Can You Let Them Fail?
One of the hardest things for me as a parent is to watch my son fail. I know I am not the only one like that – watching over our kids, protecting, suggesting right solutions, correcting just in time before they fail whether on a playground or in a classroom.
But, as Roger Schank writes in his book Coloring Outside the Lines, “you can’t learn unless you are willing to fail”. Failing compels one to try it again (aka practice) and/or try it again differently (aka creative approach).
Bon at MathFour.com frequently talks about the importance of inquiry-based instructions. She says
One of my favorite to teach… is through letting the students be “King for a Day”. I give them a never before seen math problem and allow them to make the rules on how to solve it. As they make the “wrong” rules, they will play with them and see that they can’t work. That’s the beauty in it! Just make sure to encourage them to do some problems (i.e. experiment) with their new rules so they can make sure it works fine.
So next time I am tempted to rush in and save my son’s block structure from toppling or nudge the right puzzle piece closer to him or inflect my voice just so when asking him which element goes next into a pattern, this one or THIS one, I will count to 10 and repeat the “let him see for himself” mantra. And yes, through my son’s failures I will experience my own ones. But I think the “you can’t grow unless you are willing to fail” rule works for adults as well. I am prepared to test it. Will you join me?
by Yelena
Image source: by Nationaal Archief on Flickr.com
Posted in Grow
Math Trek – Scavenger Hunt for Math Treasure
If you are looking for a fun way to experience math with your child, then how about a math-themed scavenger hunt? After all, even very young children love looking for treasure! If you are on board with this idea, then check out our sister site, Math Trek. (At the time of this post, Math Trek’s page has only the most recent trek uploaded, but that will change since the treks are held monthly. In the mean time, you can find previous Treks here)
You can download your own copy of the clues from the Trek site and try playing it with your child. Math Trek clues are designed so that they can be adapted to different ages. With young children, you will need to do some interpreting to adjust the clues to your child’s age and math level.
Here’s the most important part though – give your child a camera. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy. A point-and-shoot one will do. Explain that she will need to take pictures of all the math treasures she finds and discoveries she makes along the way. And if your child feels like taking random pictures, that’s good too.
The latest Math Trek took place in the auto shop. While you might not be able to get onto the shop floor, you might still do a car-related version of this trek… in your very own driveway or garage. So grab your camera and discover math right outside your front door!
Posted in Make
Teaching Number Concepts – Cuisenaire Rods
After publishing the previous Teaching Number Concepts post, I had a wonderful conversation with one of the readers, Terri. She recommended using Cuisenaire rods. In fact, her suggestions were so helpful, that I’d like to share them on the blog.
Terri’s photo illustrate two examples, the one on the left – for the number 8 and the one on the right – for the number 10. These examples were done by Terri’s 5-year old. As you can see, they show all the combinations of sums of two whole positive numbers that can make the original numbers.
C-rods are both similar and dissimilar to the two number concepts games I described previously. I particularly like that a child can see all the combinations at once as well as have visual proof of them adding up to exactly the same amount (being equal in length). This concrete proof of an abstract idea is extremely important for young children. It is also something, that in my opinion, should be encouraged in them – not blindly accepting our math statements, but actively challenging them.
I have not tried C-rods yet with my child, but will post an update as soon as I do. Thank you, Terri!
Have you used Cuisenaire rods? What other math manipulatives do you use to teach basic number concepts to your children?
Posted in Make
Teaching Number Concepts
I am trying to teach my son a concept of positive whole numbers being made up of other, smaller, positive whole numbers. This has been a tough going so far, full of unexpected obstacles. There was, for example, the part where I tried to explain and show that although a larger number can be made up of smaller numbers, it doesn’t work in reverse and a smaller number cannot be made up of larger numbers.
An even more formidable obstacle was (and still is) showing that a larger number can be made out of various combinations of smaller numbers. Say, 5=2+3, but also =4+1 and even 1+2+2. And by showing I mean proving. And by proving, I mean having my son test the rule and prove (or disprove) it to himself.
That’s why I was very happy when I got a hold of Oleg Gleizer’s book Modern Math for Elementary School. By the way, the book is free to download and use. We’ve been building and drawing multi-story buildings (mostly Jedi academies with x number of training rooms) ever since. If this sounds cryptic, I urge you to download the book and go straight to page 12, Addition, Subtraction and Young Diagrams.
And just yesterday I found this very simple activity on Mrs. T’s First Grade Class blog, via Love2Learn2Day‘s Pinterest board. All you need for it is a Ziploc bag, draw a line across the middle with a permanent marker, then add x number of manipulatives. Took me like 2 minutes to put it together, mostly because I had to hunt for my permanent marker.
The way we played with it was I gave the bag to my son and asked him how many items were in the bag. He counted 8. I showed him that the bag was closed tight, so nothing could fall out of it or be added to it. I also put a card with a large 8 on it in front of him as a reminder. At this point all 8 items were on one side of the line. I showed him how to move items across the line and let him play. As he was moving the manipulatives, I would simply provide the narrative:
Ok, so you took 2 of these and moved them across to the other side. Now you have 2 on the left and how many on the right? Yes, six (after him counting). Two here and six here. Two plus six. And how many items do we have in this bag? Good remembering, there are 8. So two plus six is 8. Want to move a few more over?
It went on like this for a few minutes until he got bored with it. Overall, I thought it was a good way of teaching, especially for children who do not like or can’t draw very well yet. Plus upping the complexity is really easy – draw more than one line on the bag and create opportunities for discovering that a number can be made of more than two smaller numbers.
Posted in Make
