bakpak Posted October 27, 2012 Share Posted October 27, 2012 Hey there...my DD turned 3 in August and started Montessori about a month and a half ago. I just met with her teacher and she commented that my DD is probably ready to start multiplication, but she's not going to let her for awhile, instead making sure she's very well grounded in place value and do more skip counting work. I was very surprised about the multiplication remark, although my DD has definitely been more interested in math than language/reading lately, pretending addition and subtraction quite a bit on her own even. I'm happy with her getting a nice solid grounding before moving on, but it looks like she might be ready within a month or so (??). I'm sure some of you have kids who were speeding through math at 3. Did they do fine starting multiplication that young? Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YourFidgetyFriend Posted October 27, 2012 Share Posted October 27, 2012 My daughter went to a Montessori until I started homeschooling her this year for 1st and she started doing the beads and skip counting her first year at 3 and could do 1-digit by 1-digit multiplication shortly after starting. I never had to "teach" her multiplication per se it just followed very naturally from there so it was never a problem. As long as they aren't drilling facts, I think it's fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kiana Posted October 27, 2012 Share Posted October 27, 2012 The only issue would be imo if there were an inappropriate emphasis on fact-drilling rather than just fun problems like 'if there are six children, and each has two cookies, how many cookies are there?' Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wapiti Posted October 27, 2012 Share Posted October 27, 2012 (edited) . Edited January 12, 2016 by wapiti Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Storm Bay Posted October 27, 2012 Share Posted October 27, 2012 I have one who has adamantly refused to memorize his math facts & still skip counts at times, so I have very mixed feelings about doing a lot of skip counting before mulitpilcation. While he has memorized most of his facts in spite of himself, he hasn't memorized them all. Of course, he wasn't doing arithmetic (what this actually is :)) at 3 as he is a 2E child who didn't learn to count until he was older than 3 & we did 2 days of Brain Gym which wired that part of his brain for him. Do avoid drilling at that age as learning should be fun & child led at that age. My girls know their facts, but not ever by drilling; in fact, that was something homeschooling taught me. I had to drill to memorize my multiplication tables (I was great at every other part of arithmetic and later with math), but it doesn't work for all dc and not for preschoolers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bakpak Posted October 27, 2012 Author Share Posted October 27, 2012 Thanks everyone. Yes, there's plenty more addition/math works she hasn't done yet that can strengthen her math prior to multiplication. I think she's INTERESTED in jumping to the multiplication level works as well, which is possibly why the teacher mentioned it. I'll trust the teacher, as she seems to be getting a handle on how quickly my daughter learns. I'm glad she's having fun and enjoying it! We've been playing skip counting games in the car for awhile now, so she's familiar with the concept already. It will be good for her to do it visually with the bead work. I got out some Cuisinaire rods recently (I've not used them before) and she's mostly interested in building things with them (towers, letter shapes, houses), so maybe I'll just let her do the math work at school and not supplement. I just like to keep up with her interests! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Storm Bay Posted October 27, 2012 Share Posted October 27, 2012 I got out some Cuisinaire rods recently (I've not used them before) and she's mostly interested in building things with them (towers, letter shapes, houses), so maybe I'll just let her do the math work at school and not supplement. I just like to keep up with her interests! Let her play with them even if she doesn't use them for math as they are still great for spatial relationships & if you ever do think you need to use them for math, she'll get it faster.:001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
serendipitous journey Posted October 27, 2012 Share Posted October 27, 2012 ...I'm sure some of you have kids who were speeding through math at 3. Did they do fine starting multiplication that young? ... We started math then, but Button didn't really zip along into multiplication; he wasn't interested. I agree with the PPs that if she is having fun, and isn't being drilled, than exploring multiplication doesn't seem harmful, and I wouldn't keep her from work she's interested in if it is fun for her. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OSUBuckeye Posted October 29, 2012 Share Posted October 29, 2012 Just ask the cookie questions in the car when she seems ready and curious. Each of us wants three cookies. How many total do we need? I baked 16 cookies, how many can each of us eat if we share? Even odd amounts work. Kids love solving this hypothetical dilemma by splitting the last cookie among all of us (fractions and remainders!, but these concepts can wait, lol) Creature legs are another kid-approved verbal example. How many legs do mommy and daddy have? How many legs do three dogs have? (12) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scarlett Posted October 30, 2012 Share Posted October 30, 2012 Hey there...my DD turned 3 in August and started Montessori about a month and a half ago. I just met with her teacher and she commented that my DD is probably ready to start multiplication, but she's not going to let her for awhile, instead making sure she's very well grounded in place value and do more skip counting work. I was very surprised about the multiplication remark, although my DD has definitely been more interested in math than language/reading lately, pretending addition and subtraction quite a bit on her own even. I'm happy with her getting a nice solid grounding before moving on, but it looks like she might be ready within a month or so (??). I'm sure some of you have kids who were speeding through math at 3. Did they do fine starting multiplication that young? Thanks. I 'caught' ;) my ds doing multiplication at age 4. It blew. my. mind. So yeah, some kids just 'get it' earlier. He is 12 now and still doing very very well in math, but I did spend a lot of time cementing the concepts with him....place value is vital. My mom was a specialist in teaching math to younger elementary and she gave me a lot of help in teaching it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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