Math games

The more I homeschool, the more I realize that it truly doesn't have to be "school at home" While I'm certainly not going to jump off the dock into unschooling- (Sorry Miranda!)- I've found a wonderful Math program- Math Their Way What's even better- I actually found it on Paperback Swap for FREE! Ben's Aunt Pam recommended Math their Way to me- she used to teach math and science in public schools, and said if I ever came across it to use it. Well, I looked a bit when Bug was little- but didn't see it, and just went with something more traditional. Since Bug has been going to "math class" at her house- she offered to teach Doodle math as well. Anyhow- Math Their Way is SO fun! We simply play games- Doodle spent over an hour yesterday playing math games, and then he said "oh, now I have to do math" and I said "NO! You already did math!"

Here's Doodle's Favorite Game- it's a variation of a couple Math their way games- He calls it In the Cave. We have a number we are working on that day- today was 7. So we each have 7 counting items- (he loves the transportation counters- a thrift store find.)
Then we hide a certain number of them in our cave (a bowl or cup- we used the counting Bears cups- Roo was playing with the bears- so we borrowed their cups.) Then you say how many you have inside the cave, and how many are outside the cave. (For example with 7 bears, I put 2 inside and 5 outside- then I say out loud- 2 and 5)

It's so simple- yet he realized quite quickly as we were playing with 7 today- if he has 4 inside he has to have 3 outside- every single time. If he has 6 inside there has to be 1 outside. With 7's 6 and 1 go together, 5 and 2 go together, 3 and 4 etc.. Then we played a variation on this- where I'd put some under the cave, and he'd have to guess how many are under there- but knowing I have 7 total- he was pleasantly surprized when he knew the answers. (Of course with Doodle- anytime I plan a game- he has to throw his little "twists" into the game- so we played with a dice to tell us how many to put under the cave- I'm okay with that- rofl- but I think his favorite part was zooming the dice across the floor to me!)

Another fun game was with the geoboards and rubber bands. I have a pattern of a geoboard in a plastic page protecter- and use a dry erase marker to make a pattern on it. Then he tries to copy the pattern onto the geoboard with rubber bands. This was surprizingly tricky for him.

Overall I'm pleased, we are having fun, and will be starting lots more fun Math Their Way games in the coming months.