So, I have quickly discovered that reading with children at home is REALLY, REALLY important. It's incredible how much children can gain if they come from a family that reads to each other/with each other/near each other, you get the drift. I haven't thought too much about how that relates to writing, I don't know, it probably would also be beneficial to practice writing at home.
This post however, is mostly because tonight I had a thought strike me. Why not teach children MATH at home. Wouldn't it be great if my students came to school and knew how to do word problems because they've been doing them since they were five? Wouldn't it be great if Algebra were intuitive and they were bored, not because they don't understand and I'm having trouble explaining it, but because it's so obvious to them? Anyway, I found this neat idea which you could probably do with smallish children (they might need to be bigger than preschool, I don't know), but it's totally algebra. I don't actually know what age children need to be to developmentally be able to do this, but if I had children of my own, we would so be doing this tomorrow. As it is, we just might be doing something similar in my Algebra I class tomorrow if I can get to the store.
2 comments:
that is a neat idea and i think your students could enjoy that type of activity. I know that i am a visual learner so maybe it will help them! Good luck and remember that you are amazing and you are supposed to be where you are and that heavenly father doesn't give you anything you can't handle! love you!
Guess what -- I'm already teaching my kids this stuff!
Example #1: Parker loves the slugbug game, and knows that red slugs are 5 points, other slugs are 1 point, and you get an extra point if it's moving. He could do simple math (or, if this really is algebra, intermediate math) BEFORE kindergarten!
Example #2: In kindergarten, the teachers are super-proactive and send home a game called the bean game. You put some beans in one hand, some beans in the other, hide one hand from the child. They know how many beans there are supposed to be, and they tell you how many are in the concealed hand. Stewart was really good at this one last time! Plus, this is supposed to develop their "numbers sense". Is that a super-power?
So, since my kids are already math whizzes, I think I could totally ask them about twice the number of red beans -- after all, they're learning about money values, and that's the same thing, right?
Post a Comment