| Why not include him in your daily activities like shopping and cooking?
For example, I heard of a way to get kids to accept lower-sugar cereals
without blaming Mom. This also makes the children read numbers. Take
him to the food store and tell him he can only buy a cereal that is 12
grams of sugar or less. Tell him to read the boxes and figure it out.
For another exercise, have him help you read a recipe. If you double
or half the recipe, that makes even more work for his mathematics.
He could count the change at the store to make sure it's the right
amount.
I think it is very important to read aloud to children and keep it fun.
If you get some interesting picture books with large type, he can
follow along. Just teaching him the habit of reading, and connecting
it with pleasure and relaxation is very important.
Maybe he needs to build up his social skills through group activity
like softball, theater, cub scouts, or other groups that will get him
to interact more with other children his age. The confidence building
might help him.
L
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| For reading:
have a treasure hunt in you home (and/or outdoors). Make up little
directions, like Go check under the bed, or Open the refrigerator door.
Leave notes in each location directing to the next location. Some could
be tougher. "Look under the tallest thing in the living room", or"open
the 3rd drawer from the top on the left hand side of the desk". At the
end, have a "treausre" of some sort. It might be a new pencil, or a
small cookie, or a matchbox car, or whatever.
send your child little notes. Just simple like "I really love you" or
"I'm proud of you", or "I like being with you". Not only are they fun
to read, but they'll make him feel good, too. And, who knows... someday
you may find notes like that form *him*!
For math:
Have him measure the furniture. Really. Ask which things might fit
where. Could the refrigerator fit into the bathroom? Can I put the
couch along that wall? How many differnt things can fit into the same
space as the couch takes up? If it is feasible, you might want to let
him "rearrange" his room, first on paper, and then actually help him do
it, once he's sure everything will fit. He'll learn about how much
space things take up, how much room he needs to walk between things,
how much room it takes to open his closet door, etc. Help him learn to
estimate... "Do you think your dresser is wider than your bed?" Which
is longer, the ______ or the _____?" Then check by actual measuring.
Give your child the grocery ads from the paper. Tell him to find the
cheapest thing on the page. The most expensive. Tell him to buy as many
of any one thing as he can with $5. Then buy the fewest of any one item
with $5. Help him plan a good meal for the family using "X" amount of
dallars. A variation is to give him a catalog and have him pick out
clothes or toys or furniture or whatever, when only allowed to spend a
certain amount of money. He may learn very quickly how very expensive
stuff is today!
Have him watch the odometer when you do errands. Have him estimate
which route is shortest, then figure it out by actually clocking it.
Have him make a map of the routes and places he travels regularly with
the mileage written in (don't be too fussy about scale, but you might
want to point out, if he doesn't "see" it that longer lines on the map
would represent the longer distances.)
I'm all thought out for the moment. If I think of more, I'll jot 'em in
here.
--dave--
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| Throw dice and add up the numbers. After 3, 4, or 10 turns each, who
has the higher score.
Neither of my parents received much formal education. My mother, who
can but doesn't read, asked my father, who does read, where he learned
to read. His response was that he read the labels on boxes that he
unloaded, read the words on trucks that went by, and read street signs.
I was pretty impressed with his motivation, discipline, and
accomplishment.
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| We recently started playing Junior Monopoly with our son Kevin in the evening.
Kevin is 5 years old and in kindergarten. It's a great game in my opinion on
helping get basic math concepts across, adding subtracting and calculating
money. The game usually lasts about 45 minutes or so. It's amazing how fast
Kevin has caught on to handling some basic math concepts. He's learning such
concepts as 2 + 2 = 4 and that 3 + 1 = 4 (unless you're in Congress! ;-) ).
Every Friday Kevin's kindergarten teacher sends home a news bulletin on what the
his class did for the week as well as what they will be working on next week.
We usually spend some time working on the letter of the week, no more than
15 - 30 minutes during the weekend. Looking for pictures in magazines,
practicing printing the letter. See if his teacher will send home a synopsis
of what is planned for the next week on Friday. I know Kevin has gained alot
of confidence because he is prepared what what they are learning that week.
We also gave him a desk and chair, my husband's when he was a child. He loves
having a place of his own to work at. He has a coffee mug with his pencils and
pens and I buy him lots of colored paper. The desk is nothing fancy but he loves
the idea of being able to go off and "Work" like Mom and Dad.
Best of luck,
Patty
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