Posted in My Homeschool FAQs

My  5 year old daughter and I spent yesterday morning doing Math with dry beans and an egg carton.  First I took an 18 pack egg carton and cut off the lid.  Next I wrote the numbers 1 - 18 in the bottom of each little egg cup with a Sharpie Marker. 



Then I gave her a bowl of dry beans and had her put the appropriate amount of beans in each little egg cup.  Once she had them all done I checked to make sure she had the right amount of beans in each. 



Then we started doing addition.  I had her take the beans from the 1 and the 2 cup and count them all together.  She quickly realized 1+2=3.  Then we did a bunch of other numbers.  She loved this and it was  major lightbulb moment for her!  Addition really makes sense to her now.  It's as simple as counting beans!  Next we took the beans from the twelves cup and laid them out in 2 rows of 5 and 1 row of 2.  I had the 2 rows of 5 together to make ten.  I showed her how the number 12 is really a 10 and a 2 added together.  We talked about place value and she could totally see how the teens numbers are just 10 + any single digit number.  It was a really great Math lesson.  I had everything we needed on hand on the kitchen and it didn't cost me a cent!  Now that's what I call successful homeschooling.

The dish cloth to keep the beans from rolling around was my daughters idea!
What an ingenious child!

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Comments

Posted by preschoolmommy

WHAT A GREAT IDEA! I'm going to try this. that is so much fun...I can't wait. I have the beans and the carton...I'm excited about trying this out!

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Posted by preschoolmommy

...where did you find the templates for the body parts? Did you trace your own kids and then just free hand the "innerd" or did you get them off the i-net or from a book? I wanna do this next week, but not sure where to look. THANKS!
psm

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Posted by jaminacema

I more or less just free handed the organs. I didn't get too detailed. I looked at a few that I wasn't sure what they look like online. (Like the pancrease I had no idea!) After we made our bodies we spent some time on the internet sites I posted doing a more in depth study. Have fun!!!

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Posted by nitascool

We really love the zoo. I never went to the zoo growing up and didn't visit one until my oldest was 4, now we are hooked!

I really like the math idea I think I will try it for my 4 year old. I think it will be a good bit of fun busy work for him while I do school work with his big brother and he would be reinforcing his math skills. Thanks for the great idea.

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Posted by eyecorn

I had to come back today and check out this idea again for my DD5. Great idea with the towel...children are so inventive!

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Posted by ChathamMommy

What a great way to do it (and no expensive math manipulatives, either *grin*). I do think I need to try this one with my DS4. :)

Thanks for sharing-- especially the cute photo.

Chelo

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Posted by hiplvmom2

WOW you have some super duper great ideas!

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Posted by BarbaraFrank

We do the same thing with an 18-ct. egg carton and a jar of old buttons. My son has Down syndrome and is developmentally delayed, but even though he is 13 and can now count past 18, he's still not ready to give up the game :)

Thanks for stopping by my blog---glad you enjoyed the post.

Barb

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Posted by mamaduso

Ok, you have great ideas and I really need to spend more itme here. I love the beans and egg carton math. I will have to do that for my 4 yr old when she is ready. She is very tactile so this might work. Now where do I keep a record of all these great ideas. Do you have an idea on that. I see so many great things on blogs and then can't remember where something is when I need it.
Susan

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Posted by Homeschooling6

Thanks so much! What a great idea!
Blessings,
Linda<><

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