Crewton Ramone Just Play With Base Ten Blocks And Learn Math.

Yes, it's true just playing with base ten blocks can teach kids a lot of math on both the conscious and subconscious level. People are stuck in the mode of thinking playing isn't learning and certainly math isn't fun (because it wasn't fun for you) and "playing math" doesn't even sound right.  Making Math Fun is a huge challenge for a lot of parents gauging from the email I get. (you can find the whole vid on the Sample Lessons page) And then if they have too much fun you start to wonder if they learned anything....

Let me start of by saying it's not like your kids will just hover around the blocks and learn math by osmosis...they need some direction and it is purposeful play we are going for not just messing around and throwing blocks at each other.

A seminar company I used to work with way back in the 90's made it sound like all you had to do was buy a kit and your kids would be math geniuses in no time even if the kit just got stuck under their bed and never saw the light of day. They were excellent salesmen. People believed them. Well, turns out children learn a lot thru play and if you aren't new to my blog and website you have heard this all before. A lot. You've seen lots of quotes, and videos...but you haven't seen this one. I just added it to the first grade math worksheets page.

By now I hope you understand that the worksheets are to be used sparingly. They are NOT a primary teaching tool. The blocks are.

On that page CLICK the links or the worksheets for FREE downloads of them. That's right FREE. There is another short video there I would encourage you to watch, and here is a much longer video by the same guy,  Dr. Doug Clements. Teachers in particular might want to make the time to watch that.

Once you have some experience with manipulatives you will see clearly all the learning taking place, these are second graders after all. If you are new around here spend some time perusing the house of math and this blog. After a while you will be able to see the math concepts they are internalizing and how important they are...AND they get to associate FUN with "math time."



Commenting on blog posts and vids is encouraged. The search engines don't care what you are saying as long as you are talking...so you don't have to be complimentary. Make comments, ask questions point out grammatical errors and typos and spelling whatever. Constructive feedback is good...what would you like to see more of or less of or what would you like to see covered that you can't find or that I haven't gotten around to...? I make vids and posts and am met with silence 99% of the time. Actually if I did the math I bet it's even higher than that...if it wasn't for the spammers there'd be hardly any comments at all...

Meantime you can come play on Face Book.