My daughter is now 21 months and we’ve been using LM on and off for over a year now. We watch it on 4 days per week because of my work schedule.
She wasn’t that interested at first but I managed to solve that by downloading a whole load of new fun icons. That helped for quite a while and she got quite interested in numbers a couple of months ago and started pointing them out in books and everywhere else getting really excited when she saw them.
But lately whenever I start to play LM she just says “no”. I don’t want to force her so I always turn it straight off - I want her to feel in control of what she learns. At the moment, she’s still happy to watch LR thank goodness.
I have no idea what to try now. It might be that we’ve got as far as we can with LM. I’m not sure where to go next. I don’t think she’s ready for anything like Jones Geniuses and I feel really stuck. I’m happy to move on to something else but I don’t know what to do but I don’t want to lose all the progress we’ve made or her enthusiasm for numbers.
For that age Kumon workbooks are great. My third daughter loved them and she really learned her numbers from them. I highly recommend them.
You can also get workbooks from Target, Walmart, etc and use those.
Another program I love is Touch Math (www.touchmath.com) they have some free worksheets on there and some you can download for a reasonable price. We have their PreK program (got it off of ebay a few years ago) and my 4yr old asks for Touch Math all of the time.
EXACTLY the same thing happened to me! My daughter is now 22 months, and she started saying no to LM at around 20 months. She still loves LR though.
We do the following alternative maths activities:
Doman flashcards - so we learn to count and do addition and subraction etc with the dot cards i’ve created
we use an abacus
we have created a string of 10 beads per string, 500 in total - similar to the montessori method. I count the beads, and then do various maths acitvities with the beads
i’ve created an A3 sized piece of paper with + = ; - =
and then I put beads / beans down and move the beads over to show her how it physically works when you add or subtract
we made huge dice (in the USA you get them for $4 each with a bell in each one). We throw it on the floor, and shout out the number. Then throw the second dice and shout out the number and then add them together.
I really think the thing is to diversify your maths lessons so that they don’t get bored - and to see what works for your little one. I was really nervous that my daughter hated Maths, but when I started doing all these different techniques with her, she has a new-found love for Maths.
Those are great ideas Sarah. Where did you get the dice? Would you mind posting pictures of the beads strings? Or do you happen to have a link to the Montessori method you are referring to? I’m too looking for new math games since my dd doesn’t like LM anymore. She likes the numerals, but not the actual “dots” or whatever shows instead of them.
Hi Joha, If you google soft dice, then hundreds of stores come up who sell them for aorund $4.
I live in darkest Africa (South Africa) and they didn’t have any available here and the shipping would be too expensive from overseas so my mom-in-law made them. It’s great if they have a bell inside, cos it makes it more exciting to throw. The more noise the merrier lol
I will most certainly send you a pic of the beads. I am at work, so when I go home ill take a pic and post it.
In addition to the beads, I also purchased Montessori beads which are smaller and threaded through metal. and then there are individual beads too. These are montessori beads (attached). You basically count individual beads up to 10, then show them that the bead bars are the same size as the individual beads, and then count in tens, build things with it, etc. I am not great at explaining, so if you still don’t understand ill gladly explain again.
I’m so pleased to hear we are not the only ones, I started wondering if I was doing something wrong
It is quite interesting - she has also started refusing the pattern phonics in LR so I wonder if she is not enjoying the flashing of information now.
I also am keen to move away from more passive maths (just looking at the screen) to something a lot more interactive where we learn together. I love the idea of physical maths where she can touch and move objects etc.
Sarah - your ideas are really inspiring. Can I ask how you use your abacus? We have one and I am sure there is a whole lot more we could do with it.
I’m definintely going to look into the bead strings (thanks for the pic) and I LOVE the dice idea.
I’m going to look into the Montessori maths method - did you have any background info on this?
It’s been a while since someone answered this thread, but I wanted to give here a feedback as I’ve read few thread asking similar questions.
Few days ago I stopped LM with our son as he cried when seeing the program opening.
Then, using ideas from the forum, I changed the icons and took icon sets made by parents using LM (balloons, sea creatures, balls, madagascar characters, butterflies thanks for those who created them!) and… it worked! He’s paying attention and, as I express enthusiasm and play a bit while repeating the numbers and what we see and hear, he’s started to enjoy it too.
I have to learn to make my own icon sets as he loves cats, dogs and other things so his interest can be maintained.
