I am fascinated by watching children learn to count. There are many surprising twists and turns kids take along the way. Even more surprising, perhaps, is that what seem like crazy mistakes to us adults are completely sensible attempts at getting it right for kids....
The following conversation took place about two years ago. It is probably the first one that made me realize how important it is to talk math with my kids. Near the beginning of the conversation I noticed myself making a choice between engaging her mind and moving...
Talking math with your kids takes two forms: (1) seizing opportunities the kids initiate, and (2) creating opportunities where there might previously have been none. This is story of creating an opportunity—first with my four-year old, then with my seven-year old....
Tabitha was $latex 3\frac{1}{2}$ years old when we were playing a game of Uncle Wiggily. In case you are not familiar with the game, I’ll briefly describe it. Uncle Wiggily is a board game with 100 spaces along a twisty path. Players draw cards; each card has...
Griffin (eight years old) and Tabitha (five years old) were discussing the day's activities. The feature activity had been making brownies with Mommy. This occurred while Griffin was out of the house. Griffin: How many brownies did you make?Tabitha: One...