Do You Have a Child Who Adores Math?
Monday, November 1, 2010 at 2:45PM
I have a five year old who is obsessed with math - his brain just seems to function in a way where he views everything mathematically. My brain doesn't operate this way, but he's starting to rub off on me. He is also rubbing off on my nine year old - we are doing lots more mental math, math games, fun drills, and real world math activities. My son is also taking a course at co-op called "Math Through Literature" - what a blessing this class has been for him! The teacher has taken a special interest in GMan and is helping me to understand his mathematical brain.
Right now both of my children use Horizons math. They both do well with Horizons, so I'm not switching - as long as they are learning the concepts, moving along at a good pace, and doing their work without complaining, I feel like we should stick with it. My son just finished the Kindergarten Horizons math books; I feel like he could probably breeze past the first grade into second grade books, but I don't want to miss any concepts along the way. To make a long story short, we are waiting for our new books to come in the mail, so today I pulled lots of different math activities for him to do which I'd like to share with you. My daughter is working on her current Horizons 3 workbook, but she also enjoys the change of pace with different math activities as well. Maybe you can use these resources, too!
- Online Tangrams - both of my children are talking about shapes, and we found the Cyberchase PBS kids website today that has fun tangrams. I liked them because you can get hints if you need them and there are a lot of fun things to make.
- Mighty Minds Tangrams - I found these at TJ Maxx, but they sell them online as well. I love this set of tangrams, and you can buy additional cards when you finish the initial set.
- Sheppard Software Math Games - a free site with many fun drills. I played "Fruit Shoot" earlier today with my kids and we competed to see who could get the highest score!
- Arcademic Skill Builders drills for Wii - check out my post about this - truly an awesome find!
- Mancala - play this simple counting game with all ages of children. I like the strategizing involved! We have found an online version of the game, too. Here is a link to making your own Mancala game, too!
- Garbage - a fun card game which uses ordinal numbers. My children love to play this, and so do most adults! Some people call it "Trash" as well.
- Math Fact Cafe - some kids like math worksheets, some don't - my kids like them when I offer a small reward for completing them, or when we set a goal of mastering a certain concept by a certain date. You can generate your own sheets here, and I like how simple it is to make them.
- The Number Ladder Game - I did a post about this last summer- it is a HUGE hit, so check it out!
If you have a favorite math resource, could you leave me a comment? I'd love to add to our collection!
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Reader Comments (8)
We use Horizons Math also and love it. My son is like your son and breezes through. He is in 1st grade Math but will be starting second grade math after the 1st of the year. We love Cyberchase for PBS and we also play Moneywise which is a game on learning how to budget and make change. We also like the Bingo games that come in adding, subtracting, muplication, division, and telling time. Thank you for the list and I will be checking them out.
Blessings!
We use Math U See....and love it. It is very unit based, but, it is fun. My oldest...is flying through it, but it makes him think. My middle child (who is dyslexic) is able to follow along and we do not have many days of screaming hysterics. We love the sing along songs that came alone with it and the DVDs with Steve Demme explaining everything is very helpful! We do have fun with math using our Wii....and a few board games....Dino Math Tracks, Sequence and Yahtzee (and a few other games).
We use Abeka math. I used to use Math-U-See, but didn't like it much. My kids LOVE their math time. The workbooks are great, cover everything, and use tons of review so they really get the concepts.
My six year old son is our math kid. He loves it! He will pull it out on the weekends just because he thinks it is fun!
We have some puzzle dominos with the problem on one side and the answer found on the other end of another domino. When you get the right answer, they fit together. We also like to throw dice and do the problem. Also, I love a scale we have where you hang the numbers. They are weighted so that, for example, hanging two 3's on one side would equal hanging a 6 on the other side.
My 6 yr old son LOVES math also. His father does as well. We don't use anything in particular, just some odd and end workbooks. We are starting measurement in November.
Amy, I have some Abeka math things (my neighbor's children all go to a private school where they use Abeka and she gives me all of their old books!) that we have used as well. My son likes them. I think the scale sounds pretty cool, too.
This is why we homeschool, right? -- to choose the programs that work best for our particular children. I love love love love homeschooling. :-)
Thank you for visiting my blog. You ARE going to have fun with my blog with your math-y son!! :) Math is my blog focus! Visit often. ;)
Cindy @
http://love2learn2day.blogspot.com/
Hi, I popped over from the Hip Homeschool Hop and I'm so glad I did. Math is one of the subjects a couple of my grandkids breeze thru and a couple others really have to work extra hard at. A lot of these resources sound great for all of them and would definitely make fun homeschooling activities for grandparents and their grandchildren. I'm definitely saving this info. Thank you so much! :)
Coming from the homeschool hop. Thanks for the links. It's nice to have some fun stuff as a break from regular math every once in a while.