I am teaching my 9 month old math, though you don’t see many results at this age. But what I love about that post is this portion:
“He must be able to manipulate the numbers in his head, he must know them front and back, knowing not only the number but its relation to other numbers, knowing that “fifty” is half of 100 and 1 less than 51 and 30 less than 80. He must know that “twenty eight” is a third of 94 and half of 56, that it’s the product of 2 and 14, and 7 and 4, that it’s the sum of 20 and 8 and the difference of 30 and 2. If it’s all in his head, he’ll have it for life, and he must get to that point before he loses the ability to “see” quantity.”
To me, this is a goal worth working for. I know that 50 is half of 100 and twice 25, but that 28 is a third of 94? Not a chance. But the numbers I do know well, like 50, I can use to understand any arithmetic nearby - if you ask me 2x52, I’ll double 50 and add 4, because those are the numbers I know intimately. To know all the numbers below 100 that intimately, I feel, would be very useful. Not just basic math, but advanced math and science would come more easily - imagine how much easier stoichiometry would be with this sense of numbers!
But dots alone are not enough for that. I think that’s the point of that post and something many people don’t realize in reading How to Teach Your Baby Math. (I didn’t!) Once you’ve done the dots and the four basic arithmetic functions, then comes the most important part, which Doman titles “Number Personalities.” Work with the numbers over and over, in as many creative ways as you can come up with, until your child know them backwards and forwards, as it says in the post. The benefit of doing the dots as early as possible is to give more time to get to know number personalities during the “window of opportunity” before the ability to perceive quantity disappears.
Doman doesn’t do a good job giving tools for this part of the job, in my opinion. When I finish the dots and division in two weeks, I’m going to have to look hard for ideas about how to help a 10 month old get to know numbers. (I’m glad there’s a thread in this forum on the subject right now!) But it is the most important part.
So for me, the work to do the number dots is worth it. (Actually, I didn’t find it to be that much work. A few marathon dot card-making sessions, true. And finding six different 10-second times a day to show them for three months.) But I don’t know whether I’ll get the theoretical results I’m looking for. Just like with reading words at this age, really. I find it fun, she enjoys it, so we do it, regardless of the result. I hope it turns out like I think it will, but if not, it will have been worth it to me to spend the time doing fun learning together.
