Making Math Fun - Unifix Cubes

I have one of those kids who LOVES math. When we needed some extra math activities this week I pulled out a box of unifix cubes and some flash cards and put him to work! He is five and a half and is working through the Horizons Kindergarten math program (which, by the way, is an excellent program if you have a child who catches onto math concepts easily and likes math), but I wanted some fun math activities to keep him engaged while my nine year old and I were doing some work together.

I'm sure lots of veteran homeschool moms have done activities like this forever, but for me it's all new. Each time I discover something enjoyable that makes a lightbulb go off for my kids I get really excited!

I started by setting out a couple of addition flash cards and telling my son to make the addition problem with the cubes.

This was pretty simple for him, so I showed him how he could self check the answers on the back. Here is he is getting started:

He wanted to do 20 problems, so the line of cards and cubes extended across the schoolroom:

I loved the look on his face as he was figuring how many cubes to use, how many problems he had completed, and how many he had left to complete.

When my daughter was done with her work, I asked her to check her brother's work.

 This made her feel important, and it was also a good way for her to review her math facts. (There was some rolling around on the floor and giggling, but that's ok -- we're home, so you can have FUN doing your math!)

Looking for more fun unifix activities? Try these resources:

Hubbard's Cupboard - scroll down to "Unifix Cube Recording Sheets"
Math games with Unifix Cubes at ProTeacher
The Unifix Page from Didax
Mathematics with Unifix Cubes  - a great book with Unifix ideas

Just give your child a tub of unifix cubes and you will soon discover they can teach YOU a few things to do with them, too.

Oh, and don't forget the Unifix Cubes!

Making Math Fun - Learning Wrap-Ups

Maybe I have been living in the dark ages, but today we discovered these nifty little things called "Learning Wrap-Ups". A good friend of mine who has finished her homeschooling career passed them along to me and said they were a lot of fun. She was RIGHT!

I just pulled them out this morning and sat down with them - the kids sat right down with me and we worked through all of the wrap-ups. We only have the addition wrap-ups, so it was a good review for my daughter, and this kind of stuff is just what my Kindergarten son is craving right now! It is so simple - you just start your string at a certain number on the left hand side of the plastic card, then (let's say your on the +5 card) you add 5 to that number and wrap around to the answer on the right side. You do this for about 10 different numbers. I asked them why they liked these wrap-ups and this is what they said:

GMan - "I like them because they're math... hah! duh!" (you really have to know him to hear him saying this - it is such a typical GMan response)

Miss B: "I like them because they are kind of like weaving." (she is my quiet knitter, sewer, etc...)

One of my goals has been to make math fun and I think we're doing really well so far. The wrap-ups are a great way to review and self-check math facts. I just went to Amazon and ordered the subtraction wrap-ups, and may order the multiplication at a later point in time. I also noticed they have states and capitals wrap-ups, too.

As I sat down to blog about these, I checked my email and saw an interesting article about making math fun (how providential is that?). Check it out here.

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Making Math Fun!! - drills on the Wii

One of my biggest goals this homeschool year is to make math fun! A while back I introduced The Number Ladder Game . We have played this game so much - this week we will go on to another game in the book because we are having such success with the Number Ladder Game.

Another way I'm trying to make math fun for my kids is by incorporating some technology - specifically the Wii. Now, I know there are certain contingencies out there that do not like video games. I will warn you that we are NOT one of these families! We love our Wii and I think my kids have learned a whole lot from the games we play on the Wii. I can't even remember where I found out about this site, but earlier this year we stumbled upon Arcademic Skill Builders, which is a site that has math games you can play on the computer or (drum roll).... on the Wii!

To get to the Wii games you simply choose the Internet Channel option from your Wii home menu. Is your Wii configured to your wireless connection? If not, it should be! Then type in your web address: http://www.arcademicskillbuilders.com. Once there, you need to select "play on the Wii" and it gives you several options of addition, subtraction, and multiplication "Alien Addition" has been a great game for my Kindergartener who is working on his basic math facts,
and it doesn't hurt for my fourth grader to review all her facts with the addition, multiplication, and subtraction games, either!

There are also some word games to play on the Wii on this same website, but we haven't tried them yet. I'm sure they are fun. I have also yet to let my kids play the regular computer games on this site, but again - they look like fun to me.

Perhaps a fitting reward for completing a difficult math lesson one day would be the next day choose a fun math activity such as playing the Number Ladder Game with mom, or turning on the Wii to drill your math facts. I just am waiting for the day when a non homeschooler asks my five year old what he did in school today and he says "I played the Wii!". Who ever thought school could be that fun?
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