I have introduced the Miquon worksheets as funsheets for my son who is 2.9 months old. So, everyday he asks for that. For the past few days, we are working on the divison equations. Until now, we have worked direct problems like 9 ÷3, 27 ÷3, 14 ÷2 etc. The last division sheet for the 1st grade curriculum involves complex problems that I hesitated to give it to my son (as I don’t know how to explain those in simple terms). But he insisted today. So, I gave it to him and was asking him to solve simple problems like 5 ÷1, 36 ÷6, etc.
But he chose the complex ones. The first problem was x ÷3=3. I was scratching my head on the other side as how to explain this equation. My son quickly said, “Mummy, that is 3 times 3”. I am like what? I thought that must be a fluke and this time I gave him x ÷2=7. Again he promptly replied “Mummy, that is 2 times 7”. This time I was completely dumb-struck and gave him few more problems and he solved them all quickly.
I thought teaching sign reversals would be too abstract at this age. But Miquon seems to do wonders.
Arvi,
Congratulations to mummy and LO! It sounds as though Miquon is a perfect fit for him!
I couldn’t have envisioned that LOs could possibly make such abstract connections either, but as Alex was memorizing her times tables she seemed to just intuitively understand the correlation between multiplication/division…maybe because we taught addition/subtraction as opposites and stressed the number bonds?..
Anyway, I found this game on YouTube called 'Sixty second sweep, which has the kids practice their multiplication tables ‘backwards’…ultimately factoring such that division naturally is learned at the same time…since he already obviously understands, this might be a fun challenge for him! This is currently Alex’s favorite game, although she cannot come close to 60 seconds! Still, she is determined!
If anybody else is using the multiplication.com materials, I made the ‘sixty-second sweep’ printable using the RB pictures from the facts stories in place of the numbers to get Alex started…it made a wonderful transition, as she was soon able to drop it and move on to just number…PM if you would like it.
Awesome. At age 2 I was wondering how much algebra kids would manage, due to the logical nature. I guess you found out they don’t always answer it with logic but use patterns instead! Very clever.
You may as well teach him square roots now
I thought about this over night and thought explaining why it works (this particular function) might be a bit complex since it involves fractions, but, the main thing is figuring out the shortcut/relationship. Either way, it’s impressive. And so impressive that when I told my wife at dinner about this post, she said “I call bull****”… she also said she hopes Cub “isn’t like that”… man I’m in for a rough ride
:closedeyes:
Thanks for the post! I look forward to trying out the worksheets when the time is right
I am wondering how to teach maths to my 27 m/o girl as she wont do LM;
we stopped at day 70+ & she just refused to continue with LM.
Any good suggestions/ways to help us, as I am almost at dead-lock,
not wanting her to lag in maths.
Btw, she can sight read more than 300 words in English/Chinese &
quite good at memorizing stuff…
But when I on LM, she would roll on the floor :wacko:
Manda!
Thanks lol
I borrowed your tip to Arvi about teaching squares and square roots right along side, and you wouldn’t believe how easy it was
Since she already knows the multiplication facts, I simply used a piece of graphing paper with one inch by one inch squares. I outlined all of the perfect squares and had a quick review via coloring in the area of the facts…I then simply showed her ‘a fast way of writing’ the notation for perfect squares, and we sang along with the Special Quadrilateral song from YCCD lol and then covered up all the squares with 1 in colored tiles. (As opposed to 1 in cubes, which we played with later to show 3d and volume.)
All in all, It then literally took 10 minutes to show squares and the square root was (only of perfect squares, which shall have to be enough for now!)! She said, “oh, you just do it inside out”. Uugghh, okay, but she understands what she means…
And still, what math lesson would be complete without a potty break, a play with her marble run, and a spontaneous, wild spin around the room. As well as the inevitable collapse and hysterical giggling over the joys of careening dizzily about the room in a tutu, rain boots, and a stethoscope? lol
Yikes! I Love EL and this forum for its encouragement and ideas…
Haha. Your math lessons are similar in some ways. No tutus here.
James starts a lesson on the other side of a tray that I sit between us on the floor. He sits so straight and is attentive. A few minutes in he is trying to stand on his head. Then he tumbles and few times, grab his bike and does a few laps, takes a potty break, brings me a bunch of cars and sits down for more requested math.
Always fun times.
Try it with a room full of 3 year olds! lol lol lol
Wouldn’t give it up for the world would we?
Good work on the square roots Alex ( ps you just passed grade 3 math :biggrin: ) the tutus were the perfect touch
I assume you have already done a good deal of fractions but I am mentioning it since its sort of similar thinking to square roots in a child’s mind. It’s dividing things into parts. Memorising that 3/4 is the same as 75% is the same as 0.75 at age 2/3 would be handy for later. It stumps and slows up a whole lot of big kids :yes:
Poker dad yep screwed! lol your baby will SOOOO be doing this too :biggrin:
Please accept this as a huge thank you.
On all topics.
Thanks for personalising your EL journeys.
If you can do it so will we.
There is nowhere else where we can get this level of support and information.
And I appreciate the doggard sort of just do it advice.
In our daily experience there so many people who advise against extending babies.
I am trawling through Brillkids everyday texting and phoning my daughters about the great stuff I find here.
I don’t want to miss anything.
How it jells with me, is that I have always believed in each baby’s potential from birth and before.
If I had known this thirty years ago …
But we know it now and we are acting on it.
It makes me feel that we are ‘behind’ because my 3 year old is ‘only’ working on quantity, numerals and making number lines :ohmy: We took a maths break over the holiday and I am regretting it - his poor brain is having to work really hard to remember things that were ‘easy’ a month ago. Now that we’re getting back into routine ‘lessons’ we’ll be working on square roots in no time lol
Latreia:
Have you tried changing the LM setting to show the dots in grids rather than randomly? Older toddlers like to see order and patterns and this will make it easier. Try using the ‘numbers’ and ‘math’ tabs to do short sessions learning the number facts. If she still doesn’t want to watch, try moving on to using physical counters and songs and games instead.
Kerileanne and Korrale4q:
You make me feel like a big old meanie - I make Nikki sit up at the table to do our Saxon/MEP lessons :wub: He does have to make the daily pattern from coloured ‘transport’ counters and blocks (which he sets out as garages for the counters to drive/fly/sail to, complete with sound effects :rolleyes: ) but otherwise he does a whole 5-15 minutes rather studiously :ohmy:
It does make him rather full of beans after the fact - yesterday I learnt that he should be dressed before doing any lessons - he spent ten minutes literally jumping around the bathroom while I was trying to get him out of the house on time for playgroup! :laugh:
Great update Arvi! Congratulations! You must be Thank you for mentioning Miquon math. We’ll definitely look into it.
Thanks for the 60 second sweep game. Having done RB multiplication, Cammie recalls the answers fast but needs “reminders” in answering division. I think this game is just what we need!
Now that Little Math is mentioned, I wish it could have fractions, decimals, or even abacus lessons too. It has great potential for these!
Thanks all again for your tips, resources and encouragement! After 3 days break, we did the remaining problems in the worksheet and my son was giving correct solutions to all the problems. I didn’t believe that my son would be able to do that after few days break but little ones disprove it all the time. This is just for the record.
Manda, you’re very correct about the pattern identification. My main math goal for my son was to be able to identify patterns in math and so far I have been successful.
But I will let you know what we did. Right from 4months old on, LO has been eagerly watching the Doman dot cards. He was in fact little less interested in word cards. He used to giggle, laugh and enjoy when the dot cards were shown. In the beginning, I used Doman dot cards in black. When his interest waned, I used red dot cards. When his interest waned again, I put up the equations on the wall and would show it to him daily. Likewise, we had several backup plans: powerpoint slides, powerpoint slides with his pictures, powerpoint slides with his favourite animals, etc.
I bought Little math recently because I thought he would still benefit from the dots. After about 50 lessons, he lost his interest. But I installed other languages in LM and since then he is so eager to watch the dots. Once he loses his interest in other languages, I will think of other methods.
I introduced some Montessori style math methods When he was 18months. After he turned 2, I started doing Miquon math with cuisenaire rods. This is one of the best investment in my opinion. I was also doing Marshmallow + Kitchen table style math throughout the day. Hope this helps.
MummyRoo, not a meanie at all.
James will eventually need some more structure. His reading gets a bit more structure as I have been pushing him a bit more with it lately because we plateaued.
Yep Mummy Roo, definitely not meanie!
A time and a place! Alex wants to do different math activities all day, so many of them are chaotic!
BUT: she also has a daily sit-at-the-table lesson doing worksheets and Abacus work! It is great she has fun, but I also think it is vital that she learn to concentrate and focus!!!
Talk about mean :biggrin:
She has been known to be up there for quite a long time!
Keep up the good work! Just devoting time to it and showing her that it is an important part of the day will pay off in spades…
