Years and years ago, Baloo asked me to make addition with candy corn so I did, and he loved it. Its one of those things that we pull out every single year and enjoy. Royal and Logi-Bear love it now too, but Baloo is well beyond that. But he still loves Candy Corn (he’s crazy, although I…
We have a tradition on Thanksgiving where I print out activities (like this Thanksgiving Addition Game) and the boys have something to entertain them for that hectic 15 minutes while we are finishing the food and putting it on the table. The challenge for me is to create something that is entertaining enough that they…
I am excited for Thanksgiving this year. Honestly, holidays can be really hard for me, as they are for many people. I’ve found that by focusing on the kids and new traditions, the holidays seem easier. They are so full of wonder at this age and I find it easy to get enraptured in their…
Have you ever thought about how arbitrary measurements are? I find it kind of interesting that we use systems of measurement every day but they’re really just standardized systems we made up! Of course, it makes sense to have a standardized system. I still remember the first time I realized that humans made up our…
Sometimes I feel so stuck with learning math facts – or the boys learning math facts that is. They’re not highly motivated so the idea just falls flat on them. So I’m continually trying to find new, fun, and novel ways to get them to practice! I knew I wanted a train doubles plus 1…
I love puzzles and I was always one of those people who loved having a puzzle on the table to work on little by little. Somehow over the years, we’ve gotten out of the habit of puzzle solving. We don’t even really do many puzzles with the kids, which makes me sad. I think there…
What do you do when you want to get your young kids excited about math? You find a theme that resonates with them and find a way to incorporate math into that theme! Last week we did dinosaurs, which was wildly popular at my house. Transportation themes come in a close second. And I just…
We are color coding our LEGO bricks. Not even kidding! We have about a million sharp and pointy LEGO bricks all over the place. Even the cats hate stepping on the…but they are getting organized and it is so awesome. As a kid, we had a small box of LEGO bricks. Each kid got to…
Multiplication is the first big fish in the math pond, or that’s how my kids see it at least. When learning concepts like addition and subtraction, they kind of don’t even know that’s what they’re learning. It’s presented from preschool age and then suddenly we tell them “Oh by the way, that’s called addition”. But…
I have the harder time finding fun work for my older kids (especially Baloo, at 10). Sometimes he just wants something fun like his brothers! But if I make something just for him, I have two younger kids begging to join in. So when I can put something together that they can all use, it’s…
What do you do for kids that are having trouble memorizing their math facts? All of my boys are working on memorizing some facts and without motivation, it just seems like slow going. We play games, watch math shows, and even do bedtime math. Sometimes though, I need something that I can just hand over…
‘Counting on’ is one of those skills that I didn’t understand needed to be taught until Baloo was probably 4 or something. I guess I just hadn’t thought of it and assumed kids would just pick up on the pattern of numbers. And some kids pick up on that really well! In fact, I noticed…