Making Math Fun (and Tasty!)

So we've been using our Singapore Math curriculum for two months now, and it's going well. I like the way it is organized; it's been a nice review of skills we've already learned and a good introduction to a few new concepts.

That said, Noah highly prefers math on IXL. I know that he needs the pencil-to-paper practice that Singapore provides, but like me, he is usually bored with the repetition once he feels that he knows it already. And having been highly bored by repetition in school myself, I can completely understand.

We're almost done with our 1A books (which makes me think we'll be wrapping up the 1B set by February), so I feel like we have some time to back off the curriculum and play a little. Our newest addition has been chocolate chip math - which may need to alternate with pistachio math or Honey O (cereal) math now that we're into double-digit addition and subtraction.

The nice thing about this concept - aside from the overwhelming enthusiasm from the kids - is that it's a way to work on math with both of them at the same time. Noah's been learning the basic concepts of multiplication and division while Ava practices counting and very simple addition. Basically, I use the chips as manipulatives for math problems, and when they answer correctly . . . you can probably guess. Yum!

Last night, we added in place value problems (uses up less chips!) for Noah. The photo at the top shows two of our problems from last night - Noah's place value problem (left) of 641 and Ava's addition (2 + 1 + 3).

And if you're wondering why they're white chocolate chips, it's because they're not my favorite and I won't eat them all!!!