Talking Math

I recently bumped into the oh-so-cool blog "Talking Math with Your Children."

~ Fun stories that let you watch children learn when you don't have little ones to provide such amusement in your own home.

~ Ideas to encourage math-thinking in kids.

~ The importance of using numbers casually in everyday conversation, and how this habit will affect children's math-thinking.



I could waste a lot of time perusing this blog just for funsies!

For now, two quick comments:
First, the author put together an awesome book of shapes where you're supposed to figure out how "one of these things is not like the others; one of these things is not quite the same."  It will work for 3-yr-olds or 50-yr-olds. 

Second, a quote from the blogger:

Many things that you hope to remember, you can remember by encountering them frequently. Tabitha has never sat down with flash cards to memorize her single-digit addition facts. Yet she is in second grade and is starting to feel confident with them.

This is where I get skittish about "classical ed" for math [accepted by some as "Just memorize the factoids already and don't expect the kids to understand what's going on].  Granted, I realize that some kids do fine with "just memorize it and practice enough that you can rattle off the drill, and then later you'll learn to understand."  But some kids don't handle that well!  How this Tabitha learned is the same way most of my children learned their math facts: if you figure it out repeatedly, soon you've accomplished two things.  One: you've learned it, that is, memorized it.  Two: you understand the concept already ... even to the point that, if you should "forget it" some day, you'll easily be able to figure it out quickly.

Now, go play some math!