Last week, I told you about a Math Circle for Teachers my colleagues and I created. I simultaneously created a math circle for a variety of homeschooled kids known as “unschoolers;” this math circle is really just a math circle that I created for my kids.
My kids are 5- and 7-years old, and finding appropriate problems for them is more difficult for me than for the teachers. Fortunately, Zhvokin and Rozhkovskaya have written great books from which to steals problems. I also supplement them with activities from Christopher Danielson, as well as activities I used with my mathematics for elementary education majors (made age-appropriate).
I have had a good turnout so far. We have been meeting monthly for 1.5 years now, and I usually get 7–12 students per session (we usually do two groups of 5ish, since I am not the best at “classroom management”). We use a room at the public library.
This is has been a lot of fun, and it has been remarkably easy to set up (though my wife, who is much more socially connected than I am, rounded up the kids who are not related to me). It is also an interesting task for me to think about what mathematical ideas are important for 6-year olds to know, and then to design a lesson that gets at it that is fun and educational.
Tags: Math Circle
February 16, 2017 at 12:49 am |
It would be great to see some of the math circle problems that you have found the most successful with these kids
February 16, 2017 at 2:00 am |
I am putting this on my list of future blog topics!
March 3, 2017 at 4:31 am |
[…] Ives ask for a list of my Math Circle activities for young children. What Joss asks for, Joss gets, so here is a blog post on the activities. Also, my wife wants a […]