I’m rather late to the early learning approach; stumbled on Brillkids when looking into music education for the kids. (Ended up buying Little Musician, which both kids love.)
Now I’m considering math, partly because my husband really wants to push our 6 year old daughter. This is a little of a sore subject for me, because I am the daughter of a physicist and to his life-long dismay, I’ve never been good at math. Having bad memories of being drilled at the dinner table, I’d been planning to leave math education up to the school system.
I only looked into Little Math because I liked the music program so much, but seems like we’ve probably missed our window for using it.
Can anyone recommend a good resource that would help me understand how we can help our 3 and 6 year old kids learn math? They are bilingual and at a french school, so getting a french preschool curriculum.
A good overview book on the topic would be terrific, as I’m feeling a little overwhelmed by all the apps, flashcards, workbooks, etc that are mentioned in this forum. Thank you!
Yes marshmallow math is a great place to start. If you like more detail then choose kitchen table math instead! either one is great.
For your six year old you will get the most benefit from memorising math facts. Rightstart math have a great selection of card games you can play. Have fun while memorising math facts. A lot of their games are on YouTube. So check them out. We love Go to the dump best of all
Times tables can be easily taught using memorise in Minutes stories, but do addition and subtraction math facts first. Memorised to at least 10.
While playing use lots of manipulative to help solve the problems. My girls love cherios and plastic diamonds best, but my son loved counting with his abacus and matchbox cars.
rightstart math , will work for both kids. Excellent program . I am really happy with my kids math skills . and they work with math effortlessly . if when you get it you feel like wanting more practice get them dreambox computer based math program that goes very well with rightstart . xxx viv
Wow, this is VERY helpful. Love that JUMP math is in French (yay Canada)
Marshmallow Math is avail on Kindle for $3 so that’s easy. JUMP seems to start for grade 1 (my daughter just turned 6 and is in K), but I might start by reading John Mighton’s book the End of Ignorance.
Re Rightstart math, any thoughts on how needed/valuable the physical abacus is? I think we will look into the games.
Lastly, any experience with the Cuisenaire rods? I came across them because someone had mentioned Miquon math in another thread, and my husband remembers them fondly from his childhood. The rods are avail on Amazon, but not clear to me where one finds activity guidance for them.
Thanks again for these suggestions!! I’m rather thrilled by the thought that the kids could avoid my own stereotypically “I don’t like math” childhood.
My top pics for maths , in order of preference, are:
Curriculum - We are using Singapore Maths, which I love. I tried Saxon K but I didn’t like it.
DVDs - Mathtacular DVDs are great. I set my 4 year old up at her table with her maths manipulative and let her work along with the DVD
Living Math books - this is probably my favourite option for ease of use. Check out Math Start books, Sir Cumference etc. If you search for these on Amazon, you will find lots of other suggestions.
Cuisinaire rods - check out the free videos on www.educationunboxed.com for ideas on how to use them. I just got them and my 4 year old loves them. They can be used from approx age 2 early number sense right up through multiplication, division and fractions.
Music - I use Peter Weatherall maths music cds in the car.
Apps - Euro Talk Maths
Books - check out Kitchen Table Maths - I found this better than Marshmallow Math.
All of these would be suitable for both of your kids. Good luck!
