Maths Links

By Laure

We got the cuisinaire rods about 2 weeks ago and Abigail (just 3) was really interested (Adrian, just 1, was too but they very soon ended up in his mouth...)

She looked at them, noticed the numbers underneath when she took them out, and basically played the whole time at taking them all out of the box... We helped put them back but maybe should have left her to it. I
must admit that I haven't taken them out in the past week, couldn't face tidying up all these rods! I should maybe give her more time and let her play with it. But I have noticed that she often needs us to do something with/for her at the beginning and then gradually, she will get more confident and try for herself, usually very successfully.

She has taken a real liking for jigsaw puzzles (maybe because we got some more difficult ones recently) and we had to do them with her first. Little by little, each time she asked for less and less help and in
about 5 gos she could do them by herself (24 pieces). If she is on her own she will do them very quickly, if we are around she will ask for help...

As for numbers, well she is really interested in them. I printed out some number lines and she loved showing that she could recognise the numbers on them. In the morning she also reads the time (the numbers,
separately) on our digital alarm clock. She spots some numbers here and there. I don't do any formal work with her really, which in a way I feel bad about but there again, we tend to be autonomous so I want to let her find her own way.

As you can see, I still need to find my way round our "philosophy" and what to initiate. I don't want to be teaching as it wouldn't work, but I don't know if we are doing enough. We'll see.