Math Can’t Wait for Counting
The last few days my son’s play is full of numbers. All of a sudden he started noticing numbers everywhere, on and in everything.
He wants to know how big his collection of garbage trucks is. He also wants to know what “50” looks like.
Then he makes up a chant/game that goes “1 is a 1 and that’s how it is; 2 is a 2 and that’s how it is; 3 is a 3 and that’s how it is”, etc.
He tries to tell time on digital clocks and prices on price tags. He is amazed and thrilled when he notices a cornerstone with the number “2008” in the wall of our YMCA. “Wow, that’s a big number!” and then traces each numeral and names it out loud.
This is something totally new to both of us. Up until now my son expressed very little interest in numbers. Sure, he knew 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5, but as he’d say himself, he counted “without enthusiasm” and going beyond 5 was a struggle. And now he routinely and willingly reaches beyond 10 in his own counting and asks me to count to 30, 50, 100.
What am I trying to say here? Well, one is that it seems not pushing him to rot count was worth it. More importantly, I had plenty of time and opportunities to learn first-hand that there is no reason to delay introducing a young child to math just because he doesn’t yet count or knows his numbers.
There are so many games and activities that kids who are too young to count can participate in. Sometimes we, the adults, think that if a child doesn’t know such a simple thing as numbers, he is not at all ready for “higher” math.
But since counting involves speech and keeping track of objects one by one, it develops together with words and with general spatial abilities. Most young children mix up names of counting numbers and can’t reliably keep track of which objects they have already counted and which they have not. As these skills develop, counting becomes easier too.
So I am glad that I haven’t waited to introduce functions, symmetry, fractals and more to my son. Hopefully now, with his interest in numbers and counting, we can take all these games and activities to the next level.
Posted in Grow
Rube Thursday
Happy Rube Thursday, a day to celebrate Rube Goldberg machines, the over-engineered contraptions that perform a very simple task.
Have you built any lately? Building an RGM with a little one presents its own unique challenges. One is that RGM requires a certain (high) level of precision in order to work. And even with everything being properly aligned, you will usually have to run the machine a few times before it actually completes its task.
Should you leave building RGMs until your child gets a bit older? No way! Instead, let’s start by making some vary simple machines. How about an incline plane for children to roll marbles or toy cars on? The set up is super simple and is entertaining even for the littlest ones.
In the set up above, we used a remnant of a peg board, some nuts and bolts that fit the holes and lots and lots of rubber bands. The goal was to hit and topple as many foam pieces (inside the box) as possible.
Another idea would be to create a slide using cardboard tubes. One of the setups we had in the past was marbles rolling down a tube and splashing into water tinted with food coloring. Once we had enough marbles in the plastic milk jug with lots of holes punched in it, the jug overflowed and we had our own “fountain” (although in our case it looked more like a drip irrigation system).
So let’s try something this weekend. Let’s build a very simple contraption that includes 1) an incline plane for marbles to roll and 2) water! Let us know how it goes and send pictures of your contraptions to yelena@moebiusnoodles.com
Posted in Grow
Rube Thursday
Happy Rube Thursday, a day to celebrate Rube Goldberg machines, the over-engineered contraptions that perform a very simple task.
If you think about it, a car can be considered a Rube Goldberg machine, especially if you use it to drive from one store in a shopping mall to another one. Speaking of cars, if you ever watched Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, you undoubtedly saw a fantastic contraption used by Commander Pott to cook AND serve some sausage and eggs.
httpv://youtu.be/IejJ_H6NaZM
And why not make something just as awesome this weekend? If all that’s stopping you is that you don’t know where to begin, check out PIE Institute’s Exploratorium Idea Library. Not only will you get inspired by their Marble Machine, but you can download a PDF with complete instructions and a parts list! It looks so cool, that you just might turn it into a mega marble run as seen on the TinkerLab blog.
Image is from Exploratorium’s blog, The Tinkering Studio.
If you think marble runs are child’s play, then you need to watch this video (yes, it’s a commercial, but it’s an AMAZING commercial):
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_CDLBTJD4M
Rube Goldberg machines rule! Happy tinkering!
Posted in Grow
Teach Your Child to Count
Does this look like a lot of spacecrafts to you? This is just a small part of my son’s collection. Sure does come in handy when it’s time to learn counting.
I am an anxious mom. There, I’ve said it! I fret a whole lot about my child, including whether he is learning everything he is supposed to learn. Sometimes (ok, frequently), I worry unnecessarily and prematurely. One such worry is was over the whole counting to 10 skill.
We do a lot of math, but the only counting we do is when a) we count actual objects or b) we play hide-and-seek. In both cases, we hardly ever go all the way to 10. And honestly, I really dislike anything that has to do with rot learning, including counting and alphabet songs. So we don’t do any of that. Yet ability to count to 10 is one of skills identified on the kindergarten readiness checklist.
I know I’m not the only parent out there with this problem. In fact, in one of the Moebius Noodles courses we had a parent ask this exact question:
How can I get my child to remember numbers without just forcing him to count over and over?
To begin with, singing the number song does very little for mathematical understanding of numbers. Mathematically interesting things happen when you work with quantities and lengths. For example, one of the games we played in the course was to find objects that represent quantities, i.e. 18-wheeler truck!
But the biggest thing that will help to understand past ten is actually the notion of the UNIT. This is something best explored with visual, hands-on ideas. Incorporating math into something children love doing makes teaching them counting easy and even effortless.
My son is totally into space exploration. Fortunately, many rockets and space probes we read about are numbered sequentially (think Apollo missions or Mariner space probes). So he lines up all his make-believe rockets or just cardboard boxes, numbering them sequentially, as he readies them for launch.
A related question that was also asked in the Moebius Noodles course is
How old should the child be to understand counting, to make sense of it?
How old was your child when you first introduced counting (and not just number songs)? What were some (if any) difficulties you encountered? Please share your experience.
Posted in Grow
