I’ve been quiet lately, but we have been plugging away at our studies!  One of our favorite things to do is play math games, most are from our Right Start math curriculum but not all.

Sarah likes to try to find the missing number.  I lay out two rows of cards from 1-10 exactly the same.  She hides her eyes and then I take one away and move all the cards together to fill the empty space.  She then has to figure out what number is missing.  We also do this game with only one row which she and Sophie like to play together.

Sophie has really caught on to odd/even numbers.  I found this printable game online (can’t for the life of me remember where)!  I printed it out on cardstock and we use a die and playing pieces we had laying around.  One player is even and the other plays the odd numbers.

Parker likes to play a game called Corners.  It’s really helped him with his math facts, you have to match like colored numbers together so they equal a multiple of 5.

And what math game would be complete without a snake belt?

Tags: games, math, Right Start

Sorry it’s been so long since I’ve posted!  It’s the first time I’ve sat down to download pictures since my hardrive bit the dust.  Don’t worry – I didn’t lose anything!

So, we use the math curriculum Right Start Math.  It’s fun for me and the kids.  I wish I had such fun school work when I was young!  Normally the lessons are short and sweet and integrate a lot of manipulatives.  However, we read about one project that promised to be a little tedious, but looked really cool.  That was the Cotter Tens fractal.

Here is an excerpt from our math manual that describes the Cotter Tens fractal:

Fractals are a new branch of mathematics only a few decades old.  There are two types of fractals, regular and random.  Scientists use random fractals for computer modeling in order to study some of nature’s irregular patterns and structures.  Regular fractals, also called geometric fractals, consist of larger structures that are identical to the smaller structure.

The Tens Fractal, a regular Fractal starts with ten small equilateral triangles, arranged in the pattern of a larger equilateral triangle, the ten triangle.  Ten of these triangles arranged in the same pattern forms the hundred triangle.  And ten of the hundred triangles in the same pattern forms the thousand triangle, the Cotter Tens Fractal.

One purpose of the building this fractal is to help the children visualize and experience the repeating tens structure of our number system.  Another purpose is integrating mathematics and art.

Here are Parker and Sophie getting started:

And after many days, here is the finished product:

And Sarah made one too!

Lots of learning went on during this project. Sarah practiced cutting and gluing skills and learned about triangles. Sophie learned about place value, how triangles have 3 sides and 3 angles, what equilateral triangles are, and patterns. Parker also learned about patterns and geometric designs and reinforced some of his multiplication facts. And me? I learned that young children can’t cut 1,000 triangles without having a lot of backups!

Tags: Art, fractal, math, Right Start

Here’s another simple little game to practice those math facts …

Addition Memory – Take the Aces-nines out of a deck of cards (to make it easier and/or quicker just take 2 of each).  Shuffle the cards and lay them face down and play like regular memory but instead of finding matches you are trying to find two cards that total 10.  I learned about this game from the Right Start math curriculum that we have and it suggests that the child uses the abacus if needed.  They have this suggestion to deter the children from counting on their fingers.

Tags: card game, math, Right Start

One of our math tools is a number balance from Right Start Math.  The kids LOVE to play with it.  Sophie even created her own balance out of a mini pink tower and mini brown stair set.

Tags: building, Right Start

Our Right Start Math curriculum is going very well.  I am really very pleased with this curriculum so far.  It is suppose to rival the Asian way of teaching math.  I can already see an improvement in Parker’s basic math facts after just a few lessons.  One of the biggest points of this curriculum is that children not use their fingers to count or add.  It reviews the numbers from 0-10 quite a bit and teaches children to see numbers in groups of five.  So 6 would be 5 and 1 and 9 would be 5 and 4 or 1 less than 10.  They use an abacus to ‘see’ this and it helps.  This curriculum was created by Dr Joan Cotter, who has a BSEE, a PhD in mathematics, and was a Montessori teacher.

One of the games that this curriculum teaches is called Go to the Dump, a spin-off of Go Fish.  You use the A-9 cards from a deck of cards and instead of finding matches you try to find pairs that equal 10.  Parker and Sophie both enjoyed this game.

Here is Parker working with his abacus:

And here is Sarah doing her part:

Tags: math, Right Start

We are finally starting to get into the groove of things … well, kinda.  Sophie was very focused today.  She completed a number line from 1-20.  She colored the numbers, which were in mixed order, cut them out and then pasted them in order.  She seemed disappointed when she realized I didn’t have more numbers for her to do!

Parker, on the other hand, seemed bored today and didn’t want to stick with any one thing for  very long.  He did play with the balance that came with our Right Start math curriculum.  It’s a very cool tool – it teaches addition and multiplication in a visual, hands-on way.

We also read a cute little African folktale today about a greedy spider named Anansi.

Tags: Anansi, math, Right Start