Can someone tell me what Saxon math is about?
Hmmm. A comprehensive, systematic math curriculum which includes mental math, timed drills, and enough revision embedded into each lesson that they don’t forget anything. The ones we are discussing are from grade 3 up, download the books for later, they are 600 pages each BTW 
I did say comprehensive lol
How close is my description ladies? As a school teacher I think it’s a pretty darn good curriculum.
I have been using this with my 3 year old
http://www.criticalthinking.com/getProductDetails.do?id=06913&code=c
Awesome find! Stored for later. Karma to you Nee1!
OK, after those reviews I’m definitely ordering Marshmallow Math, and downloading the Saxon Math! Thanks so much!
Some people mentioned Right Start. I looked it up, because I know nothing about an abacus and would like a program that teaches it, but it seems to start with first graders. Is it hard to adapt for toddlers?
Loving this thread. And karma to you nee1 for that link!
No it’s not hard to addapt for younger kids. For example one of the first lessons involves you cutting out shapes ( oval, rectangle, square, triangle) then you have them all jump into a pool and discuss the order they jumped in 1st, 2nd, 3rd, last. It does jump quickly into numeral recognition so it may be good to flash a few numerals, to make that easier. It mostly works with fingers and object to represent amounts. They quickly teach instant recognition of numbers up to 5, everything is grouped in 5 with makes it easy to learn.
I think starting as a toddler it would give a good overall grounding in math concepts, it may just take a bit longer. It is very light on the writing, and heavy on manipulatives and very hands on. I am using the first level on my 4 year old, it’s easy for him. It would be FAR too easy for my grade 1 child, although she will join a few lessons where I find something she hasn’t done much off. a number of the concepts in ritstart are in Marshmellow math too. You could use both together, using Marshmellow math to consolidate what is in rightstart.
If you decide on rightstart be aware it may be cheaper to just buy the books and sourse the manipulatives locally. The postage is expensive to my place!
The parents on this thread continue to amaze (and overwhelm) me!
Neither my husband nor myself are very mathematically-inclined, and therefore, our little two year old is very far behind some of your little ones…
Awhile back, due to glowing reports, I ordered Marshmallow Math. So far, we haven’t gone much past chapter one because our son doesn’t talk much, in order to respond to questions outlined in the chapters. We’re also currently doing LM, (with mixed interest).
I really feel that I need to step up our math time A LOT, but upon reading some of your excellent math curriculum suggestions, I feel that they are very accelerated compared to where we are, considering that math has never held much interest for me, so I really haven’t pushed it much.
Does anyone have any math curriculum suggestions to help a mathematically-lazy parent such as myself?
My son has watched counting videos such as Shawn the Train, but I’m really looking for something a little more involved, yet not TOO complicated due to my own apprehension. I know my description sounds very odd and limiting, but did I mention that I’m not wild about math?? 
I guess what I need is something like Teaching Math to Toddlers in a Fun Way for Parents who are Math-illiterate and Very Visual. Any ideas?
Thank you so much for any responses.
Before my son could say the numerals i would him little wooden ones (from a puzzle).
I taught him to sort amounts to correspond with numerals this way. You can use anything. Cheerios, coins, hotwheels, spoons. Mix it up.
Later I would set out amounts and then he would select the correct numeral. It was a lot of fun for us.
And once again I highly recommend mathstart books. Check your local. Library. They are stories that have a little math fun. My son loves them. And I think they are perfect for the non mathematically inclined. The best part is that they have activities in the back.
One books is about matching. And the activity suggests you give you child a basket of sort and have them find all the matches. Perfect if you have lots of baby socks.
Hmm. I am not sure how to embed this. But here is a link of my son a little after he turned 2.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KqIovrXzYE&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Ok… This is really long. Don’t mind my sons shennigans. I recorded this to show my friend a typical math lesson. And to show her, toddlers don’t always sit so still. This was when James was about 27 months. He has learnt a lot since this.
You can skip to 8 mintues to see a second activity, then to 10:30 to see the third activity.
Note: I have ammended my vocabulary since this video. Numerals are called numerals, and amounts are called amounts. I seldom use the ambigiiously worded “numbers”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnOaPMzYbZg&feature=youtube_gdata_player
OK… I hope these links work. They are on my Facebook. I tried to make them public so I could share them.
Matching socks based on the mathstart book A Pair of Socks by Stuart Murphy
First time teaching James to count. I made a counting chain for him. Until this was taken he had only be taught to subtitize, but had mild exposure to counting.
Almost 2 months ago. James doing his first equation. This is the first time I introduced it to him.
Korrale4kq - those videos are great - lots of ideas there. Unfortunately, the links to the videos on your facebook page didn’t work. Can you try uploading them again when you get a chance please?
Sharpie - your post made me laugh, you are a kindered spirit! I feel like that too. I have Marshmallow Math but I’ve done very little with it also. I’ve ordered some of the Math Start books as we love to read so at least I know I will do that with my daughter. I’m determined to develop our maths activities though - maybe we can encourage one another!
Sure seastar. I am trying to put them together on my blog. So hopefully I can just link that.
I have a lot of editing to do… Just started the new blog so I can focus it more. And keep it neat and streamlined. Here are a few videos of things I do with James for math. All videos are taken between 25 and 29 months.
i love the videos …thank you so much for sharing…i will be doing this with my baby…
Sharpie, I also am not all that fond of teaching math lol I know how to, and what to focus on in what order BUT that doesn’t mean I am keen to actually do it. I like math when the kids get to third grade lol counting bores me I like a challenge.
Anyway you have Marshmellow math, and I really think that is what you should start with. So it really doesn’t matter that your child is preverbal. They don’t need to reply, you just need to demonstrate. So read a lesson each morning ( while you have your morning coffee) the idea is to extract the point of the lesson. Is is sorting, is it counting, is it addition or one to one correspondence ( yep too big words… :unsure: ) once you know what the point is spend the day showing that to your child in as many different ways as you can think of. Counting apples, Lego, birds, plates, balls… Sorting by colours, shapes, size, weight… Just do a few short activities while your child is watching. If they are able let them join in, even if you have to tell then where to put things and give them all the answers. These first skills are critical to future success and once they have them you will be amazed at how quickly your child gets to where these kids are. So basically use your copy of Marshmellow math, wipe the dust off and be creative interpreting it. If you get to a lesson you need to adjust post here for ideas.
seastar – glad (and oddly encouraging) to know that we are kindred spirits in the math department! Our library has one of the MathStart books so borrow it and see if my son likes it before purchasing. Please let me know if you come up with any brilliant ideas, and I will as well, (though I’m sure that is less likely on my part. )
Mandabplus3 – I will indeed begin incorporating Marshmallow Math into our daily routine, beginning tomorrow. Thanks for the ideas! Because my son loves to read books with me, (a large part of our day), I can become easily discouraged when he doesn’t seem interested in something, but I will push forth and demonstrate the lessons as you suggest, holding onto the hope (and being reminded) that even though he may not be completely enthralled, he is still learning. And frankly, if I am able to implement what you recommend, I think he actually will show great interest.
Korrale4kq – great videos, thank you so much for posting! It helps enormously to actually watch a lesson in action. I plan to replicate your ideas with my son.
Well sharpie, I’ve started! Like mandabplus3 recommended, I dusted off my MM book and read the first lesson again. Here is a very simple idea I tried for lesson 1:
We had fruit salad after lunch and I filled her bowl little by little. I just kept asking her how many pieces of each fruit she wanted and to say the amount and show me on her fingers. Then as I added them to her bowl, I would say an addition sum, e.g. 3 raspberries plus 5 strawberries equals 8 pieces of fruit etc. I also asked if she wanted her pieces cut in half, quarters or left whole. At then end we held up our empty bowls to show zero fruit. Educational and tasty!
I have read and re-read this thread and the other one about math for two year olds and am quickly becoming excited about teaching math.
seastar – excellent – I’m going to try that at dinner! We’re a little sluggish during the weekend, so though I fully plan to “get mathy” today, it hasn’t happened yet. Although, after lunch, my son brought a basket full of decorator fruit to the table and started emptying it methodically. I quickly started counting each piece with great enthusiasm. And then again as he filled it and emptied it again. He seemed to love it, though, in part I’m pretty sure it was because he knew he was prolonging having to take a nap! He got a good 10 extra minutes out of me.
Kerileanne99 – I aspire to do 1/8th of what you do! I would also like to take you up on your offer from a similar thread to suggest which route(s) I might take with my two year old, considering you have so much experience with many different curricula. I just don’t have the natural proclivity to come up with off-the-cuff math ideas throughout the day. I definitely need some kind of structure. Preferable structure that isn’t too expensive! RightStart? MEP? MathTacular? TouchMath? Miquon Math? Others? The number of choices is just a little bit overwhelming as someone else noted. Perhaps try MEP first because it’s free?
mybabyian – I just fired up the laminator to make a cylinder – great idea!
Sharpie-
Don’t fret! It wasn’t until December of last year that I found BrillKids! Up until that point I was pretty much on my own, and I hadn’t started any math at all! Everyone starts somewhere, and I was completely ignorant in maths for toddlers!
For the record, we had our first official ‘lesson’ the other day! Everything else has been completely informal and very-much play-based!
We started with ‘Marshmallow Math’ and it was very much our standard!!! We didn’t so much go lesson by lesson as I read the whole book and incorporated as much as possible into our daily life, as well as used it for inspiration!
It was only after this that she was ready for JonesGeniuses and then RightStart, with lots of Singapore Math concepts tossed in depth, and Marshmallow Math ideas ideas throughout the day for interest!!!
So it sounds as though all we do day in and day out is math, but although we seem to weave it into every activity, it actually is not an ovwpetwhelming portion of our day!
Quite easily doable, even for those not completely enthralled in math…
One thing I would highly recommend! Instead of going through Marshmallow Math lesson by lesson? Read or skim all of the lessons, and incorporate as many as possible into your day-to-day activities! Many of them can be grouped according to topic, and thus combined…
One note…
Although we love so many of the ideas from Jones Geniuses, especially hose involving speed reading qnd memory, if you are looking for a simple, dy-to-day program? Go with RightStart as the lessons are laid out day-to-day qnd require minimal (if any, preparation!).
The material inMarshmallow math will really prepare toddler/parent for RS, although I do highly recommend buying/ perusing programs well in advance as you can greatly enhance the pace they proceed through the material with a bit of foresight!
So, in a nutshell! If you have a toddler, six months or older? Buy the Mashmallow Math book, read it in it’s entirety, and incorporate as many ideas into your day as possible!
This will make the transition to ‘proper math’ virtually painless!!,
Remember, while we actually do little, if any, ‘formal’ math per day… We incorporate math concepts and ideas Everywhere!!!
At nap time and bedtime reading! We look at the Table of Contents to read PlaceValue…we take turns reading (she reads all odd numbered pages and Mommy reads Ll even-numbered pAges,).
So many Math concepts! I don’t even know how she does it!! Mostly games, and play…it is more a about training mommy and daddy to be creative and diligent n their teaching!!!
It truly becomes away of life very quickly…