Couple months ago, I was invited to a Singapore Math session by “Dearest Community” to learn benefits of Singapore Math and Early Numeracy program. Furthermore, recently I read an article that the world’s richest person, Jeff Bezos, one that has amassed his wealth by being creative and trying unorthodox ways of solving problems, uses the same approach for their children’s education. “We tried all sorts of things … Mandarin lessons, the Singapore math program, and lots of clubs and sports with other neighborhood kids,” MacKenzie Bezos told Vogue.
Singapore Math uses a three-step learning model, moving from the concrete: blocks, cards, buttons, whatever to the “pictorial” phase — a bridge between concrete and abstract, to the abstract equations: 2 + 3 = 5. To learn more about Singapore Math you can read following links:
Little did W3 knew that kids as young as 12 months can understand math and there are many visual, fun and engaging ways to teach them sometimes boring and dry concepts of math. This week our Sunday Funday activity was inspired by Singapore Math. We took her love for colors and combined it with pattern recognition & counting numbers using different shapes and textures.
Step 1 – We started with exploring different colors and crayon
Step 2 – We created a quick pattern using some pom pom and math blocks (easily available on Amazon). You can also use what you have at home such as LEGOs, stackable colorful blocks, etc (options are unlimited). We showed her the pattern and told her different colors and shape. She was all excited to pick them up and put it in her mouth 😊!!
Step 3 – We then removed the pattern and placed the first yellow pom pom and said this is yellow, the next is orange and so we completed the pattern. Next, we started putting the math blocks in the same sequence and talked through the sequence with her. Finally, after couple rounds she pointed at the next sequence color and could recognize “Yellow” and “Orange”. If you have a grown up, you can ask your child how many yellow blocks do we have and how many orange and have him/her to add it (options are endless with the activity).
Step 4 – Next we created a quick pictorial image of what we were doing in Step 3 and showed that to Siya and repeated the step 3 activity.
It was a Funday for us as we always look for some exciting and creative ways to teach Siya and this was on top of the list. Siya enjoyed the activity, and could recognize colors, understand some sequencing of items and predict “what comes next (she did it few times)?
Let us know what you think about Singapore Math/Pattern recognition and what did you do this weekend with your kids!!
Little Did W3 Knew 
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