Dh gets credit for this one. Cuddlebug and Bearhug really like math, and when they mastered adding and subtracting, dh taught them to add/subtract with several digits (with carrying and borrowing).
He then moved on to basic multiplication. They already knew how to count by 2's, 5's, 10's, etc. so it wasn't much of a leap to say "5 x 3 means count by 5's 3 times" so they picked that up pretty well.
We weren't sure how to go about teaching them division, until dh came up with "chicken nugget math." Basically he told them, if you have x number of people and y chicken nuggets, how many nuggets does each person get? (Illustrated below, the green circles are supposed to be plates, lol).
Because it was concrete, visual (at least mentally), and something they could easily relate to, they picked it up pretty quickly. He even taught them remainders this way. For example, if you have 11 chicken nuggets and two people, how many does each person get and how many are left over? The leftovers are the "remainder."It was great because he'd start with one and then keep building on it. Like, I have 20 chicken nuggets and it's lunch time for the two of you, how many will each of you get? What if Bitty decides to join you, then how many does each person get? What if mama joined too? dada? You get the idea.
So, for any of you that may be teaching math concepts right now, that's my idea for this week's Try This Tuesday :). Hope it helps.
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