Lesson ONE

Wait till I baffle them!

I fell asleep after midnight with the card trick on my mind. I cannot wait to impress my children in the morning. I know I will get a chorus of “do again, do again…” It was fun figuring out the sequence of cards together with my table buddies. Dr Yeap didn’t just tell us how. He urged us to find out, and we did, even though it was after 9pm. Auto shut down had not occurred! 

Problem solving!

It got me thinking about the importance of problem solving and how I should get my children to be fearless thinkers, do-ers, try-ers… I think that the key is to NOT hand out answers but to encourage exploration, trial and error, and to look at situations, activities, and problems from all sorts of angles. Perhaps, importantly, it is how we can pose questions to the children to guide their thinking, to acknowledge every try and accept different possibilities.

Lots of “takeaways”:

Numbers are used in four different ways

·       cardinal numbers refer to quantities, eg. 3 cups, 4 boxes

·       ordinal numbers refer to positions in space, positions in time –

        1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd and so on

·       nominal numbers are numbers as names, eg. bus number 14

·       measurement numbers are standard or non-standard units, eg.

        The box weighs as much as 3 oranges; That man weighs 62kg.

How do I get children to learn mathematics?
Pose problems to promote thinking. Problems can be put forth in different scenarios, in word problems, in a game (like the card trick)

Plan activities to encourage children to investigate, explore, ponder over..

Always remember: CPA

Concrete -> Pictorial -> Abstract
Carefully provide appropriate materials, examples (theory of variability)

Constantly assess and reflect to understand how children learn so that we can provide the appropriate level of instruction, materials, etc.

It’s often about patterns!

The name pattern activity was very interesting. I was very engaged in the process of pattern searching and thought that this is something our naturally curious children are adept at. Already, I see them able to grasp the common patterns (ABAB, ABCABC, etc) easily. I really should bring them a level higher to search for patterns in the environment, patterns in stories, perhaps even patterns in a series of numbers like in the name pattern activity.

Excited about Lesson 2!