WFMW: Teaching My 5 Year Old Math…but Shhh…It’s a Secret

When I took Emmalee a week or so ago for her readiness test for school she did really, really well. In reading, word recognition, patterns, colors, writing her name and so on. But Math? Eh, not so much. So I started trying to come up with quick and fun things we could do together to introduce her to Math more, but without her really knowing. A child with ADHD gets easily distracted (duh) and frustrated (duh) so I knew it would have to be a game of some sort to keep her engaged. So I sat down and came up with a list of things she and I could do together during family school work time (her sisters do homework at the kitchen time while I cook and try to keep Emmalee occupied).

So far so good.. it seems to be pretty interesting to her and she is picking up on things remarkably fast. Here are a few of the fun things we have done so far.

Egg, Rattle and Roll : You take a simple empty egg carton and number the slots with a magic marker, or you could get really fancy and draw numbers on craft paper and cut them into circles and glue in the bottom. Then you take two small objects, we used dry kidney beans, and you throw them in. Then you shut it, rattle it, and then open it to find where the beans have landed. You then have to add the two numbers together and get your number. Then it is your partner’s turn. The one with the highest number wins.

Throw the Dice: This is the same concept as the other, but now you take two big fuzzy dice (we found some similar to these at the Dollar Store for a buck) and you take turns slinging them at the wall like you would when playing dice. Then you add the two dice together. Now they have to recognize the spots instead of seeing an actual number. The more we do this, the more Emma is starting to recognize the dots that make the number rather than counting.

Homemade Number Puzzles: This one is a little more elaborate, but alot of fun. I saw a great tutorial recently at the Crafty Crow from Bethany Actually on number puzzles.  I took her idea and just expanded on it a little bit. First we cut out a piece of construction paper and a piece of sketch paper in the same size (8X8) and then drew 16 – 2X2 boxes on the page (see, I snuck in the use of a ruler and measuring on her too) On the white paper she drew a picture and colored it with crayons and markers. Then on the back of the white paper we put numbers in random order… one number in each box. Then, on the construction paper we did corresponding numbers, only this time we used dots to respresent the number. Then I we cut out Emma’s picture and flipped over the pieces. She then matched the numbered pieces to the corresponding dotted pieces. Once she had the “board” all covered, she flipped over the the pieces to reveal her picture, noticing quickly that one piece was out of place and that she had made a mistake. So she started over and the second time, got it all right! (Remember when numbering the pieces to check and make sure it will look correct when you flip it over…on the first one, all our pieces were backwards)

Good ole fashioned Yahtzee : Yahtzee has always been a favorite of mine, but I wasn’t sure Emma was old enough to get the concept. After a few minutes of showing her what to do, she caught right on. Although I had to help her with what she needed when, it was a great way for her to again see the dice and match up the ones that go together. She also got to practice writing double-digit numbers. When the game was done, I got out the calculator and showed her how to enter the numbers and add up her score.

Homemade number matching game: We used the number puzzle concept and made it into a matching game. Using empty cereal boxes, we cut out as many 2X2 squares as we could. Then we put numbers represented in dots on some, and the corresponding numbers on the other. Then you simply flip them over and play the matching game. The cereal boxes make for pretty sturdy pieces and are easy for her to handle and we recycled!

So that’s just a few things we have been doing. Want some other great ideas? Go see what they’re talking about at Rocks in my Dryer….there are tons of smart people hangin out over there.