The power of the dice.

Every night (nearly) while Grace is going to sleep Joshua and his Dad David play games with the dice, a game that Dave just invented, but Joshua just loves. The dice makes maths fun and interesting and also forces you to use your brains, which I just love. Yesterday for maths we had 9 dice on the table, I rolled one dice and Grace had to tell me the amount on the dice and she was good. For Joshua we threw 2-3 and he had to add each number on the dice which was so much fun.

We also revised our 2's and 3's times tables with the dice by simply placing the 2 dots up and adding one dice at a time, and Joshua being a visual and hands on learner found a lot of enjoyment out of his maths lesson.

I believe it is vital for the child to know what he/she is learning and not just memorize the facts; the dice was a terrific explanation that multiplication is just repeated addition.

Fun in learning

Today for maths I brought out a card game just to keep our lessons alive and fun. I feel as though 'fun' can be lost even with living books and maths books. Joshua loved this game and yes he did win, the little smarty pants. He was begging for more which is a definite sign that your child is having 'fun'. The sums are very basic but the game encourages you to add and take quickly, a great game to get the brain going in the morning.

Grace had alot of fun practicing her counting and writing her numbers with these lovely cards. First Grace matched together the puzzle then count the amount of animals and their colour. Then on a piece of paper Grace traced over the numbers 3 times each which she says "this is my favourite".

Also for Grace we have started a