Yesterday we were playing with Cuisenaire rods. Just playing around. He took it on himself to figure out the total length in centimeters of all of our rods. So, without my input he counted up all the 1cm rods and multiplied by 1. Then he counted up all the 2cm rods and multiplied by 2. This went on for all 10 different lengths and colors of the rods, until he was multiplying the size 10 rods by 10. Each time he did this I wrote down the answer. When he was done I gave him the 10 numbers I'd written down and he added them all up. The answer: 577cm in Cuisenaire rods.We didn't discuss it ahead of time, but after that I told him he could skip his math lessons for the day.
This morning he said he wanted me to find multiplication problems on the computer. After a bit of searching I found this cool multiplication problem generator. I printed a page out for him and he's working on it now, as happy as can be. These are the same sorts of problems as in his regular Singapore Math workbook, but somehow this is different and more entertaining. Besides, he loves multiplication and hates subtraction. This way he gets to pick the kind of math he does.
In truth I like the Singapore math workbooks because they methodically take him through the steps to learning increasing levels of difficulty. But, I also like the unschooling approach now and again. I can't really argue if he wants to find new, fun ways to do math. But, since he's almost done with the 2nd grade Singapore math book anyway, it's probably time to find other things to do.
2 comments:
What a cool unschooling math moment! Hurrah for Simon (and you).
You guys might like themathworksheetsite.com. You can generate and print out very basic worksheets (no silly pictures or complicated directions). After a while I actually bought a membership, which gives you access to a ton of other worksheets using clocks, coins, rulers, Roman numerals, etc. Tristan even uses the "How many?" worksheets, where you just count the shapes and circle the correct number.
It's funny... I remember hating subtraction; my mother remembers hating subtraction; and Anya hates subtraction. I don't know why, but it seems our brains prefer the accumulative functions of adding and multiplying. (I didn't mind dividing so much, as long as there was no remainder... the remainder always seemed so untidy.)
Oh, and by the way-- when you get to the point of doing multiple digit multiplication, you might consider going back and doing addition this way-- first handling the ones, then handling the tens, then handling the hundreds -- and then doing the final addition at the end. In other words,
348
+239
----
17
+ 70
+500
----
587
I think it's kind of an introduction to what one does with multiplication, where you handle the ones, tens, etc. separately, and add it all up at the very end. It also introduces the idea of those important place-holding zeroes (as in the 70 and 500 in the above example: it's not 7, it's 7 tens; it's not 5, it's 5 hundreds).
When I was in school we never wrote the place-holding zeroes in when we multiplied. We were just told to "move over a column" as we moved along, and I did not really think about what was happening, or fully understand it, until years later.
Very cool. I'll check out that website. I was looking for worksheets Gwen could do too. More and more lately she's been insisting on taking part in the daily lessons.
I think the thing Simon hates the most about subtraction is borrowing. But, I think you have a point about accumulation being a bit more intuitive than subtracting.
The way you describe multi-digit addition, that's the way we've been doing it with him. I know they have all sorts of fancy new ways to do math these days, but that's the way Barb and I learned it and it makes sense to teach it that way anyway. He hasn't gotten to the 2-3 digit multiplication yet. I'm not sure when the Singapore system introduces that.
I'll definitely go check out themathworksheetsite.com now. Thanks!
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