Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Recommended Resources math for 4 y old

hi , i just joined, and am looking for math help for DD4.
she is in kumon, but seems bored by the repitition.
can someone reccomend math word problems appropriate for her age?

also what do you think would be a good regular teaching source for her

Can't find it ATM, but I was reading on Hoagies.com last night that you can teach all the early math using common Little Golden Book picture books. Littlest kids can use different color beads- a red one for every time the horse is in the story, a green one for every time you see the pig. Older kids can draw graphs to illustrate how many times someone was clever vs. how many times they were sad.

Or you could just buy the Singapore math books.
What math do you want her to know?
Just kindergarten readiness?
As much as she can learn?
Something useful?

Measure everything- inches, time of day, money, measuring cups. Math is used in machinery, orgami, "math is all around". Has she seen the leapfrog math circus and math to the moon dvd's yet?

What's kumon anyway, I've only seen the workbooks? Is it like an hour, like karate class, or is it an all day thing.

Ps I know more stuff about early math if y'a wanna know.

Re-read your post. You just want word problems. Make them up from whatever bedtime stories you read the night before, so you have time to think of one. Or look at Maria Miller's Mammoth Math program. Sign up for her email and download her free samples so you can find out which workbook you want.

My 4yo girl is doing EPGY math because she saw her older brothers doing it and wanted to be included. Some of it she gets -- the straightforward arithmetic problems such as 2+3 = ? and the logic problems. But some of it is currently over her head. If the question is 2 + ? = 5 she usually wants to enter 7 instead of 3. However, she likes the program (I certainly would not force her to do it at the is age), and I think EPGY math is good for some bright 4-year-olds.

Someone interested in EPGY should find an "Open Enrollment" group.

I guess I'd ask what she likes and what she doesn't like about what you're doing now. I'm not sure that it's really possible to recommend something across the board for all gifted 4-year-old kids, as they are all so different.

When DS was that age I just made up math questions from what was going on around us, or about things that he liked. So, I had him help me figure out measurements for cooking (I need 1 cup of flour, but I'm using a 1/2 cup scoop, how many times do I need to scoop?) or figuring out how far things are when we're driving, how much things cost when shopping, etc.

I don't know how much you're wanting to do, so that might be a time-intensive process if you'd rather that she have a few problems to work independently or something. I've also used the worksheets at education.com which are searchable by grade level. He doesn't usually do a whole worksheet if it's just repetitive equations, but, then I don't think he needs to, so I'm fine with that. It's a lot easier than getting a workbook that has a lot of content that's not at the right level or too repetitive, etc.

What level is she in Kumon? Yes, Kumon can be boring. They have several worksheets for the same concepts. That's the same problem we had.

It depends on what level she is right now. I would suggest Math for gifted kids (flashcards). You can get it at B&N or amazon.com. Buy at the grade level she is doing at Kumon. But remember, Kumon does not cover the whole grade level but the gifted Math book has many problem solving Math and my DD loves it.

There are many problem solving Math books but probably a little too early for 5 yrs old. North Carolina state has superstars III for grade 3-8. (You can google it and download it in pdf files)Those are great. Some grade 3 problems are easy enough for a bright 4 yrs old.

There are a set of workbooks called "Math Minutes" that we tried out last summer and really liked. We personally used the 3rd grade one so we can't speak to earlier levels per se, but I know that they have a "First-Grade Math Minutes." What's nice about it is that each page is designed to be completed in just one minute and each page has a variety of topics, which is nice for a child who doesn't need a lot of repitition or for a child who would get bored working on the same topic through an entire page. Personally, we didn't adhere to the 1 minute idea -- we just let our DS work at his own pace and do as many pages as he wanted to. So, for DS, it was enjoyable and taught him a broad range of skills. Oh, I should mention: the pages don't do any teaching of new skills. It's designed as practice of existing skills. But, when my DS didn't know how to do something (since he was working in a book that was two years above his grade level), it was very easy for me to take a few minutes to explain how to do it or explain the idea behind it.

HTH!

hi all thanks for the info
she is at kumon level 2A
she seemed to race through to here , but it seems that she is memorizing stuff more than anything.
now it seems like more of a chore.

i read a lot about epgy here , how does group enrollment work , i mean in terms of cost for families?

also any thoughts about time4learning?

can someone suggest math word problem books appropriate for 4 yrs old

thanks
amom

Here's an Amazon search with lots of possibilities for enrichment:

A user here, Tallulah, recommended the "Math for the Gifted Student" workbook series put out by Flash Kids, and we also liked it quite a lot. It is anti-repetitive, if anything. The Flash Skills Problem Solving mini-workbooks are also nice in my opinion, and much less repetitive than something like Kumon; here's a sample:
http://www.amazon.com/Problem-Solvi...UTF8&qid=1302201868&sr=8-3-spell

(Note: I may seem like an Amazon shill, but that's just because I get free shipping from them and tend to start my searches and book-shopping there, have favorites/bookmarks there, and like to see user reviews at a glance. Shop around for the best deal, of course.)

We've used IXL math (ixl.com) and it is pretty good for keeping things from getting boring, because the student can jump around. However, it doesn't offer lessons at all.

The thing is, neither Kumon nor these other sorts of enrichment options do much for teaching math concepts. I think you should look at Singapore Math etc. for that; you need a real curriculum.

2A is K-1st grade level (addition and subtration upto 10) and there is not a lot of problem solving books out there for this level.

My suggestion is take her to B&N book store and see if she is interested in Kinder level or 1st grade gifted Math books.