Hi, I’m looking for some advice on how to resume the Doman math cards after a long break. I started them with my son when he was about 19 months old. He seemed interested in them for about 2 days, then after that it was a struggle, but by following the advice in Doman’s book (try to keep it fun, go faster, be silly, etc etc) I managed to get through the first 50 cards and had been doing equations for 3 or 4 weeks. I found it frustrating because my son didn’t seem to particularly enjoy it or care much, but I kept trying to figure out a way to get him engaged (with varying success depending on the day). Then my dad, who had been fighting cancer for over a year, took a turn for the worse and passed away, and I didn’t have the energy to continue the math program. For a while I’ve been meaning to pick it up again but am not sure whether to start at the beginning, or just pick up exactly where we left off. I have no evidence that my son got anything from the initial exposure to the dot cards in terms of quantity recognition. He is now 26 months old and I’m worried I’ve waited too long.
Awesome job getting to 50 on the Doman Cards. I didn’t make it past 40 with my dd around the same age 17-18 months. I tried the equations but she never seemed interested. I took about a 2 month break and then I purchased LM and started at Day 1. I have followed the cirriculum and we are now on day 63. Of course it has taken me closer to 3 months to get to day 63, but I am still happy with the success.
I also try to do equations (without any props) by just saying the words, example 2 Plus 2 equal 4. I do these when she is swinging at the park and every push I say a word. She LOVES that. We also jump on the trampoline and we count our jumps. On our daily walks I try to count whatever interests her that day, and maybe find a way to incorporate an equation or two. She seems to pay attention to the math when she is also doing physical activities.
To really answer your questions. If I didn’t have LM - I wouldn’t have started from scratch again. I would just pick up where you left off. Start quantity at 51 and equations using #'s 1-50. From the equations he will re pick up the quantities. Good Luck.
Thanks for the advice. I like your idea about reciting equations out loud. Is your daughter still interested in viewing LM? I try to do some “math play” when we’re doing play-doh or whatever but hadn’t thought of just reciting equations. I would love to get LM – my son is far more interested in the computer screen than flashcards. However, it doesn’t work on Macs and currently that’s what we have for our home computer. I thought about installing it on my work laptop but since that is a blatant violation of corporate security procedures I decided against it! I’m actually considering making a series of Powerpoint presentations to present the dots. It will be a lot of work since I figure I need to literally make slides for each session if I really want to do it right (i.e. showing the 5 cards in a set in a different order each time you show them in a day, so if I’m showing 2 sets of 5 cards, 3 times a day, each day’s presentation would have 30 slides).
Quiet Cricket. Thankfully my dd still likes LM but only 1 very short session a day. I think that is better than what happened with LR where she just cries before it even opens.
Have you looked through the free powerpoint area on brillkids? I thought I saw some dot slideshows that would you could piece together.
I am positive any bit helps even it it doesn’t strictly follow Doman. Good Luck.
I found some powerpoint online from other doman mom’s website. http://worldsbesteducation.org/math.aspx . but i think you are too far ahead that this might not be helpful…give it a try. and yes, also, check the downloads section here. i wish more people would post their dot math presentations. i am dreading the point where i will have to make them.
i really like the idea of doing equations by mouth like someone else suggested.
good job with your son. getting up to equations is pretty good! i hope he enjoys the presentations.
ariel – thanks for that link! That is a great starting point so I don’t have to make the master slides, now I just have to put together each day’s cards in the order I want. As I progress on this project I will post my presentations.