James seems to be at the same place. Counts to 20 Forward ans backwards, skip counts by 10 to 100. Can recognise numerals. Subtitizes to 5. And does basic addition and subtraction with matrix dots and manipulativses.
The way you explained what you just did there emitted nothing from James except his sharp head turn and little “meh” sound he makes when he doesn’t know what to say. So you are no alone with this.
Granted I am not using jump math.
Wolfwind,
My son is about 2 months older than your daughter. He has been able to count to 20 forward and back since about 18 months.He can substitize to 6, and accurately count object to 4 sometimes to 5. We started MEP reception year when he was still one. We didn’t do allt he activities as he wasn’t ready. And still isn’t. He can do simple addition/subtraction with numbers less than 5.
I chuckled when I read your post. While you can do Jump or any other math curriculum at just barely 2, you will have to modify it. We started the same lesson today with my 26 month old, and a 4 y/o with Down Syndrome. We plan on taking the first part of the lesson “How Many” and doing that one all week and part of next. At two, a child doesn’t know that if you rearrange the objects the same number will be there. So, today we used M&M’s and Cheerios and I arranged them in patterns using numbers 1-4, I put them on the table and I counted. Then I rearranged them and said “Now, how many?” and counted and I said “Look it is still three! Hooray!” And then again. We did this over and over for numbers 1-4 and then ate the stuff. By the time we were done the kids knew that no matter how you arrange objects, the number doesn’t change. That is one step. Each day I plan on adding one more number. We are also using the substitizing numbers 1-12 files for LR. The same is true for large circles and little circles. Size is different than quantity. So, you have to figure out how to convey that. But that is ALL we are doing this week.
The next part of the lesson is not going to be a go as they teach it. However, that is ok. The principle is that this is the next concept we need to work on. My son thinks counting is touching objects and saying numbers. It hasn’t clicked yet. So we might spend two weeks on this part of the lesson. If he were a year older this would go much faster. I can teach this by using the Jump example and count and see if he notices, but he won’t. He hasn’t associated the number of objects with counting yet. They are separate deals for him. He likes to touch stuff and say numbers. So, I am going to have him count a lot and we’ll be doing a lot of “Opps, just once.” I might have my oldest son, or my husband count objects and then count too many, and then say something like, "Daddy don’t be silly, we only get to count it once. Like this: " and then demonstrate.A trick we’ve used in the past when working on this concept is counting and moving the object to a different spot. So I put three Cheerios on the left side of his placemat and as we count them we move them to the right side of the place mat. Then I can explain that we already counted those.
Your child is going to have this kind of problem no matter what program you are using - we are talking about just barely 2 year olds and numeracy. I should have stated this in my review of the product. For the little boy I have that just turned 5, we are whipping through these lessons like we are on fire. The other two are going to be hard slogging. So, I am using the teachers manual to get ideas and also to approach my 2 y/o’s math education in a systematic manner. Marshmallow Math gives you great ideas but I would still be teaching too many concepts at once, that is my problem. This breaks it down to each step. The lessons are written for 1st grade so these little tiny increments can be covered quickly when you are older. No so much when you are two, Also, Jump uses a Socratic dialog when teaching math, that is not going to work for a 2 year old, you are going to have to modify. But you are only talking 6-12 months or so of that. You can also put of using the program for a year or so. I am pretty confident in my ability to modify and make it work when I understand the principle. So, it might be harder for you to use, but you are going to run into this now matter what program you use. None of these curriculum providers considered we’d be taking this stuff and using it for 24 month old toddlers. So we might take 3-4 weeks to cover lesson one. It may take longer if he still doesn’t get it. But, that is where we are focusing.
Hope that helps.
I got the same blank stare too, so I adapted it. I started with a small number like 3 and put them in a clear straight line. I counted forward and then went back to the beginning and continued counting. I stopped on “five,” and said, “Is there five here?” Then I got a big fat “no!” I think counting in the circle is slightly confusing at first to demonstrate this concept because a child generally assumes “alright this adult can count so I am sure I am mistaken that she counted wrong.” I just kept adding counters until I was satisfied that they understood me. Then I put them in a circle and did as described in the book. They finally got it.
The games and concepts make me think a lot of Marshmallow math too, but I was kind of all over the place with the concepts. Jump Math has a lot of fun games done in an orderly fashion. My favorite game so far is the problem solving game of using order to solve problems on page B-9 in book one. I decided to do the words to create a message, and we pretended to unlock secret messages. The kids really loved that game, and it worked on their reading too. We also knocked out dot to dot pages and tic tac toe found in the blackline masters. The number puzzles were a little frustrating because I didn’t put all the numbers on one line. I put 1-5 on one line and 6-10 on the next. Then cut it up for them. They kept insisting that the puzzle be put in order in one long line of 1-10. Mommy was wrong and didn’t follow directions. oops. I was pretty surprised by how much we got through in one day. Mine are three and four, and we have been playing with numbers for a few months. My three year old just got the 1-1 correspondence a few weeks ago. I swear counting and counting and counting is what it took for it to happen. I was pretty discouraged for a while there, but finally it clicked.
I will definitely repeat several of the activities again tomorrow. I didn’t do every activity in every lesson as I knew some of the activities were not going to be easily explained to both a 3 and 4 year old. I definitely think my 4 year old could breeze through this faster, but I am working on him following directions more accurately. He likes to rush through things right now, and I am trying to slow him down a little so he can practice excellence. He doesn’t enjoy workbooks, but he is finding the Jump math pages to be enjoyable and just right for his patience and focus.
The biggest hit of the day is definitely the secret message game and it has me thinking of some other fun ideas for this concept…
Thank you all for your responses! I got some great ideas on how to start teaching this stuff, and I’m ready to get to work. I guess I was just hoping someone had found a product that would guide me step-by-step through teaching a two year old math… no such luck. But with your examples, I see how we can adapt this and make it work. Thank you all so much for the reassurance that it is worth the work.
Wolfwind, I am currently using Miquon with my 2.5 year old DS. I started the program right after he turned 2. Miquon is a very hands-on approach for creative problem solving in maths. You will not believe that my son can solve problems like this on his own with cuisenaire rods:
5+2=3+x
5-4=2-x
x5=20
3x=18
and any word problems related to +,-,* in grade 1. Its absolutely brilliant program.
In the beginning, I found it difficult to follow through the Miquon curriculum as it contained multiple booklets like Annotations, first grade diary, orange, red, etc books. But once you get the hang of it, its like sailing in breeze.
I am also using Singapore math as the spine and both the programs complement very well with each other. I am currently perusing the future levels of books in Singapore math where they use bar model for problem solving. Children learning with Cuisenaire rods will find it very easy to transition to this bar model method as both are inter-related.
Hi everyone,
I am very interested in the Jump program I just have a couple of questions.
Kimba
Canadian Version does teach metric system.
I’m not sure if Jump is the going to save a little girl who will do anything but math, but it is low key. The lessons are set up so that it moves in very small increments. The first lesson covers 3 skills. You can cover only one skill or all three. It helps you see that there is more for her to learn than you realized. So, maybe she is having trouble and hates it because she missed something along the way. The way it is taught is pretty fun - low pressure. If you get the teachers material and download the first 40 pages of year one, you can try the program free.
Kimba I also have a little girl (3.5y) who will work hard to avoid maths - maybe we need to start a new thread and / or a support group lol
I haven’t yet started using Jump but I am really hoping that we can work with it. We are using Rightstart at the moment and will continue to use this alongside Jump. I have broken down each lesson into tiny sections with the aim of completing 1-2 during a day. It has required a lot of patience on my part to hold back on my own enthusiasm which can sometimes be counter-productive and a bit overwhelming. I try to be very positive with every small achievement and this does seem to be working.
Today for example our maths activity was for her to show a number from 1-10 on the abacus and then take one away. We did this for 5 numbers (done with her feet btw lol ). And that was it! It sounds so little compared to so many wonderful stories I read on this forum. But I took a long breath and decided that a slow and steady structured process was the best approach for now. Hopefully as she gains confidence in her abilities as well as more concentration skills we will be able to increase how much time we spend on maths. I am taking the same approach to learning piano.
As i skip ahead in rightstart I can see we will soon come to a point where the steps are a bit too big between lessons and we are likely to need to take a break or at least add in a few smaller steps before continuing as per the curriculum . I will carry on using the RS abacus and tally sticks as manipulatives in the meantime.
So this is why the concept of Jump appeals to me so much. It is built on tiny incremental steps which i hope will build confidence and help her learn to take pride in her own maths ability. I also take comfort that Robert Levy’s son did not start till later and did not much like maths to start with! Having looked through the first part of the manual I think I can find ways to teach it, almost certainly we will not follow the suggested scripting, and will use manipulatives as much as possible rather than workbook pages.
I hope that helps - look forward hearing how you get on!
arvi, thanks for the suggestion. I should have said that I was excited to find a FREE program that would teach her math without me making up the lessons; I have heard the Miquon and RightStart are both fabulous, and I’m looking to get one or both sometime when I’ve got the money. But I can do Jump without the workbooks and download the teacher’s manual for free right now, so I hope I make it work.
This topic was in Oct 2012 but just want to say that I have been using Jump math with my kindergarten son. We are using AP Book 1.1.
I really love it. For me, Math is the most difficult subject to teach because I was never good at numbers or math. Jump Math makes me a better Math teacher (for my son).The teacher guide is my life saver. It tells me what to say, what to teach, and how to teach. 
Thank you for alerting us to this very interesting program (love the fact that it is also in French since we are bilingual). I added it to my links to try ‘just in case’ we would hit a snag along the way.
No matter which program you choose, and especially when a child is cognitively well ahead of his age, you will have to make adaptations and use manipulatives for young children, so they get the concepts. You CAN teach 1st grade math to a two year old, but you cannot ask questions as if you were talking to a six year old. You should also adjust your expectations regarding how your child will answer: a child younger than two or two and a half might do better by pointing between two choices, for instance. Even with an older child, I think it is important to present the same information in more than one way, so I would not use only one program, no matter how good it is.
Rivka at acceleratededucation.blogspot.com or http://tinyurl.com/giftedboy