Can your baby multiply?

[Maria Droujkova]

Can your baby multiply?!!

Usually kids study multiplication around the age of seven or eight. But multiplication is one of the building blocks of math. This is similar to postponing, let's say, past and future tenses until the kid is seven. After all, they are more complicated than the present tense.

You can help your baby or young child multiply. Take pictures or write stories to the group when you do. It takes two simple steps to start.

Before doing math activities, always give kids time to free play with all the objects you are going to use. This may take hours with young ones, so plan accordingly. As Mick said at the live meeting, this is one of the best pieces of advice he got in this course so far. Kids may also need a bit of time with objects every time you take them out again.

STEP 1. ICONIC NUMBER
Find an object your kid absolutely adores.

A kid may love cats, cars, cartoon or book characters, particular toys. Named objects are better if the kid loves these particular ones: Garfield over a generic cat, or Putt-Putt over a generic car, and Fluffy over a generic three-headed dog. Find such loved object that has to do with a number from 3 to 5. For example, Garfield has 4 paws and Putt-Putt has 4 wheels. Prepare a toy or a paper cutout that allows you to touch that quantity separately. Not all pictures show all four wheels, for example.



This is now your iconic number. Do NOT count the paws or wheels "one, two, three, four" at any time during this activity. Counting is more complicated for kids than what we will do!

Now prepare three trays or plates with similar objects (or pictures) in them: the iconic number, two more, two fewer. Objects must relate to the character so you can do some pretend play. For example, you can prepare trays with 2, 4 and 6 hubcaps for Putt-Putt or 1, 3 and 5 collars for Fluffy.

Ask the kid which tray is right. Do NOT count. If the kid chooses the wrong tray, try the hubcaps on and pretend-play sadness: "Oh, there are not enough hubcaps! Putt-Putt is sad!" Do not be disappointed for real, just pretend-play in a fun, silly manner. Then reset everything as it was. If the kid chooses right, pretend-play a happy event, for example, Putt-Putt racing around happily.



You can play this with different iconic numbers. There are computer games that offer this task, but I am yet to find one I like, and they don't let you choose characters you kid loves, obviously.

The difficulty for the baby is not in determining the number, which is seamlessly built into every human brain. It is understanding the setup of the game, the idea of matching. A kid may spend literally less than a second choosing the right number. It takes a baby something like .3 seconds to subitize (instantly recognize numbers). It is much easier than counting. Do play around a bit, but don't delay the kid too much. If the game is clear, it's better to move on to multiplication.

STEP 2 MULTIPLY

Now you will need two copies of characters. Cartoons that have clones or families are especially good for this pretend play. Let's say you have two cars.


You will prepare trays with multiple sets in them. On the first tray, have a plate with four hubcaps. On the second, two plates with four hubcaps in each. On the third, three plates with four hubcaps in each.

Ask which tray to pick for your two cars. Roleplay the matching, as before.


Cheers,
Maria Droujkova

Make math your own, to make your own math.

 

[Megan Haggerty]

Two quick questions:

When you're preparing the "trays" - do you just draw them out on a piece of paper?? (and then pretend to put them on?)

And when you're preparing the multiplication ones, you just give them the multiples pages, right? there are no "trick" trays? I.e. for car hubcaps, you'd do 4, 8, 12...but would you throw in a tray of 4+3 (i.e. of 7, not 8)? Or would you only do this later, after  the kid is more comfortable with the real multiplications?

[Maria Droujkova]

On Wed, Feb 9, 2011 at 12:48 PM, Megan Haggerty <megan.h...@gmail.com> wrote:

Two quick questions:

When you're preparing the "trays" - do you just draw them out on a piece of paper?? (and then pretend to put them on?)

Megan, this is a very good question. I am picturing physical trays (or plates) with physical objects on them, but maybe "pretend play" objects. For example, you can use real socks if you are counting feet OR you can use paper cups to stand for "shoes" or you can use individual pieces of paper with a shoe drawn on each. They have to be separate pieces of paper for each shoe, though.

Why?

Because you will be physically matching these objects to your iconic number. If you had a picture, you will be placing socks at the appropriate parts of the picture. If you had a toy, you will be dressing it in socks for real.

Why is that important?

Because the operation has to be SELF-CORRECTING. The one-to-one correspondence, or lack of it, of the set you choose and the iconic number must be obvious from ACTIONS. There are either obviously just enough shoes in the tray (as evidenced by every foot covered and no shoes left out), or not enough, or too many. The correctness of the answer must be determined experimentally, not through the authority of the teacher or parent.

Does it make sense?

And when you're preparing the multiplication ones, you just give them the multiples pages, right? there are no "trick" trays? I.e. for car hubcaps, you'd do 4, 8, 12...but would you throw in a tray of 4+3 (i.e. of 7, not 8)? Or would you only do this later, after  the kid is more comfortable with the real multiplications?

"Trick trays" is an interesting twist. I would do it as a joke - a trick, a puzzle - when kids obviously are getting the "intrinsic units." It is much more abstract than matching iconic numbers, and harder, so use your judgement and do it when kids are ready for more challenge.