The parenting thread
- This topic has 110 replies, 22 voices, and was last updated 18 years, 4 months ago by
.
-
Posts
-
Long ago I threadened to create this threat, and now I am officially raising the thread level to Amber. I am the parent of a 1-year-old, and here on the forum I am surrounded by people who have successfully managed to combine geekhood with parenthood: people who can probably tell me wonderful things I ought to know. Not only that, but everybody else has managed to survive past infancy (apologies to any lurking infants) to turn into JoCo heads, and must have thoughts on what was good and bad in their upbringing. Some of these things have bubbled up in the past on various threads, but I reckon the subject deserves to fly solo now.
May I kick off with a question: Where is a good place to start teaching a child (as early as possible) the basics of mathematic?
Borba:
My son is in kindergarten, and they started to teach him addition and subtraction about halfway through the school year. He was already able to do it, albeit not perfectly, for a few months. The reason?
The Pokemon Trading Card Game.
He’s just starting to read, he hadn’t done any math at all, but he wanted to start learning the game. As a former Magic player, I understood enough of the basics of a CCG to take it somewhat seriously and learn it myself, and play with him. The Pokemon in the game do damage to each other, and you have to add up the damage to see if they’re knocked out. So Pikachu Electro Bolts Piplup for 2 damage. Next turn he does it again. So, what is 2+2? He immediately went to the finger counting, followed by the inherent knowledge.
So anyway, in his case, he was about 4 1/2.
Where is a good place to start teaching a child (as early as possible) the basics of mathematic?
Math Manipulatives: Specifically, invest in a box (they are expensive) of Cuisenaire Rods as soon as you know your tike won’t swallow stuff and choke. Google them. Both of my sons have strong visual-math skills and I credit this to a strong background in math manipulatives.
Thanks, both. I have never heard of Cuisenaire rods before, but a quick look on Wikipedia gave me a very favorable impression. I was kind of expecting answers that involve building on set theory, and this goes in a different direction, but I like it. I notice that there is a citation about Cuisenaire rods being used in language teaching; wonder if one can use it in music too, but perhaps there will be too many levels of abstraction. Then again, maybe it can help encourage synesthesia and metaphor forming…
My son is 16. I agree with the Cuisenaire rods mentioned above because I used them with him. Though we ignored the religious component of this curriculum, I used materials from Sonlight when I taught him at home. Their reading materials are outstanding. You don't have to purchase from them because the books are available anywhere.
I recommend looking into all of the amazing things that are available to those who home school their children. The materials range from preschool all the way to high school. You do not have to teach your child at home to take advantage of what is out there. Keep in mind your child's style of learning (auditory, visual, etc.). My most important piece of advice would be to find what works for your child and have FUN with it!
Hey, Borba. I’ll have to ask a friend of mine about her son, who’s now finishing up kindergarten. I know that he can do basic math operations, I think including the concepts of multiplication and division. (Meaning that he gets the ideas, but I don’t know if he’s working problems per se.) And I don’t believe they used the C Rods. Mom is a physics teacher and dad is a computer geek.
Yeah, I just came back from a kid’s party and coincidentally enough, we also ended up discussing the C-Rods. Several of the parents were saying that by the time they’re kids were hitting 2nd grade math, the way they teach it is SO different from our generation that you feel like you have to Wiki the info yourself to help the kid. A lot of it was based on some of the Cuisenaire stuff, apparently.
Lennon (my son) understands the concept of multiplication, mostly from multiple addition scenarios. Division has been slower, but he’s getting it.
we ignored the religious component of this curriculum,
Wow – I didn’t know there was a religious component at all. I was simply referring to the manipulatives themselves and didn’t look at the C-rods website at all.
Anyway – It has always been my belief that if you can “see” math (or music for that matter) there is a deeper understanding. Of course, the “seeing” part would come through pictures. BUT if a student can also “feel” (3 dimensions) this is even better!
As a mother of 2 (14 and 19), and piano teacher to hundreds over the years, please, Borba, don’t skill and drill your child. Let him experience math, music first. READ to him/her? a lot of rhyming, bouncy, visually beautiful books – every day AND lower your alert status to blue or purple so he/she? doesn’t feel your ANGST.
Woot! A geek conversation I can actually contribute to! *Blows the dust off my Psychology of Human Development degree*
The very first mathematical concept a child has to learn is “greater than and lesser than”. Everything else is based on that idea. Tupperware used to sell a set of nesting pails called the Tote’em pail set that is unfortunately no longer available, but you should be able to find something similar. Any set of graded size cups, measuring cups, boxes, barrels, etc, even those nesting mamushka dolls from Russia can be used to teach this to a child in a passive and tactile manner. Water from the little measuring cup will fit in the bigger cups when you are playing with them in the bathtub, but the bigger cups water overflows the little one. Even when in a pre-verbal/beginning language time of life (ages 18 months to 3) these types of toys are facinating to children. Tupperware used to also have a set of nesting plastic “books” with stickers inside and outside each book with the alphabet, each of the seven books were of the basic Roy G Biv color pallette, and inside the smallest book was a cute bookworm that semi-sprang out at you. And yeah, I did sell the stuff for over 10 years, when my kids were very young, which is how I got to know the products so well.Hot dog, someone has them on ebay!
Hope I linked that ok. I LOVED the Totem pails, and these are pretty much the same price I got them for 20 years ago, so good bargin. The bottom of each one is a different eometric shape, and every other one has holes in the bottom as well- the green one was the “shower” when washing the babies hair. This new set has a reversed color series- the biggest is now blue where it used to be red, but it is the same molds. Fun in the tub and sandbox, fun to stack and knock down. And no, I am no longer getting commissions from ol fantastic plastic. *grin*
edit- I just checked the Tupperware website- after over 10 years off catalog they are back- I think I will order a set for my 4 month old grandson…if you want a set, just look up your local dealer in the phone book.
I would read The Sneetches to my son every night if he’d let me. He goes in and out of phases with books; he wants to hear them every day for a week straight or so, then doesn’t wanna hear it, and comes back, etc. Right now, it’s Horton Hatches an Egg (which, in case you aren’t aware, actually has a part where three hunters “point their rifles at Horton’s heart”).
Play the kiddo music, all kinds.
And keep them well away from anyone that jokes about being bad at math.We made sure we covered counting relatively early, so she was ready for math around Kindergarten I think, like others have said. My daughter really took to it, and I encouraged it with things like when she’d ask for another jelly bean, I’d tell her she could have “one plus two” jelly beans. It became a game which got her more jelly beans, so it was a big hit. I also invented card games where you’d “win” some mathematical combination of poker chips, so she’d have to figure out how many poker chips to take, which was far more fun than the actual card game. 🙂
I’ve got a 5 year old and a 6 year old. As parents, our geekdom runs in a different vein than math, but here are a couple of things we used:
Posting Box — from age 1 or earlier — take a coffee can or similar, cut a hole in the top, and let your kid drop/jam things in (a favorite for us–clothes pins) this helps with object permanence (ie, the clothes pins are still them, even if you can’t see them), counting (as you drop them in–how many go in, how many are left — though I can’t imagine my 1 year old would have given a hoot about that, but maybe by age 2 or 3), fine motor (gonna need that if they want to write the math down). You can also give different things to ‘post’, then when done, sort them into different piles (this is also a good pre-math concept — sort by color, sort by length, sort by weight, sort by texture, sort by material)
Math Is Patterns — we use this now to help ease the ‘math is hard’ or ‘math is stupid’ issues they’ve come home with (thanks to their classmates). This is something we’ve talked about from age 4 or so (you could certainly expose at a younger date, just no pressure). Making ABAB patterns out of red and green blocks, looking for patterns around the house, in nature, etc. This is paying off now, since in kindergarten, my son is learning to count by 5’s, write double digit numbers, etc., which can be made less daunting by pointing out the pattern, and ‘remember — math is patterns, so don’t stress out!’
My mom’s a teacher, and she recommends the Saxon Math program. They have books and manipulatives, K – 12. She says any kid can learn math with Saxon. It is pricey, though, whereas, the above two are more age appropriate, and free, baby free!
Sorry for not being clear about "religious component." I meant that to refer to the Sonlight curriculum, not the C-rods.
We ordered the third grade package from Sonlight, which included all the materials for all of the subjects. That included some religious (Christian) materials that I opted to not use.
- The topic ‘The parenting thread’ is closed to new replies.