This phrase “scope and sequence” can be heard in every area of education. “Scope” refers to what we teach and “sequence” refers to when we teach it. Both the scope and the sequence are very important when thinking about math curriculum. When I was teaching kindergarten, I was frequently questioning the scope and sequence of […]
All children want a “say” in what happens. It is only fair that they should get some input in the the things that affect them. Voting is a great way for young children to feel that they are involved in the decision-making processes of their day. As an adult, remember to use voting as a […]
Everyone speaks of the “consistency” of the routine for young children. We often say that it builds trust with the caretaker and the experience of childcare as children have an expectation of the day and when that expectation is met, they feel safe and secure. Did you also know that the consistency of the routine […]
Putting like objects together is called matching. Identifying dissimilar objects is called discriminating. The interesting thing about this is that the process of matching requires that children also discriminate. Imagine that you ask the children to put all of the small stuffed animals into a basket during clean-up time. The children who are able to […]
What do toddlers love to do more than anything else? They love to DUMP everything on the floor. If they can get the bin off the shelf, then you can bet that whatever is in the bin will end up strewn across the rug. What begins as the “Dropsy” game (dropping items off of the […]
Children will sort naturally. They really don’t need a lot of special equipment, toys, or materials because they separate, combine, recombine, and organize their “stuff” all of the time. When you simply observe them at play, you will often see them moving their toys around, seemingly in senseless ways. But if you watch and listen […]
We have old friends who taught us a lot about parenting. When their children were really little (3 and under) they would go into their bedrooms, the basement,or the playroom, and find toys that they never played with or forgot about and rewrapped them so they had something to open on their birthdays or holidays. […]
Last week I wrote about traditional Nesting Dolls as a great math manipulative, so today I thought we could explore Nesting Blocks as an extension that post. Nesting blocks provide all of the good fun of sequencing as the dolls do, but they have the added benefit of being square with flat sides. This means […]
I am sure that most of the Math at Home readers are already involved with or are at least aware of the National Association for Family Child Care. This organization works on behalf of home child care providers primarily in the areas of advocacy, education, and networking. They also publish a bi-weekly newsletter that provides […]
Did you know that the original Russian nesting dolls always depicted a Russian woman with a big ol’ skirt hiding lots of children underneath? The children were always sized as if she had given birth to one child per year for 10 years! Can you imagine? The littlest one was always her baby. Now there […]