my kids don't learn by being taught. They just "absorb" info from all the sources around them. If I tried to teach them something, their reaction would "nice try! ha ha ha!" ... As for Cuisenaire Rods, I'm pretty sure both boys would use them for building and that's about it. They somehow "understand" math without needing any visuals / manipulatives.
Videogames is a great teaching tool in this house. Vtech Vsmile system taught DS5.2 basic math operations when he was hardly 3 years old and Leapfrog Leappad Explorer / Leappad2 Explorer is a huge hit in any subject area. I wouldn't know how smart DS3.6 was if it wasn't for what I saw him doing on Leappad!
