The kids’ favourite festival, Lunar New Year, is approaching real soon and they’re getting crazy over lion dance, dragon dance and drums again. When a child is motivated to figure out something that matters to him, he’d be hungry to learn. No need for any worksheets, assessment books or tests. We happened to be at […]
[Math] Solving real math problems again Read More »
Since attending Primary 1, Vee has little time for home practice. Nevertheless, learning takes place anytime anywhere, so here’s how he got to solve 3 real math problems yesterday: 1. Me (on the way home): “How much water did you drink today?” Vee: “2 and a half bottles!” Me: “Wow, let’s find out how much
[Math] Solving REAL math problems Read More »
Years ago, I bought 5 packs of wooden chopsticks from Daiso as math manipulatives. Today I challenged Vee to solve IQ math using chopsticks arrangements. E.g. 12 sticks form 4 squares in the picture. How to move 4 sticks to form 3 squares? (In puzzle books, toothpicks are commonly used. But I find chopsticks much
[IQ math] with chopsticks Read More »
A fellow mummy gave me half a tray of kampung eggs. The hospitality among Malaysians is amazing! Anyway, the eggs sparked off some rather interesting conversations & learning: – our commercially-farmed eggs (on the left) are brown; the kampung eggs are pale. Why?!? – the kampung eggs are taller than our regular eggs. Why?!? –
Egg science & math Read More »
While spring-cleaning, I found a huge piece of quilted cloth that my mum made for Vee when he was a baby. Makes a great playmat for all of us now! One of the first things we did was to figure out how many squares there were. 4yo Jae was really fast cos he’s been
Math is everywhere Read More »
Recently, the younger kids love it when I sing “Ten Green Bottles”. So I was inspired to make a set of materials on this topic. The materials cover math quantity, numerals and senses / memory games cards. 1. Flashcards I drew one green bottle and replicated it. These are printed on A4 (or you may
Free flash cards – math & games (Ten Green Bottles) Read More »
Vee has been able to understand time rather well quite some time back, maybe at 4-5 years old. And I realised it’s a very useful skill for a child. Here’s what we do to learn about time: 1. Flash cards To teach time, it’s important to use the analog clock instead of digital clock. This
Here’s more on blending right brain and Montessori math. After practising with addition and subtraction using the Hundred Board, Vee is still keen to learn more math. (He chose the math tray from the shelves.) So I’m showing him how to solve similar equations using Montessori math beads. Some notes: I love Montessori beads because they’re very attractive
Easy math with Montessori beads Read More »
I often get enquiries on how to teach toddlers and preschoolers math. So here’s more sharing on what we do in an easy and fun way… Usually, we do “right brain” math over breakfast. For instance, yesterday, I rolled 10 bread bits, showed them to El and said, “This is 10.” When doing “right brain” math, there
“Right brain” math at breakfast Read More »
Here’s another simple activity that blends right brain and Montessori math… 1. Use a thick marker pen to write numerals on small pieces of card stock. Jae and I worked on 0 to 10 first. Make 2 sets of such cards. 2. Invite the child to stick the corresponding number of dot stickers onto the
Right brain & Montessori math [Part 2] Read More »