Some Kindergarten Math

I am so shocked at math in Kindergarten.  When I was in Kindergarten, I don't remember the standards of math being so high!  And yet, I am watching my five year old master the basics of addition and subtraction.  I don't have fancy manipulatives.  I keep forgetting to buy some cheap plastic checkers or even beads.  So... we are stuck with using beans.  It works for us for now.

Megan is learning what happens if you have a certain number of items and you add more or take some away.  I'm fascinated about how quickly Megan is picking it up!  The use of the activities suggested at the bottom of the lessons in the Singapore Essential Math workbooks are simple yet concrete.  Megan has done wonderfully with seeing how things work, and then being able to translate that to the picture problems in the workbook.  So far, a dry erase board and some beans have been great educational tools.