Living math for a precocious (almost) 4yo?

[hisforhomeschooling]

I posted this over on the K-8 Board today, but the more I look around, the more I think this is the right place to ask.

 

My DS3 (he will be 4 in a couple weeks) has kept pace with his brother and basically done kindergarten already. The only academic area he really shows his age is handwriting. Next year I will do the shorter sentences in WWE for copywork/handwriting practice with him. We are going to do OPG to continue learning phonics. Math is where I am struggling.

 

I don't want to redo the K curriculum with him again, but I don't think he is fluent enough in addition/subtraction yet to move to 1st grade math with his brother. So, I'm thinking about doing a year of living math/math games to reinforce concepts in a fun way for both of them while DS5 also does 1st grade math. I don't want to have regrets about pushing DS3 too hard too young but I want to take advantage of his interest and ability.

 

He will do a worksheet or 2 if his brother is doing them, and he loves art supplies and stickers. Maturity-wise, he is definitely a preschooler. I don't want to stifle his enjoyment for learning or cause him to hate school time.

 

I have been doing a lot of searching but don't really see what I'm looking for already put together. I think what I would love is a clear 36 weeks of lessons with some kind of coherent storybook spine (like Life of Fred but more logical) for Monday, and then games/activities for 3 days, then maybe a worksheet or oral questions or math journal page to demonstrate he has learned the concept on Friday. I know there are soooo many wonderful math living books but I can't buy them all and I am not sure we will get to the library every week.

 

I have seen the one about twins on a farm. The story aspect of that might be lost, though, because it would mostly be review. I don't really want to review. I want to challenge him with bite-sized lessons.

 

Anyone know anything like this? Or have other suggestions?

[Pegs]

IMVHO, 36 weeks of the structured work you're looking for would be overkill for K maths, for a bright youngster. Adding numerals and mathematical symbols to your handwriting practice would definitely help with written output in the future, though.

 

 

Off the top of my head, here are some games you might enjoy playing together:

 

Addition war, subtraction war

 

Snakes/chutes and ladders - we play with two dice, and DS does all the addition to stay fresh on his facts

 

Play 'Go to the dump', to practice sums of ten

 

Skip count using an abacus as a visual aid

 

Take it in turns making numbers for each other on the abacus, for place value

 

Various games using cuisenaire rods - there are video explanations at http://www.educationunboxed.com

 

If you'd prefer a big package of activities which you can schedule, Giggle Facts might appeal to you - http://www.gigglelearn.com

 

And that's just for math facts and basic K arithmetic! You could also enrich your DS' math with some more open strategic thinking and problem-solving games and activities, such as draughts, chess in a year or so, Set, Qwirkle, Phase 10, mazes, codes and ciphers, small projects involving graphing change over time, collect data using tally marks and then present it with various types of graphs.

 

I hope some of these suggestions are of value to you. :)

 

(Sorry if it looks terse and disjointed. I'm posting from a device which only shows me a couple of lines of text at a time.)

[lewelma]

I'm with Pegs.  Skip the curriculum and go with games.  We did not start a formal curriculum until just before ds's 7th birthday, and at age 14 he is competing internationally.  We did the kind of games mentioned above but also 'shop' with money and change, estimation of # of cars or mushrooms or distance, and lots and lots of made-up, silly, oral word problems.  It was enough to give him a very firm foundation.

 

Ruth in NZ

[Sarah0000]

I find it easy enough to turn a standard curriculum into living math. My three year old is learning Singapore 1a math through manipulatives and play around the house, then I have him look at the teacher's book to see how well he can do the problems in a non living math way, if that makes sense. He also plays around with Miquon and RS games and activities.

[desertflower]

There are living math books for that age.  Check out livingmath.net.  We like Mathstart books by Stuart Murphy for that age.  And depending on your child she may like a couple of the books from the Sir Cumference series as well. 

[hisforhomeschooling]

IMVHO, 36 weeks of the structured work you're looking for would be overkill for K maths, for a bright youngster. Adding numerals and mathematical symbols to your handwriting practice would definitely help with written output in the future, though.

 

 

Off the top of my head, here are some games you might enjoy playing together:

 

Addition war, subtraction war

 

Snakes/chutes and ladders - we play with two dice, and DS does all the addition to stay fresh on his facts

 

Play 'Go to the dump', to practice sums of ten

 

Skip count using an abacus as a visual aid

 

Take it in turns making numbers for each other on the abacus, for place value

 

Various games using cuisenaire rods - there are video explanations at http://www.educationunboxed.com

 

If you'd prefer a big package of activities which you can schedule, Giggle Facts might appeal to you - http://www.gigglelearn.com

 

And that's just for math facts and basic K arithmetic! You could also enrich your DS' math with some more open strategic thinking and problem-solving games and activities, such as draughts, chess in a year or so, Set, Qwirkle, Phase 10, mazes, codes and ciphers, small projects involving graphing change over time, collect data using tally marks and then present it with various types of graphs.

 

I hope some of these suggestions are of value to you. :)

 

(Sorry if it looks terse and disjointed. I'm posting from a device which only shows me a couple of lines of text at a time.)

 

Pegs- Thanks for all the ideas! I appreciate them! Didn't seem terse at all :)

 

I'm with Pegs.  Skip the curriculum and go with games.  We did not start a formal curriculum until just before ds's 7th birthday, and at age 14 he is competing internationally.  We did the kind of games mentioned above but also 'shop' with money and change, estimation of # of cars or mushrooms or distance, and lots and lots of made-up, silly, oral word problems.  It was enough to give him a very firm foundation.

 

Ruth in NZ

 

I think maybe curriculum isn't quite the right word. For me, not necessarily for him, but for *me*, I need a plan. I need to be able to look at a lesson plan and remind myself what I wanted to do for the week. 

 

Supply him with a box of legos, a box of change, either tangrams or pattern blocks, a deck of cards, a ruler, and a clock. Add graph paper when he is ready.

Use the box of change for the boys to play store. They can trade roles.

 

Board and card games : monopoly jr, battleship, checkers, mille bornes, connect 4,amazing labyrinth,trouble, scrambled states

 

Also play darts or dominoes and keep score

 

Heigh Ho- Thanks! another vote for lots of games and play :)

 

I find it easy enough to turn a standard curriculum into living math. My three year old is learning Singapore 1a math through manipulatives and play around the house, then I have him look at the teacher's book to see how well he can do the problems in a non living math way, if that makes sense. He also plays around with Miquon and RS games and activities.

 

I have heard a lot of good things about Right Start games. It says "all grades" on the site. How true is that? Do the cards come with the book? 

 

There are living math books for that age.  Check out livingmath.net.  We like Mathstart books by Stuart Murphy for that age.  And depending on your child she may like a couple of the books from the Sir Cumference series as well. 

 

I am really intrigued by the plan laid out for math that follows SOTW on livingmath.net. No way could I really stick with it and follow it with that number of books, but I do hope to incorporate a few into our ancient studies readings. It's such a cool idea. Thank you for the author suggestions! I hope our library has some of them!

[Jackie]

On the RightStart games, I've found the games book spans K-4th grade math pretty well. This makes sense, since the RS curriculum is K through 4th or 5th. The cards and book come together in the $60 games pack. The games are primarily a replacement for drill in learning math facts. The book is broken into sections: number sense, addition, clocks, multiplication, money, subtraction, division, and fractions. Each section then lists the games in order from simplest to most advanced. If you foresee yourself primarily using games throughout elementary math, the $60 is a great investment, IMO. If you foresee yourself primarily using this for one year to bridge the gap for your younger, then I wouldn't spend it. There are plenty of games you can get for much cheaper, and the rules for many of the beginner games in RS are available online and can be adapted to work with regular playing cards.

[Btervet]

I don't know of a curriculum or plan that is already laid out for what you want, but DS did a very similar year from 3.5-4.5 yo. I need a plan so that we don't forget things, we have a tendency to find a favorite here and just repeat that over and over. So for us, I made a weekly checklist of math things to do to ensure variety. This is what we did. I'd say it took about 15 minutes a day.

 

3x addition/sub. card games - Go to the Dump, Addition War, etc. We used RS card games for this, but you could do it with regular cards.

2x geometry games - Tangrams, Elements (iPad App)

2x algebra game - Dragonbox (iPad App)

3x skip counting - 5s, 10s, evens/odds

2x math book - Sir Cumference, Life of Fred, others from livingmath.net

4x abacus - My goal for the year was familiarity with this, so we'd do various games, 2-3 mins each time.

 

We also used MEP reception, which was fun and had a lot of silly games. I only pulled it out when he asked, but we got through it over the course of a year. C-Rods and the Abacus were always available for any game/math questions. I highly recommend the ALAbacus from RightStart, it was by far the best tool for number sense we had. 

[Kanin]

I think a year of games is a wonderful idea!

 

Ronit Bird's website and books are absolutely fabulous and have TONS of fun games. They are simple, easy to put together, and so much fun. She generally works with kids that have a math disability, but you can accelerate her work in any way you wish. I love the way she talks about math. http://www.ronitbird.com/

 

I also think cuisenaire rods are a great learning tool, and can be used in all sorts of fun ways. When you turn your back he will probably be building structures with them, which is fun too :)

 

Enjoy! I can't think of a more fun year. Sounds great!

[Miss Tick]

A year of games sounds fabulous.

 

I wanted to mention the Kitchen Table math series to you. It would be a math spine for you, nothing directly for your son, though. I'm thinking that if you spend a year with games and living math he will likely continue to progress and you may want an outline of where to go next, or ideas for introducing new topics. This book presents an order of topics and a few ideas about how to approach each topic. The books are sold on the AOPS site.