Math for 5 yo

[aletheia]

I'm looking for recommendations for math for my 5 year old.  We school year-round and she started Kindergarten in April.  She flew through Math-U-See Primer, but I don't want to start her on Alpha yet, because I feel she isn't ready for the fact memorization it requires.  I think I want to wait for the fall to start her on that, when she's 6.  Any suggestions of what I could do in the meantime?  I want to encourage her enthusiasm for math without pressure.

[HomeAgain]

Try her with Miquon.  No fact memorization required.

 

Or, you coulld play with MEP year 1.  It goes slow, but quickly. 

[fralala]

Card games, games with dice, living books, playing with c-rods and pattern blocks and logic/spatial reasoning games...my 5 year old loves all of these. Hiding her snack under a cup and telling her it's under the cup on the left and seeing if she can get it on the first try, to work on left/right. Or hiding a few Goldfish and having her predict how many are hidden by counting the ones left.

 

Some resources I like are the books Let's Play Math, Games for Math, and Family Math.

 

I find my kindergartener has already memorized her addition facts to 12 just from our endless games of Enchanted Forest and Snakes and Ladders. And she can subitize with a dice or domino just from playing games. Plus it's easy for a kid to learn to love math when you say to them daily, "Time for math! Want to play Uno or Money Bags?"

 

There are also tons of free and very good computer games for kids if that's a treat for your child-- it is for mine.

[Ellie]

Here's a very basic--and free--arithmetic that you could use with your little person.

[MamaHill]

I ran into this same issue with my then 5yo.

 

We did a lot of fralala's suggestions.  We also played a lot of Sum Swamp, used pattern blocks, played Skip-Bo (the kid or adult version both work well!), Phase 10 (we play as a family and she and I were a team until she could stand on her own) and any and all games with dice or dominoes.  Lots and lots of games.

 

We had the best time!  She also memorized so many of her math facts just from playing so often.  I was shocked at what she retained!

 

 

[Ravin]

Set her up with a Prodigy account. My DS started playing at that age. She might need occasional help reading something, but the actual math part she can click on an icon for it to be read aloud to her, then she'll just need occasional explanations when it throws something new at her.