Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Recommended Resources Enrichment classes - Thoughts?

I have a pre-k. �He likes the pattern stuff. �After the tanagrams on the iPhone came the mighty mind and supermind magnetic http://www.fatbraintoys.com/toy_companies/leisure_learning_products_inc/magnetic_mightymind.cfm
Been using a whiteboard and this structured multiplication drill:
He already had a number sense and one to one counting and random simple real life addition and subtraction, from Dora I think, and skip counting from "The math factory" DVD. �I'm a rookie mom, not a teacher but I like this. �There's a lot to be said against drill, but as I see it he's learning to read a math sentence, he'll never be scared of math. �And this way is more than just memorizing. �You memorize equations and skip counting, and use it in a number line, and use the number line as a chart to look up the answer. �Just a whole bunch of stuff going on there.

I like the look of the Montessori golden beads and thousand cubes, tried to make my own with ponybeads and leather cord but gave up. �Found out there's base ten blocks online much cheaper. �Didn't buy them though. �I decided 100 pennies are base 10 and started teaching counting change instead. �Funny story. �My dad just gave my boy a roll of pennies and said, "you told me you know money, what's in your hand?". The boy looked at the wrapper and said "5, that's nickels". My dad said "nope, that's 50. �That's pennies.".�

And we're still working on time. �Sometimes we write 1-7 on the calendar and he puts an x on each day waiting for his dad to get home. �He knows about what seven days means because of that. �I lmao yesterday when I told him something was going to happen in a week. �I said it will happen in one week. �You know when you go xxxx on the days waiting for your dad to get back? �Well this thing is going to happen in "one 7 "x". �Groan. �

I made this clock by getting a $3 clock from the family dollar, unscrewing the cover, white out and marker on the hands. �

The Singapore math books 1A & 1B don't have a lot of repetition and they have a real good reputation, but only if your kid has good motor skills for writing and drawing. �It spends a little while on counting, circling, same and different, more and less, etc.. But since there's less repetition it moves faster and soon you'll need to be willing to write numbers. �I already did the kumon tracing workbook (not the classes, only pre-homeschool)& kumon abc book, as well as phonics related and draw write now lessons with him, so he's ready. �Here comes my brag - last week he copied a 5 by sight without instruction. �It was his last number that he couldn't write. Yay!

I play UNO, guess who, monopoly, go fish, clue, connect four with ds3.5. �I think I'll add battleship, mastermind, checkers, no stress chess, either backgammon or mancala. �As for websites readingeggs.com has a lot of value and gets a lot of use for the price I paid. �For free is kidzui.com if you have room to download firefox and kidzui. �It's not exclusively educational. �It's cartoon network, PBS, the disney channel, and nickelodeon and 5,000 prescreened G-rated YouTube videos and encyclopedia. �My boy has kidzui with starfall, Jumpstart, and readingeggs (logged in with remember me checked) in his favorites file in his kidzui browser. �

IMO there's nothing that you need to do to prepare your kid for school besides potty training and how to do a time-out. �The hubby and I just agreed to keep teaching the boy as long as he wants to keep learning. �I have no idea the long term outcome of teaching a kid too young. �I've read there's drawbacks, just to temper my enthusiasm with a warning. �This post is just me. �We don't really have a definite goal or really any kind of plan where we're going with this yet..