L randomly tells me, usually a few times per day, some math fact she's figured out for the fun of it.
The other day, she told me "2+2+2 is 6," and she's been doing that kind of multiplication for a while. But then she told me how she came to that conclusion. She said, "Because 3 plus 3 is 6, so you take 2 out of one 3, 2 out of the other 3, and that leaves 1 and 1 which is 2. So you have three 2s and that makes 6."
Well, yes, that most certainly works! And that's a far more abstract way of figuring it out than just counting on your fingers!
She's not always so open about what her process is. She likes to figure things out, like if there are 12 ice creams how many does each kid get, but she doesn't usually like to show how she's doing it. She will count in her head and discretely use her fingers, and I sometimes have to resist the urge to help her because I'm not sure if she's really figuring it out... but then she comes up with the answer!
Showing posts with label numbers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label numbers. Show all posts
Saturday, March 22, 2014
Friday, June 3, 2011
More Numbers
I think it was last week that I posted the link to the addition game E has been playing. After that we started talking about fractions while cooking and I showed her the fractions game on that site. She's been enjoying the games there and has been doing math problems in a workbook. She gets a bit frustrated, but she just keeps pushing herself to do it. A few days ago, she wrote out 10 or so addition problems for herself on a piece of paper. It's like she wants to master it right NOW. I've been using blocks to give her a visual of the problems, which has helped for the problems where the answer is greater than 10 (can't use her fingers).
Today, we were at the breastfeeding support group and there is a blackboard in the room. I drew a line down the middle so she could draw on one side and L could draw on the other and I said something like "there now you each have your own half." She said, "Mom! That's half, like on the game!" so I wrote 1/2 for her and we added 1/2 plus 1/2. Then I erased that line and divided the board into thirds, wrote 1/3 and we added 1/3 plus 1/3 plus 1/3.
For a while, I thought she was so close to reading, and she is still learning how to write more letters and learning more sounds all the time, but lately her interest has been more geared towards math.
I talk so much about E because she is older and doing more, but L has been counting to 10 for a while now, memorized, and also counting objects up to about 4. She learns so much just by listening to E and I!
Today, we were at the breastfeeding support group and there is a blackboard in the room. I drew a line down the middle so she could draw on one side and L could draw on the other and I said something like "there now you each have your own half." She said, "Mom! That's half, like on the game!" so I wrote 1/2 for her and we added 1/2 plus 1/2. Then I erased that line and divided the board into thirds, wrote 1/3 and we added 1/3 plus 1/3 plus 1/3.
For a while, I thought she was so close to reading, and she is still learning how to write more letters and learning more sounds all the time, but lately her interest has been more geared towards math.
I talk so much about E because she is older and doing more, but L has been counting to 10 for a while now, memorized, and also counting objects up to about 4. She learns so much just by listening to E and I!
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Learning to add
She started figuring out how to add. It was so unexpected. We were stopped at a red light, and she noticed that there were two lights in front of us, and two turn signal lights off to the side. She said, "Mommy, look! Two lights and two lights. There's four!" And she put two fingers up from her right hand and two from her left hand and put them together in front of her. So, we've been looking at other things now and then that we can put together. She mostly notices it with the stop lights for some reason. She was also doing it with some poker chips a few nights ago. I've pointed it out 2 or 3 times when I noticed something she was doing that she was adding together, but mostly she's been noticing it herself.
It's interesting because she can't count to 20 yet, and only counts to 10 without a mistake about half the time. Which is interesting in itself because for a while she could do that, but she seems to have forgotten. But I have read that often kids will seem to lose old skills when they are picking up new ones and then suddenly get them back. Anyway, it just goes to show that the "pre-requisites" for certain skills aren't necessarily required.
She will say things like "Look, mom, two and one makes five." But with her fingers she'll be doing two on one hand and one on the other hand to make three. So, she is starting to grasp the concept, but doesn't always have the right word to match with the number of items. So I'll just smile and say "Yep, three!" and she agrees with me like she knew that all along, because that's what she meant after all, just not what she said. Or maybe she really did mean five, but she trusts me when I say three. It's all relaxed and fun and there won't be a test, so it's easy to just make a mistake and then learn something new and move on.
It's interesting because she can't count to 20 yet, and only counts to 10 without a mistake about half the time. Which is interesting in itself because for a while she could do that, but she seems to have forgotten. But I have read that often kids will seem to lose old skills when they are picking up new ones and then suddenly get them back. Anyway, it just goes to show that the "pre-requisites" for certain skills aren't necessarily required.
She will say things like "Look, mom, two and one makes five." But with her fingers she'll be doing two on one hand and one on the other hand to make three. So, she is starting to grasp the concept, but doesn't always have the right word to match with the number of items. So I'll just smile and say "Yep, three!" and she agrees with me like she knew that all along, because that's what she meant after all, just not what she said. Or maybe she really did mean five, but she trusts me when I say three. It's all relaxed and fun and there won't be a test, so it's easy to just make a mistake and then learn something new and move on.
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