Base 10 Block Book for Preschoolers & Kindergarteners.

There aren't a whole lot of base ten block books like this out there. This one is designed for young kids. The idea is you read it to them at bedtime just like any other story book. If you have children that are a little older, 2nd or 3rd grade they could read it to themselves. If you have children older than that check out this blog and website for lots of instruction using base ten blocks to make math EZ! If little kids can do it your highschool kids can too.

Now you can get this content packed base ten block e-book: Crewton Ramones Completely Cool Curious Counters' Kindergarten Compendium for just $19.99. No need to buy a password (if you already have a password this book comes with, just go HERE and click on the picture or the big red "here.") If you don't, get this book and start learning math NOW.

No need to buy a password,  now you can get the book all by itself, I'll send you the file direct to your inbox. Until now this base ten book was only available if you bought a password. now you can get this book by itself.  Put it on your laptop, tablet, or reader or print it out.

As you can see it shows your younger children some crucial math concepts using base 10 blocks to make it easy. It helps you help them master their addition facts, introduces square roots, place value, multiplication and more. Give your child a head start in mathematics. This book makes understanding math concepts fast and easy. Mathematics is the gateway to scholarships, the sciences, and higher paying jobs. Get them started off right.

Read your children this book the way you would any other children's book except with this book they will learn math because base ten blocks make it visually obvious. For ages 9 and under but especially aimed at children ages 3 to 5. That's right PRESCHOOL, (even though it says kindergarten). They can see the math...take a look for yourself...and at this age you can read it to them over and over again. 

Just like any language they aren't going to learn it all the first time you read it to them. They aren't going understand it all the first time but after a very few short weeks the concepts in this book will be understood because it's simply written, it almost rhymes, and it's full of pictures of base ten blocks, the same way any picture book for toddlers is.

Plenty of brightly colored fun pictures explain basic math concepts, that will put your kid well ahead of their peers when they get to kindergarten or preschool. Kids that can do even just a little math at an early age are considered SMART or advanced or even geniuses whether they are or not...but one thing people have noticed over the years is that if you treat kids like they are smart they will act like they are smart. If you put kids in a class known to be advanced they will usually live up to the expectations...the opposite is also true. Put then a class in SPED or the "F Troop" they will often live up (or down) to the lowered expectations.

I have been in plenty of second grade classrooms where many of the students don't know their addends for ten without thinking about it or using their fingers. Some of these kids have to think about it when asked what does five need to be ten?! Base ten blocks help get them off their fingers and into math.

Or how many left if you take three out of nine...? This book will ensure your kid isn't one of them. Basics like this can handicap your children for life. That's no exaggeration. At the other end of the spectrum getting them off on the right foot can give them advantages for the rest of their lives...

So yeah, it's kind of important. And it has been my experience that even if they hit third grade and they don't know their addends teachers don't usually take these kids aside and give them the extra help and time they need to master them. A downward spiral often ensues as these children never learn to add single digit numbers easily, then adding them over and over again (multiplication) becomes difficult and then they try to circumvent this with memorization of multiplication tables via worksheet and flash cards. Then long division is HARD and hated, fractions are poorly understood and mathematics in general becomes PAIN. Sound familiar? Statistically more of you had a poor experience with math than a good one which is usually part of the reason you found your way here.

The homeschool market is growing by leaps and bounds and many of those parents HATE MATH, but are smart enough to understand they need break the cycle...but don't really know how. Plenty of homeschool moms know they suck at math and are concerned they won't be able to teach their children math because they can't do math...well I'm here to show how you can both learn math together. This book is a good start. Lots of teachers are also using this book to help them introduce math to their young students.

This book

Makes math fast, fun and EZ.

Concept based.
Builds a firm foundation in addition facts.
Shows them how to add numbers with ease.
Gives a leg up on Addition/Addends

Introduces Square Roots

Problem Solving

Place Value

Multiplication

Here are some responses from parents. If you already have your copy please put some comments in the comments box either for facebook or here on blogger below. 

“My kids love this book.”

“Added to our bedtime stories, now they ask for it!”
“I like it because it makes math easy for them to understand because they can see it.”
“We started out counting and before you know it he was doing some pretty impressive math for a 5 year old.”

More pics and stuff:

Crewton Ramone's Completely Cool Curious Counters' Kindergarten Compendium at the house of math. If you click this link you'll need a password to get it...remember the book is included with a password this page was built for those who just want the book. 

Crewton Ramone's Completely Cool Curious Counters' Kindergarten Compendium here on blogger. Again this page will direct you to a password protected page. If you just want the book order below. Please allow up to 12 hours for delivery...I will email you the actual pdf.  The email you use for paypal is the email I will use unless otherwise specified. No messing with pop ups or download buttons unless you want to. [Haven't built the pop up page yet so...] But you will have to check your email...if you want to me to send it to an email other than the one you used for paypal put in the box.

PDF Prices

CCCCC $19.99 USD SSS Prinable $9.99 USD DDnDD $19.99 USD PDF Page Only $39.99 USD

Here is a short explanation of the options. Remember if you have a Life Time Pass, the book is INCLUDED, this page was built by request for those that just want the book and only the book...but of course I added extra options to the button just in case you decided to do a little math and figure out getting the book by itself might not be the best option.  Also by now there are people who have gotten an annual password two or more times...and every time they get a new one there's even more stuff than the last time...and their kids are still little. Probably should have gotten a lifetime pass. This button will change soon because the $15.00 price for the PT training is limited to the first 50 paid.

...OF COURSE WITH THE LIFETIME PASS YOU GET BOTH PASSWORDS.


Learn to use your base ten blocks.

Never Too Young To Build Tens

People are always amazed that somehow children learn math through play. This is because when they remember math there probably wasn't much play or fun associated with it. In fact a lot of people would rather not remember their math experiences at all because they often were so bad.

How about you break this cycle with your kids and give them fun math experiences instead, and happy memories. Use math manipulatives and play and have some fun learning. The idea is to give them an algorithm to solve problems like 7 + 8, but before we do that we have to understand that numbers are made up of other numbers and in order to do that we need to build them starting usually with 10.

It's like stairs dad! And the two falling off was all kinds of funny.

This little girl is building tens we built other numbers and counted pairs of numbers too but we spent a lot of time on ten and nines. I'd say this qualifies as quality time with dad. We didn't attempt to write anything at all. Just built and talked about the numbers. Using base ten blocks makes it visually obvious to the child and later when they do see symbols the symbols make sense. She gets a full sensory experience using BOTH hands, hearing and seeing what we are learning as we go...whether she is a kinesthetic learner, a visual or auditory learner doesn't really matter...we cover all the bases. Further, even if she was dyslexic it wouldn't matter there are no symbols to confuse and the base ten blocks level that playing field too. She can see what she is doing and hear her father and I tell her that nine and one is the same as ten.

People often think that in order for them to learn math they have to write it down or they aren't really learning it. Really? Do you get little babies to write words down when you are teaching them English? Or do you just talk to them and they pick up the language that way and later maybe when they are 4 or 5 put a crayon in their hand and let them start learning to write letters...but just because they have a hard time writing their letters doesn't mean they can't speak English. Apply the same thinking and reasoning to the mathematics which is also a language.

I can do it...

You start with very basic concepts like numbers are made up of other numbers and they all want to be ten. You can build tens up and down or you can build them flat or you can make walls. It doesn't matter. If you build sky scrapers they get a good sense of ordination...that is 2 is 1 more than 1 and 3 is 2 + 1 and so on all the way to ten...here she started with 10 first and worked we our way down. There is no wrong way to play you don't have to start at one. She built NINES and TENS.

Building nines is fun and easy.

She looks pretty happy, doesn't she? She was being bribed with goji berries at the time but who cares? She had fun and she did her "work" with lots of smiles and discoveries that caused some exclamations. "6+4 is 10 and 4+6 is also 10!" Some methodologies say you shouldn't reward them and the learning itself should be the reward. Fine. I've seen kids move mountains of math for a piece of chocolate. make the associations with math pleasant from an early age. I give this dad credit because he understands it's extra important to give his daughter a good head start when it come to math (and other subjects) but especially math. Our culture still perpetuates the myth that math is a guy thing, the same way a few hundred years ago reading was a guy thing...

You don't have to go in order just play.

She was having fun building this ten wall on her own. No need to tell her to go in oder starting with nine and one. After a bit we asked her if she could use different combinations but at this point just building the wall that high without knocking it over was a big deal. Fine motor skills being developed...it's more than just math going here.

You can see these shots were taken on two different days about a week apart. In that amount of time at this age it's basically new again. But the repetition isn't lost and neither are the concepts. It's in there. The sub conscious mind stores everything. Later we can bring it out again. To educate. To draw fourth....not to cram in. AND when we draw it fourth it will come with pleasant associations making everything that much easier.

Basically we are working on addends here which will make addition much easier later on. I have pages on addends and addition and more games and activities you can play over at my website Crewton Ramone's House of Math.  Join us on FaceBook. And spend some time watching videos on youtube for more info on how to PLAY math.

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Crewton Ramone Takes Two

My favorite part about this vid is the comments: people just don't know what to make of me or it. This is a proof of concept vid...needs more work but I want to make math music vids that are current. Like Weird Al Yankovic except for math...change the lyrics of popular songs to explain math concepts...and then have puppets and good looking kids and base ten blocks dancing around to the beat.

This is just a proto-type if you will. I need a small crew to do camera, song covers and puppets and most of all editing.

Anyhow this one was designed for little kids...three to five. And it was designed to be watched more than once...the concept is multiplication by twos...and getting to know the names of the base 10 blocks.



Unconventional. Odd. Different. People not sure what to think. No pocket protector. No nerd glasses. Multiplication by two's for the little kids.

No. This ain't your grandma's mathematics. It's Crewton Ramone for the wee ones. Just a few math concepts at a time. Math needs to be cool again...currently it is the domain of nerds who do not reproduce...

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Playing With Addends

Playing with addends. A lesson on combining. If you listen carefully you will hear addition and subtraction together.

Here the younger boy is loading up the tray so we can play with it. He is building tens and seeing and touching the pairs, complements or in mathematical nomenclature: addends for TEN.

This is an "Addition Subtraction kit" from Mortensen Math. Very useful for putting a child in a situation where they cannot fail, they build ten and learn all 45 addends. They can't help but learn some subtraction too. Do you need this kit? It's nice but if you have a combo kit you don't really need it...some parents want to have everything and it is nice to have. Meantime you have everything you need in a combo kit.

Note they changed clothes for the video...

Here is a quick video showing two boys fooling around with addends. They have become camera aware and now ham it up a little for the camera by pretending they don't know the answers.

Years from now when shown these videos I'm going to be interested in their response. Anyhow, note there is no "no" in the lesson, they are simply told what they have and they are not wrong they just get more information...

Many people use these powerful tools to teach addition at this age and that's about it...and maybe some place value but they can learn so many more concepts.




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Learn Algebra for a buck.

Preschool Math Enrichment with Algebra.

Here are just two of many vids showing the use of Algebra to teach math to very young students...Note in the second vid they are looking at the math upside down so to speak...

Here is very simple distributive theory of multiplication using binomials...they are learning to count and multiply through or beacause of algebra...concept based teaching cross teaches several things at once. Base ten blocks make math easy and fun because it's concrete: they can get their hands on the math materials.



Then getting bigger is funner. You could hear the little boy say he wanted to do bigger stuff because this stuff was TOO EASY. Here they move onto factoring, and we accommodate the Youtube viewer or blog post reader as the case may be, by adding some symbols to the lesson. When you do Preschool Math you don't need symbols and the students certainly don't need to e able to write.



As we were running out of time near the end the audio cuts in and out...but you get the idea...even little kids can do algebra and as noted repeatedly here and elsewhere the algebra actually teaches the basic operations in this case addition multiplication and as we progress division and of course factoring...

Here is a post on math enrichment with a four year old, also has a screencast where he helps narrate. 

Months later here they are doing bigger funner stuff:



They are now both in school, where do you think they rank in their class with regard to math?

This video is substantially longer, and is unlisted on youtube. You can find it and many more like it on the password protected pages at the house of math, the ones on the advanced algebra page for example show how to do negative and larger problems. Passwords are cheap at twice the price. I have seen DVD's for $24.95 that don't teach half as much as you are getting here for FREE. The password protected pages have HOURS of vid on them. I assure you, prices are going to rise next year. There was a time when you could get a password for a buck, right now you can get a password for a buck a month.

Crewton Ramone's House Of Math for More...

Math With The Wee Ones

Stop me before I screencast again!

Math concepts like multiplication made easy for pre-scoolers...



Crewton Ramone's House Of Math.

I am currently searching for math enrichment students...if you know of any. I would also like to put together some webinars so I can teach others to teach this way...

Number Identification

Here is a short simple post on number identification, with a short tangent down the SPED, Dyslexia path...





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Crewton Ramone's House of Math for more.

MAKE MATH FUN.

Making math fun is not as hard as it sounds. If you are working with little kids it had better be fun or they don't really want to do it.

And even then some of the more "challenging" students may not want to do math, no matter what you do. Might as well have a good time if you can though. Math Fun is a term many people have a hard time with. How do you make math fun?

Here is a 5 min screencast of what you see here with audio:
http://screencast.com/t/MGJiODI5O I skipped the squares because that should get it's own little audio clip. I just figured out how to embed the "video" into the blog but I've only had the software for about 15 min so I'm just fooling around now...might have to get the pro version for a whopping 15 a year... My first try at a screen cast: http://screencast.com/t/Y2VlMDkzODA Here is a board set up for learning addition and multiplication as well as some algebra. The towers or building need to be skip counted, tens need to be delivered to the tens depot...all manner of games can be played here. Math land or Math Town is a fun place to learn. Some people drawn in makes it fun. These are not towers but robots with green units for heads. Here a ten ton truck loaded with a nine and a unit makes it way to the ten depot. Math robot with lots of addends for 8, 9 and 10. They are just playing blocks learning about 400, 4x² and addends for 7. A city of multiplication facts. A pyramid of square numbers. A ton of math can be taught here. Geometric progression. Square roots, various values of x² etc. Another thing I didn't mention in the screencast is children can discover for them selves that 2² is 4 times bigger than 1² and that 4² is 4 times bigger than 2² even though 2 is only 1 x 2, and 4 is only 2 x 2. In other words the base is only twice as big but when you raise to a second power it's more than twice as big. Let them make up their own rules and discover if the pattern is consistent...is 8² four times bigger than 4²? What do the pictures have to do with math. Nothing. We were just having FUN with addends from 11 to 18. Note the child used one hand to write his name forwards and his other hand to write his name backwards, just for fun. There's a genius trapped inside every child. This was a "cake" we made with the nines are the cake the sevens are the frosting, 7 x 9 = 9 x 7. A concept many students have to see to believe when they are first starting out. Cakes need candles. We can skip count by three and the six is just two threes stuck together...we could only skip count to 24...and the kid was 7 years old...we also do algebra and division 63/x = 7 and 63/x = 9 in addition to x/9 = 7 and x/7 = 9...it's easy when you can see it...MAKE MATH FUN. Don't make it hard. "Do not…keep children to their studies by compulsion but by play." ~Plato Greek philosopher 427-347 BCE
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Little Kids Do A Little Math

This whole "lesson" lasted about 45 minutes, which is long "lesson" for kids this age, but as long as their attention was engaged and it was easy and fun we kept going. So, really it was just play time although the older student knew he was "learning stuff". Obviously, a little more went on here than I was able to capture in pictures. With children this age the camera is a HUGE distraction so I only managed to snap 6...and then took a couple of the book so you could see that too. We spent much more time with the blocks than the books BTW.

Here we are b uilding 10's and 9's...the older boy is 5 the younger 3 almost 4. The older boy can answer without looking, "what does two need to be a ten?"

2 + x = 10,

In fact he knows his tens addends so well he doesn't have to think about it. Mastery.

We are doing this for the benefit of the younger student. Incorporate algebra immediately. The concept of "x" is easy if they've been playing with it since they were little.

Doing nines is also easy but takes a little thinking. They are almost mastered. Why people don't teach little kids algebra from the get go is beyond me. Here one child is counting units the younger child is counting x. (In the mathematics "x" IS the plural.)



The younger student is "building stairs" with x's, basically he is playing with them and using his imagination. X is simple concept. We continue on with the basic concept that the numbers have TWO parts, the "how many" part and the "what kind" part. When the tens are on the smooth side we call them x. (At this age he still calls them "exes.") He is counting out x.

x + x = 2x.

This is no big deal.

2x + x = 3x...I have spent time in high school and college classes explaining where the "two" came from in x + x, and how we got 3 when adding 2x + x because the one is invisible and x + x being 2x doesn't make any sense. Text books say "the one is understood" ...except it isn't. These children will never have this problem. Further we talk about x² + x² making 2x², didn't get a picture of it but it's them playing with the big red squares. I have seen numerous college aged students add x² + x² and get x⁴!!!!! I'm the only one right? The system in place for mathematics instruction in the USA is broken. Anyhow, before I go off on a diatribe, these little kids can see that two red squares have nothing to do with 4...if the red squares are called x² (x-squared) then two of them are simply 2x². Painfully obvious. In the Montessori method they say "visually obvious". Little kids doing algebra? YES, THEY CAN.


Building 8's.

When we build eights he has to get out blocks to make sure... Just because he is familiar with the addends for 10 and 9 does NOT mean he is automatically able to do 8's...many teachers fail to recognize this. They need to learn addends just like they have to practice ABC's...there are only 25 addends from 1 to 10 and 45 single digit addends in all ending with 9+9.


Note I told him to build 8's I didn't tell him to start in any certain order, like 1+7, 2+6, etc he's just building...note we aren't using any symbols or drawing. Just because the child can write doesn't mean they can't learn "complex" math concepts. Later we can go back and use symbols...and know what they MEAN.



Just fooling around, they got out a ruler because I said, "measure it to make sure"...I meant measure with the blocks and they knew it, but since we are just having fun we played with the ruler too. Measurement is an important area of study in math.


Then of course we measured with a pen. Have fun with it. Math time doesn't have to be serious at all...


The 3 year old can't make numbers but he can point to the right answer. This page is fun because it has a lot to count...6 "problems". Again, the numbers have the "how many" part and the "what kind" part. Here we are learning units or ones, tens and hundreds. Just matching the picture and the symbols...900 is square and we can count it by three's...

The 3 year old is given pause when counting tens: "Oh man this is gonna take forever" he starts counting the tens one unit at a time then I show him we can just count 10, 20 30...this is not the first time he has seen this book and it will be new every time for about another 18 times...repetition is the mother of skill. At this age repeating it over and over again is natural and fun. Which is why this is a great time to teach multiplication songs...it will be fun and easy and avoid tedium later when the brain has moved onto a stage of development where repetition is not as large a part of the child's learning modality.

This page which came after the other page shown, (note the page numbers) is not as much fun because there isn't as much to count...or so says the 3 year old. I'd say he's the fun expert.

Here is more on counting and combining like terms.

Much more at Crewton Ramone's House Of Math.

"Almost all creativity involves purposeful play." ~Abraham Maslow American psychologist 1908-1970

"Whoever wants to understand much must play much." ~Gottfried Benn German physician 1886-1956

"Play gives children a chance to practice what they are learning." ~Fred Rogers American television personality 1928-2003

"People tend to forget that play is serious." ~David Hockney Contemporary British painter

"Do not…keep children to their studies by compulsion but by play." ~Plato Greek philosopher 427-347 BCE

"Necessity may be the mother of invention, but play is certainly the father." ~Roger von Oech Contemporary American creativity guru


More math quotes and more education quotes at my site.

“Mathematics is a language.”

This is a young 3 year old, his language skills are not well developed uses one word at a time for the most part and is still working on enunciation. Many consider this too young to start any type of "math training."

Ridiculous.

“Mathematics is a language.” ~Josiah Willard Gibbs

As others wiser and more learned than me have observed, math is just more language and math concepts are non-different than language concepts. After having a bit of fun just fooling around with blocks, we got out and named the first five blocks (using a three period lesson); the child started lining them up next to the biggest block (the 5) and then he started piling them on top of each other so they fit making a "truck." I could tell he thought it was a truck because he said "truck" several times while he was building it. So the concepts that are being imprinted and that will be drawn out later are simple: 2 and 3 are 5 and 4 and 1 are 5 and visa-versa. It was simple and he had fun doing it. It took quite a bit of his fine motor skills to get them to balance.

"Works." He said triumphantly after he got them all on there. Then of course he began pushing the truck around and playing with it, if the blocks fell off he put them back on again...

Did we need pencil and paper? As he built them I told him what piece he had, and sometimes he told me...."four" as he put the four on and so on...slowly but surely he got the names of the pieces and some math facts too. We had fun no pressure just goofing off with the blocks. Next time we meet he will most likely NOT remember all the names of the blocks, so far eight, hundred and ten seem to have stuck and the rest come and go. I test this with a simple hand me a three (or whatever) and see what he hands me...often he asks me "this?" as he grabs a 5, I say, "hand me a three that's a five...until he gives the right block."

Then we just had to build tens. Each time he fit the piece in he said. "Works." And often laughed and celebrated a little...most of them he got on the first try because we have played before, however there was no wrong answer, he just got more information. Remove the no from the lesson. Sometimes I would say "too small" or "too big"...and he would get another block. Again, all we did was play blocks and see what went together; he was in the tray so he was in a situation where he could not fail...all he could do was build tens...



Note there are only 5 pairs, or 9 addends for ten. It's never too early to learn the names of the blocks and how they fit together to make the same length as other blocks especially nines and tens. Once in a great while the child said, "same!" as he built them. "Same" is an important concept.




Here he has a 5 and spends some time looking for the right piece to put with it to make a ten. All the blocks want to be a ten. It's the biggest one. A short video for little kids makes it fun and easy. The guys that did the editing got carried away as they were learning how to use features of the editing software but the vid gets the point across, and small children will watch it.





How about a 3 and a 2? He did this on his own I did not suggest it. "Works!" He exclaims...he is using the information he got a few moments earlier. I said "GOOD! AND I want one block that fits in there...that's two blocks..."


So he got out a 4 and a 1....looked at me for approval and none was forthcoming. "That's good, still two blocks and they are the same as a 5. And 5 and 5 make 10 AND I want one block to fit in there. Can you find just one that will fit?" This is common, older students also seem to have a mental block against putting the same block in there the first few times. Sometimes they have no problem, for others it takes a little while to figure it out.


This is perfectly "normal"...now he tries a few other blocks, and I can tell by the way he looks at me that he is just teasing. He he sees a 6 will not fit with a 5. Neither will an eight.







At last there they all are. He was happy and surprised that the block he was looking for turned out to be another 5. He threw his head back and squealed. Now it's time to put back blocks and the lesson is over. A good lesson on sorting is just putting away the blocks. For more go to Crewton Ramone's House of Math.

Dragon Tales or Math?

One child three the other four. Watching the same PBS' Dragon Tales episode for the tenth time...

Off goes the teevee. The children wail. "I don't wanna play math...!!!"

"I don't wanna watch this show again and this is a benign dictatorship not a democracy."

I'd have pictures but they were butt naked and I have been getting a ration for posting pics of naked math students even though they are under 5...sick world we live in, but I digress.

I got out a ten and a two. Laid them lengthwise and said measure that with fours...the older boy gets out the blocks and carefully lays them along side.

Laughs when he lines them up and counts them..."four!" He says triumphantly. But then he sees I am not approving.

"Count it again..."

Counts carefully.

"...three I mean three!"

Self correcting, no "no" in the lesson. We are about to put away the ten and two but the three year old exclaims "I want to count it!!!"

He counts the fours and agrees there are three there. Three 4s is the same as a ten and a two. Next, I got out a two tens and a four...measure with sixes. They got out sixes and lined them up next to the tens and four...

This takes some motor skills and the 3 year old was happy to let his brother line them up nicely while he got out the blocks. They counted. "Four!!!"

"Very good. Four 6s is exactly the same as two tens and four."

"And two sixs is 12!!!" He says after comparing the two sixes to the two tens and seeing that he used up a ten and two of the units on the next ten.

Okay lets build tens...they each got their on ten section of the top tray and I made the older one build his own but set up the blocks for the younger one where all he had to do was match the right block to complete the ten.

Then we got on the computer and built nines and tens...they had fun and I didn't have to watch re-runs. I was using the Freeware version, so it had nines and tens, there are links on this page to a demo that only builds tens too...the software is about to get a slight upgrade where every time you get it right you get some audio reinforcement too. For now YOU can provide it for them, and never say no that's not right, if they get it wrong they are just getting more information so you can say, "try again" or "too much", or needs to be bigger or what have you.

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