The answer to yesterday’s Thursday Thinker is:

One answer is to put 3 pebbles in the first cup, 4 pebbles in the second cup and 7 pebbles the last cup. Then, place that last cup inside the second. Now all cups have an odd number of pebbles in them!

How can you put 14 pebbles into 3 glasses so that there is an odd number of pebbles in each glass?

If you enjoy our Thursday thinkers try:

Helping your preschooler become familiar with mathematical ideas does not require that you take extra time out of your day just to teach math. Incorporating math into your every day activities is not only easier for parents, but it makes it more meaningful for the preschooler.

When can you add math to your day?

1.  While baking. Let you child count scoops or ingredients.
2.  After getting the mail. Let you child count pieces of mail.
3.  Go for a walk. Spot numbers in the neighborhood and discuss whey they are used for.
4.  Craft time. Sort and count different craft items.
5. In the car. Sing songs that involve numbers. Count the number of blue houses you pass.

Here are some more ideas on how to add some math to your neighborhood walk.

http://educationaltoyfactory.com/walk_and_count.htm

In play, children expand their understanding of themselves and others, their understanding of the physical world, and their ability to communicate with others. In play, we learn the bases for a great foundation in all areas of life. Play teaches the basics that every person needs to know for the real world, things such as:

-You don’t always win

-Good Sportsmanship

-Take turns

-Colors

-Reading

-Strategy

-Math awareness

-Cooperation

-Memorization

-Creativity

-Self Confidence

-and many more!

Some of these basics are hard to just teach a child. How do you teach a child to have self confidence? Or teach that they won’t always win? Playing games such as board and card games can help with these essential basics. It can help show them that learning can be fun (and they won’t even realize that they are learning.)

Incorporating play into everyday of life will not only help the child, but the family unit. Did you know that the ‘average’ family family spends less than 30 minutes a week in face-to-face personal interaction away from the TV or computer. And on average the American parent spends less than 15 minutes a day in actual with their teen?

Take the Challenge: Just 30 minutes 3X a week can do wonders for your family. Play a game with your children (including your teenagers) it will give you the opportunity to get to know your child better and keep you ’in’ on their lives.

You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation. – Plato

Verlina’s Favorite Quote on Play:

We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.  -George Shaw

Some great game ideas, From Simply Fun!

For the toddler: Crazy Mixed Up Zoo

For the Elementary age: Penguin Rescue

For the Middle-Schooler: Walk the Dogs

For the Teenager: Take Your Pick (three different decks available)

For the whole family:  Kayak Chaos

Happy Playing!

-Game Lady Verlina

The answer to yesterday’s Thursday Thinker is:

When you add three hours to 10 o’clock you get one o’clock! This is when you can get three to ten and get one as the correct answer.

If you enjoy our Thursday Thinkers try:

When can you add three to ten and get one as the correct answer?

If you enjoy our Thursday Thinkers try:

I have mentioned how I am tutoring math at the local middle school. I was looking for a fun way to help boost critical thinking skills and found the game SET. This is a card game that I have come to love. One of the things that I love about this game is that it can be fun for just about anyone. I enjoyed playing with my middles school students so much that I took it home to play with my own kids. My 8 year old took to it right away and keeps asking to play. The 6 year old play with us too.

I even took it with my to my grandmother’s house on Christmas day and the adults got into the game.

I love when I find great games that help boost math skills.

I am still seeing success in using the Making Math More Fun games. The kids that have been very receptive and with the quantity of games that came with the ebook I have a lot for us to play. I have found that even if there isn’t an exact game for the topic that I am trying to cover that I can usually adapt one of the games that I have to make it work for me. Many of the games are geared toward younger children with more basic mathematical concepts, but I have been able to use the outline of the games and bring them to the middle school level.

Last week I mentioned that I was going to use some games from the Making Math More Fun ebook collection with the students I am tutoring. My seventh graders are working on finding multiples and factors of numbers which leads to work on Greatest Common Multiples and Least Common Factors which then leads to fraction work.

Working on finding multiples and factors is not all that exciting for the kids, but there are some board games within this collection that works on these skills. I have to say that using the games worked amazingly well! The kids were calculating and working on their multiples with excitement. When they finish a game they asked if they could play again, which was perfectly fine with me because they were working hard on the skills that they needed to master.

I am excited to see this work and will definitely be working more games into the tutoring process. So far it has been an easy way to get the kids motivated and working. In this format they are so willing to participate and therefor learn.

I have written recently about my new job as a math tutor at the local middle school. In a small group setting it is my job to help students who are struggling in math. I have showed them some cool math trick to get them interested in what we will be doing and had quite a bit of success there.

This week I am going to incorporate some games into the tutoring. I have several students who need to practice their basic facts and need to increase their recall speed of things like their multiplication tables. This is definitely not a fun task, but in order to be successful in math they do need to be memorized. Most of my students already have an aversion to math, so I need to make this process fun.

Over a year ago I purchase an e-book collection Making Math More Fun to use with my own kids. Over the weekend I went back and looked through the different games and was thrilled to find many that will be perfect to use with my students. I printed off some board games that will help these kids practice their multiplication facts, division, percents and fractions. I am hoping that by practicing in this fun format that the kids will be more receptive to the practice of their basic math facts.

I will report back later in the week to let you know how it went!