Number line

Neva become very interested in number line, and she asked if she can make her own by herself, but couldn’t write the numbers no matter how hard she tried. We tried tracing numbers first then writing them, writing them in sand tray etc. but she was still unhappy and kept scrunching up her work. Then she remembered that we had stickers and thus she set to work happily again! She was trying to make it past the 10 into the teens but we run out of 1’s.

Making number line

Counting on number line

After sticking a number on she’d carefully count all of them from the start, then stick another one on.

Then we found some more stickers (they were bigger then previous ones, so I explained that we need to put 12 on the top, because 11 is taking 2 spaces) and so she finished the line.

When she started I had to explain that the numbers go on or under the notch or a mark on the line, as she was putting them in-between the marks. She did the rest by herself.

Few days later after this post I have watched Christina Tondevold’s video and she says the number lines should only be introduced in grade 2 and instead a Number Path should be used and thinking of it now, it makes total sense. In Number Path there’s no line, no marks, no Zero, so child sees what they need to see. Number line creates confusion for small kids (I have seen it on Neva’s face, but didn’t know why before), but these Number lines are everywhere you look!

 

Workout for little fingers. Shredding and threading.

Here is a few things we’ve been enjoying lately that develop hand and wrist muscles and help with grip.

I have cut lots of strips of coloured paper same width as our mini-shredder that I found in a charity shop and they had such fun turning these into lots of colourful shreds.

Shredding coloured paper in mini-shredder

We didn’t know what to use them for at first, but they looked so bright that I kept them.
She used them for a while for her imagination basket and played unicorns in rainbows I think with some trucks and diggers in the mix.

Today we found them again and Neva cut out some cars out of cereal box and I punched some holes through it and she enjoyed threading brights strips of paper through the holes.

DIY lacing cards

She was really proud of her work!

 

Car Lacing card

 

 

Good old Spirograph. Re-vamped.

When your child have not-so-good handwriting for her age and has no interest in writing, colouring, drawing or tracing things to help the handwriting to improve you have to celebrate small wins. She had spent about 30 min today playing with Spirograph. And didn’t even whine once when it was not working out the way she expected. We tried Spirograph before, but she’d give up immediately.

This new set I bought has got bigger holes, multitude of shapes, a booklet of shapes to draw, double pen, luminous markers and glasses that make drawings appear 3D. 

The slight problems – even though the shapes have soft feet, they still move and the wheels keep getting off the tracks and under the shapes, so as you can see I had to help her hold them down. I am sure we’ll find the solution to that.

 

Our Christmas Holidays

We had a fairly relaxing Christmas Holidays at home. Everyone was happy to enjoy later wakings and late bed times. And the massive amount of things that we manages to fit in the longer days almost accidentally. We tried to go out for a walk every day, even if it was a short one. Yesterday, it was raining a lot but there was a small window when it stopped.