Early Math

We have the great privilege of being friends with an exceptional math teacher. While this might sound weird considering they are not homeschooling and we are, this is the same friend who said of our decision to homeschool, "That is great! Don't let anyone change your mind."

So she lets me ask her questions, and she gives me fabulous answers.

We often talk about science and math and those are key interests for both her children (all older than Miss Pear) and Miss Pear.

When we were talking about beginning in math, she said something exceedingly interesting to me:

One of the most important things to starting to teach about math is to teach your child about patterns.

She said this before she said to teach numbers.

I was pretty shocked by that thought, it messed with everything I knew about math. And I loved math. But I figured that it was important to learn your numbers and how to count first.

But the more I thought about it, the more it made sense! If you can think clearly in patterns, and identify them and extrapolate them, math is a way of thinking, not memorization.

So while we are working on our numbers, a huge part of our early math is looking for patterns.

I sort the counting bears red, green, yellow, red, green, yellow and let Miss Pear put them next.

I sort 4 counting bears the same color big little big little and let Miss Pear tell me what comes next.

We are always looking for patterns!

She thinks it is a fun game, especially when I use mini-marshmallows instead of counting bears and she gets to eat them when she gets it right!