Tuesday, October 6, 2009

learning to think


Though I bought these math manipulatives when the kids were in kindergarten, we still use them on a regular basis. It is things like this that get the brain working to solve problems, work on thinking skills, spacial reasoning...and like I said in my last post ~ creative play.
One of my goals with homeschooling has been to teach my kids to think. Not just know the right answer, but give them the skills to figure it out them selves. That is one of the reasons we try and carve out time every day to do puzzles, games and activities like the ones pictures here that allow them the chance to think. (HERE is another favorite activity to get you thinking)

5 comments:

Unknown said...

This entry of yours just came the same time I remembered learning Reverse Polish Notation. My high school math teacher didn't allow calculators, unless they were RPN. He never thought anyone would learn to use them, but when I did, he was gracious enough to really let me cut through the busy work. The whole idea was understanding the concepts in Math to be able to turn something into RPN.

By the way RPN is fun. My 10-year-old can do simple RPNing. Your daughters might like it, too.

K-Sue said...

After that last comment, I'm curious about Reverse Polish Notation.

Love the manipulatives flowers.

Tim and Susan said...

Rah rah for more creative play. Chad played that Traffic Jam game that a friend had. He was just looking over my shoulder...we should get that for him, right up his alley.

Unknown said...

K-Sue, if you are serious, there is a pretty decent summary of RPN on Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_Polish_notation

Of course it's there even if you weren't serious. :-D

Julie said...

I loved this post. We are very big into learning how to think and love games, puzzles, sodoku etc...

A favorite school thing for Jonathan and Madi right now is Daily Mind Builders Language Arts by the Critical Thinking Company.

Jonathan just got Rush Hour for his birthday and everyone loves it!!