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Math-rich baby and toddler environment
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- Put up some math-rich pictures! Mon, 2011-03-07 03:27
- End-of-course meeting Monday, and one last task... Mon, 2011-03-07 02:36
- Kirsten, Hailey and "hide-and-seek" game mechanic Tue, 2011-03-01 04:14
- Strewing math around the house: beyond numbers and shapes Wed, 2011-02-23 13:08
- Can your baby multiply? Sun, 2011-02-20 20:03
Kirsten, Hailey and "hide-and-seek" game mechanic
Kirsten wrote, in part:
I am so excited!
Hailey usually comes to the door, knocks and calls for mama or daddy. Sometimes we will stand on the other side and knock back on the door.
I heard her stirring from her nap and knew that the knocking was soon to follow. When I heard her shuffle her feet to the door, I began knocking before she did. Tap, tap tap. Then I heard her tap back, three times. I thought, "huh," and tapped four times. She did the same. And the same with five, and back to three.
So yeah, some of it had to do with rhythm, but I do think that she is beginning to count, in her head! YAY!
When I read it, I thought of my friend Chris Hazard, a computer scientist and game designer (Achron). He makes great presentations about game theory - you can find several slide shows here: http://www4.ncsu.edu/~cjhazard/ One of game principles is HIDDEN INFORMATION.
Here are two similar and very different game examples:
- "Battleship" or Sue's hide-n-seek game initially hides all information about game pieces position
- Maze games reveal all information about maze part positions - it's analyzing it that's challenging, and fun
What can you do for your babies with hidden info? Follow Kirsten and Hailey and hide something! Kirsten was behind a door and that made knocking into a fun game for Hailey. You can cover a few objects and help the baby feel them without looking. You can cover a part of the pattern and invite the kid to guess what's under there. You can play "hide-n-seek equations" where toddlers deduce parts of the story that are hidden. For example, seven dwarves went into the mine but only five came out. How many do we need to rescue? When you play, "the mine" can be a bag or a box or any other hiding place the kid can't see.
If we talk about math, hide-n-seek is the metaphor for unknown or variables - useful ideas that babies love, in appropriate forms.
Not sure if this is the same idea, but we've played a very simple hide-and-seek game with numbers and shapes. I drew a grid on a piece of paper and put numbers from 1 to 10 in each cell. Then I wrote the same numbers on the rectangles of pink construction paper (the only color I had handy at the time). The rectangles were the same size as the cells. Then I stuff pink rectangles into envelopes and hid the envelopes around the house for Mark to find. He loved the game and we've played it at least 10 times in the last couple of weeks. It can be modified in so many ways... Including creating some kind of rule (other than a simple matching) that governs which card goes into which cell.