Math U See

Natalee is in the Math U See Primer book this year.  The first eight lessons were easy peasy...counting, writing numbers, etc.  Even though her numeral writing can still use a little work (reversals, etc) I didn't feel like that was enough to keep holding her back so we went ahead with lesson 9 this week.  Imagine my surprise when I discovered I was to introduce place value to her...particularly tens and units!  We watched the demo video together, pushing pause often to work things out at our own pace and have spent a lot of time in the evenings (when it's quieter after daycare) and in the morning using the manipulatives and review some of the practice pages together.  I was certain we'd sit on these lessons for a couple of weeks at least, which is fine, however today it just CLICKED!  Have you ever bee working with your child (or a child) when the light bulb comes on?  It's simply amazing!  We were working so hard that I only snapped one picture of her but this is the moment she realized the blocks in the "tens house" represented those big numbers and she quickly identified what she'd built as 64 and said it correctly.  It's harder to read the numbers that you have to change - for example saying thirty-two, instead of three-ty two, but I'm enjoying the Math U See approach of telling the child that both of these is an appropriate way to say the number.

Way to go, Natalee!  Mom and Dad are proud of you!!

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After Natalee does her math lesson, Xavier wants to do his.  While I didn't introduce him to formal math at his age I did buy him a small, simple book that he calls his math book.  It focuses on matching items, tracing, similarities/differences, etc.  It's a good introduction to sit down time, which is something Xavier definitely needs to continue practicing on (in short, short spells!).  We don't do it daily, although he's asking for it more and more.

 

He also finds a lot of joy in having a turn with the Math U See manipulatives.  Today I delighted in watching him fill the hundred block with smaller blocks.  It was interesting to watch him try different lengths, realize they wouldn't fit, and try something different.  He didn't get frustrated but just kept at it until he had the hundreds block covered.  Maybe that's only cool to mom, but I loved getting a glimpse of his wheels turning.

I didn't realize until I looked at the picture from this view that he had covered the hundreds blocks with 10 rows of 10 sticks first.  Pretty smart, dude!

These lessons are in addition to the Letter a Week, Bible time, and  calendar math that we do as a group together with our daycare friends.  The daycare friends seem relieved that they get to play away whilst the Beeler children are at the table for a few extra minutes in the mornings!