Can I do all the flashing in one sitting? Can I flash 15 times for the quantities during one sitting, or do I have to break it up? And I think I read somewhere that when I start doing addition equations they should be separated also. Can anyone help me out with this, thanks.
mirra had a good post on this earlier in the year:
http://forum.brillkids.com/teaching-your-child-math/dots-method-what's-the-right-order/msg48773/#msg48773
The last line is the answer you are looking for:
so, 3 equations in one session 3 times a day, plus 2 sets of dot cards shown 3 times each set, = 3 times each = 9 sessions.Each sessions seperated by 15 minutes minimum.
I have personally found doing 2 sessions of quantity recognition to be difficult on me in keeping my card sorted so I have 6 sessions a day. 3 sessions of quantity recognition (showing 10 dot cards in a random order) then 3 sessions of equations (showing 3 equations each session and different equations each session).
Breaking it up keeps the sessions short, so the child is left wanting more. And several sessions a day helps keep it fresh in the memory (as opposed to it being another whole day before they see the cards again).
Hope that helps.
Kat
I’d like to agree with Kat on this too. I found a big part of the time issue (and I’m a full-time working mom with a toddler and a newborn) was not the sessions but being organized. Once I got organized I could actually do all the sessions easily. And the shorter the sessions the longer I held my baby’s attention.
So first I got all my equations planned out - I have a link to my math equation schedule in another post which you can download and use if you like. Then every night before going to bed I would organize which cards I"m going to use and lay them out standing up with dividers between each set.
I chose to use the diapering area because when I tried to do the cards in other parts of the house I always got interrupted - by my toddler or my husband or the TV was too loud and it was distracting my daughter… the only private place that no one ever interrupts is the changing area. Anyhow, I know that even though I’m working everyday - I still change her at least once before I go to work, and once when I get home and several times through the evening. So I always did a quick set at the end of diapering.
This is now a routine and my daughter really enjoys it. Now that we’ve been doing this for about 2 months she starts cooing and smiling and trying to talk when I lay her down on the changing area. Her little arms and legs start kicking. I sing her a nursery rhyme or talk to her as much as I can while I am changing her and then at the end I do a quick set. I have my equations hanging on the wall and so I just check them off at the end. And it’s done!
Sometimes if my daughter was hungry or tired she would start to fuss when I started to show the cards and then I would stop right away. But she does that less and less now - and actually now I have found times when she has fussed and acted like she needed a diaper change when in fact she was dry - but when I laid her down to check - she stopped fussing and was happy - so I can only guess this is her way of telling me she wants to do a set. lol It really is a lot of fun. So some days don’t always work out perfectly and I might only get 2 sets of quantity in or maybe 2 sets of equations. I figure that it’s ok and she won’t lack for it - kids get absent from school sometimes and miss info and always get caught up. So I do my best and try to be consistent and if I can’t get it all in in one day that’s ok. The only thing I did do different than Doman suggested was to do 10 dot cards at a time and shuffle them each time so that I showed 3 sets of 10 and then 3 sets of 3 equations - so a total of 6 math sets. But if I felt that I was losing her attention I would stop. Oh and I made the math program a priority and slowed down on starting the reading only because I know that there is a time issue with starting the math but not the reading.
Hope this helps!
Thanks ladies. I will be sure to break it up then. I just wanted to make a video of dot cards for her. She is such a tv watcher. LOVES Tweedlewink, YBCR, baby Einstein, and usually whatever else is on. I have tried doing power point dots with her but she always turns away or looks at me. I’m thinking maybe the screen is too small. So I will still make a video, a long one, with all quantities mixed up and different equations, and just show them a little at a time.
Hello! this complex question. Here it is necessary to think …