April 2021
Welcome to EFM's First Newsletter!
Much has happened with Early Family Math since many of you signed up for this newsletter. If you haven’t gone to the website in a while, you should check it out!
We now have a friendlier and more intuitive website
Interactive Storybooks – We have 20 Preverbal Storybooks to read to the youngest range of children (with more to come).
Video page – This page now links to the over 60 excellent videos Michael Minas made with his son Nash showing how to play various math games. Over time, we will have videos specific to Early Family Math activities. These videos provide an excellent opportunity to learn how to do the activities and get ideas for how to interact with your child during the activities.
Activities downloads and Excerpts are all on the new Activities page.
The Who We Are page now has four people, with one or two more to be added soon!
Things in the Works:
Spanish and Catalan translations are started – If you know anyone willing to volunteer to do any other translations, we would love to talk with them.
Chapter 5 – Ideas for activities are being collected and worked on.
More Storybooks – Storybooks for children older than the Preverbal level are being annotated and prepared.
Here are some New Activities for you to enjoy!
Chapter 2 – The In-Between Game – A game from Michael Minas
Use one set of Number Cards from 0 to 10, or one suit of cards with Queen (used as 0), Ace (used as 1), and 2 to 10. Each player gets 20 tokens. For a turn, shuffle cards, deal two cards face up and deal a third card face down between them. The player decides to bet 0 to 3 tokens that the third card is between the two cards. If the player is right, the player gets that many tokens from the other player. If the player is wrong, that many tokens go to the other player. You can play 5 rounds or until one player runs out of tokens. The player with the most tokens wins.
Chapter 3 – Pyramid Region Sums – A puzzle from The New York Time
Create a pyramid of connected circles with 5 circles in the base row. Every straight line of circles will have the numbers from 1 to 5 at most once. The puzzle will start with some of those numbers filled in. The sum of the three surrounding circles is placed in some of the regions. The challenge is to fill in the remaining circles. Decreasing the size of the puzzle to 4 on a side will make it easier, and increasing it to 6 will make it harder.
Creating these puzzles is easy. Start by filling in the triangle so there are no repeats in any straight line. Next, pick a few triangles and put in the sum of the circles around them. Finally, remove the numbers from some of the circles (leave in a lot for a child new to this puzzle).
Point out to your child that any sums given that are very small or very large will greatly limit the possibilities. If the sum is 6, it must be surrounded by 1-2-3; if it is 7, it must be 1-2-4; if it is 11, it must be 2-4-5; and if it is 12, it must be 3-4-5.
Chapter 4 – Get Out of My House – A game from Michael Minas
Use a deck of cards with numbers from 1 (Ace) to 10. On a shared piece of paper, draw 20 boxes (you can draw simple houses if you like) numbered from 0 to 19. Each player has 7 tokens distinct from the other player’s 7 tokens. On a turn, a player selects two random cards. With an eye on what is available, the player can choose to add or subtract the cards (or multiply them). They can then place their token in the numbered house as long as it does not contain more than two of the opponent’s tokens. If it contains one or two of the opponent’s tokens, those tokens are given back to the opponent and the player says “Get out of my house.” The first player to put all their tokens in houses wins.
If you have any questions or comments, please send them my way. I would enjoy the opportunity to electronically chat with you.
- Chris
chris@kitchentablemath.com