her article Transitioning to Living Math tells how she ditched the workbooks (well kind of) and moved toward the Living Math approach.

I have been incorporating one of the transition steps Jimmie mentions in her article-- adding more math games to our school day. I want my kids to see math as fun, not as a dreaded subject. I figured the best way to do that is to play with them. For my older two kids, we have started playing with ThinkFun Math Dice. ThinkFun has a free manual that you can download. I printed mine and had it bound w/ a plastic comb at the local printing shop. There are a lot of different games in the book to use with the Math Dice. There is even tournament competition if you wanted to set that up with a co-op or math club.

MathDice downloads

So for now we're trying to infuse some fun into our math program. That's the first step. I plan to start adding in living books and math notebooking. So hopefully you'll see a few more math-related posts from me in the upcoming months. Who knows, maybe you'll even see a post about how much I love math. :)

Counting Bears

Aren't these just the cutest bears? Ok, I've seen cuter ones too, but these make me happy. I bought my first set for DD#1 almost 7 years ago. I was so excited to have hands-on math manipulatives for her. Math was a struggle for me when I was a kid, and I was determined to give DD#1 a good start. I had high expectations for those little critters. I actually used them with her too. They were used for counting, sorting and modeling word problems. Out of 100 she only lost a couple. Then came DS. He lost over half of them in his first year of life. So I bought another set so that we could still count to 100. I can't remember actually using them with him, but I'm sure I did---after all that was the whole reason I bought them right?. ;)

Next came DD#2. She's seven now and I am pretty sure she's never used them for math. I've found them instead in the bathtub, in Barbie's swimming pool, in Dora's dollhouse, and in army formations. She and DS have buried them, tied them and even colored them. These bears have grown out of control just like Legos. I'm always stepping on them or washing them in the laundry. Now DD#3 is old enough to start using the bears for sorting. And guess what. Out of 200 counting bears, less than 20 can be found. Maybe that's a good thing. I've had my eye on these little buggers but could never justify getting them since we already had the counting bears. So maybe the end of an era has come-- out with the bears and in with the bugs.