Math Play
Math is not one of my strong skills. In fact, I try to avoid it, if possible so when it came time to think about a Math curriculum (we are homeschooling our oldest) I became nervous. I am a big fan of mass marketed curriculum kits but I have found some web sites, and a few books that have proven to be very useful.
 I printed out a few games for my daughter to play with me. Today, we used our estimating skills to guess the number of glass beads. After a few rounds it was my turn to estimate the number of beads. My daughter delighted in giving me a large number of beads. I estimated twenty-two when the real number was 36, and Isabella just laughed. Bella is trying to grasp number groups of more than 10, so I imagine it is time to do groupings of ten.
In reality, it isn’t the early math skills that scare me but the later ones. I know I can help Bella build a strong math foundation (which I never really had) by playing games and using maniplulatives. I began to investigate a math curriculum (Building Blocks Math) but due to the expense I have put the idea on hold. The curriculum stresses math play with computer game reinforcement. I was priveledged to meet one of the creators of this curriculum this spring. Building Blocks is also known as Real Math. I am very impressed with this program even though I am not a fan of using computers with young children.
For now, I will continue to find and create games and manipulatives. I believe that math happens in our everyday lives, in the world around us and every time we solve a problem. I will post some of the games in a later post.
Yes, math can be fun. I wish I had learned that when I was growing up.
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Posted on June 18th, 2007 by karen
Filed under: Uncategorized