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Teaching Math WITHOUT Worksheets


amberokolo
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I have a DD that's 3 years old. We will be starting Kindy this Summer and I wanted to get advice on how to introduce Addition. She's an Auditory learner and is 100% AGAINST worksheets. I figure it's an age thing and I don't pressure her. Any suggestions? She understands one to one correspondence. I just don't know where to start...I wish I could just have a script for these types of things lol

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Something like Kitchen Table Math would be a good guide, or Education Unboxed. Possibly Arithmetic Village would work too, but I don't know as much about it as the other two. (This is my third edit, I just keep thinking of ones that may work for you) you could try MEP Reception level. It uses pictures, but no worksheets.

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I would tell stories with manipulatives as part of play. When playing with the farm set. "Oh, there are 3 pigs in the pen and here's another 4 in the barn. How many pigs are there all together?" Something like that, very informal.

 

:iagree: Telling stories with math is GREAT. This is the perfect way to introduce math concretely, and ultimately leads easily into word problems (because they already are word problems!). You can do this anytime, even just driving down the street - "There are three birds on that telephone wire. If one flew away, how many birds would be left on the telephone wire?" or "You and I are in the car. How many of us are there in the car? How many would there be in the car if PersonXYZ was with us?" My DS loved games like that when we were first starting to talk about math.

 

Using manipulatives are great for that age, whatever they are - cheerios, bears, linking cubes, etc.

 

Also, you can riff on lots of preschool picture books that have themes of counting, shapes, colors, etc. We love Richard Scarry books because they often have busy pictures with lots of opportunity for informally introducing different concepts, similar to this:

- Lowly has four tubes of paint on his desk. He has one tube that fell on the floor. How many tubes of paint does he have altogether?

- How many Mommy cats are in this picture? How many kittens? How many cats are there altogether?

- Then some time later, How many ears does each cat have? Each cat has two ears! How many ears are there altogether? (much harder, but can lead to counting by twos, etc.)

 

Patterns are also a great mathematical concept to teach. On the kitchen table, line up a bowl, a cup, a bowl, a cup, a bowl, a cup, and then a bowl. Show her the pattern and ask her what would come next. You can do this with colors, shapes, sizes, whatever... and the patterns can get as complicated as she can figure out (start super easy, obviously).

 

You might also check out Miquon Math and Cuisinaire rods. IIRC, the teaching materials had lots of ideas for ways kids could just play with the rods, and it helped them understand different math concepts like the fact that 4+1 is the same as 3+2 is the same as 5. Good stuff, and a great step towards understanding number bonds.

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For a 3 y.o., I'd just pour out a pile of cuisenaire rods on the kitchen table or floor and let the child play with them - build, make stairs, make trains, etc.

 

(This would serve as preparation for using Rosie's videos and/or Miquon next year; you could start Miquon and/or the videos at some point. Not a lot of three year olds are developmentally ready for a traditional math program, even very advanced kiddos or kiddos who turn out to be super-mathy later. Often there's a big change in brain development for math sometime between the 4th and 5th birthdays.)

 

Eta, disclaimer: my experience is with visual learners, at least they turned out to be later on. However, I'm not sure how I'd know whether a 3 y.o. was an auditory or visual learner.

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3 yo? I don't know.... Play and hugs...

3 yo, you really want her to discover the world, not worksheet. Give her some M&M and jelly beans. Let her discover the number and let her tell you what she find.

 

 

Yea I said she's against worksheets. She's actually advanced for her age (according to her pediatrician, not me). She's had a strong grasp of numbers since about 18 months. Maybe I should use candy...she'd beg for math time lol

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Thanks everyone for your suggestions. I actually have a very advanced child who is already reading and counting with one to one correspondence. So I'm not forcing her to be super kid. We go at her pace. I love the idea of verbal math play because she LOVES to talk. She actually kinda does this on her own.

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I can't believe no one has suggested RightStart. You could easily start A with a 3 yo and it's all activities. (There are maybe 6 or 7 worksheets sprinkled throughout, but you could easily do those orally.) it has lots of manipulatives and game-type activities. We started when ds was an older 3. But we didn't do it every day, I think it's wonderful.

 

Granted, I bought the program because I believe that math needs to be taught through activities and not worksheets.......turns out my kids loves worksheets?! But we're still using it because I like the way it teaches.

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My son is only just now tolerating a few worksheets at 4.5, and he still hates anything that requires prolonged seat work or fine motor skill, but he's advanced in other areas (concept comprehension and reasoning skill). I find Rightstart math a good fit. I bought it when he was three, and work on it VERY slowly with him as he is able/interested. Because there are no worksheets and it's so hands on, I have been able to let him proceed with math concepts he enjoys, without being hindered by his inability to focus in a seat or do much writing.

I also find that what he won't tolerate on a worksheet, he loves to do with me on the chalkboard. I'll draw 5 circles in a row, hand him the eraser and say "erase the middle!". Then ask him to erase the middle from what remains. ("there isn't a middle mommy"). Same technique for addition/subtraction. "here are 4 circles, but i want 5, can draw what is needed to make it five?" etc.

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