Teaching elem math without "teaching"

[naturegirl7]

I am looking for ideas to teach/reinforce math concepts/skills (especially adding and subtracting) with my son (due to enter K in the fall). He is incredibly resistive to formal learning/teaching, totally hates worksheets and prefers independent researching and hands-on stuff like experiments or games.
I bought a bunch of math manipulatives - couting bears, counting cubes, and an abacus - and he has absolutely no interest in them at all....

Right now I have some basic card games like Uno and Dinowars. He enjoys those alot. I get him in the kitchen with me when I am cooking so he is being expose to math that way too. I also try to get him to count produce when we are shopping....He just found a Cosmeo game that is a maze and you need to do Egyptian multiplication do navigate the maze - he really really is interested in that, but it is wayyyy beyond his ability level - I sit with him and have been finally getting some use from our abacus while we try to solve the puzzles together.

Just wondering how else to incorporate math skills into daily life.
Or ideas for sparking his interest - the Egyptian game has sent off some sparks but he gets so frustrated (cuz it is HS level math). Any books about basic ancient math? I can sell anything ancient china and egypt to him LOL

Thanks!!

[LauraLoo]

Here's an excellent website to give you ideas:
www.livingmath.net --- there are some really interesting books that you can read about how formal math began, such as counting, which would go back to the ancient times.

Books:
"Family Math" by Jean Kerr Stenmark -- there is also a junior version of this book, not sure what it's called.

"Games for Math" by Peggy Kaye

"Mathstart" series are also fun books that incorporate math concepts. I'd bet you can find these at your library.
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss...efix=mathstart

[SundayCrepes]

You may find this article interesting: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/...r-own-learning The title of the article is "Kids Learn Math Easily When They Control Their Own Learning"

[Rivka5]

There are a bunch of great math games on the blog http://letsplaymath.net/ .

[vancouverlori]

There's a *fabulous* book you should read called: Ma+h Power: How to Help your Child Love Math even if You Don't by Patricia Kenschaft - a mathematician, not a teacher.

She believes very strongly that in the K to mid-way through Gr.1, the focus should be on numeracy rather than computations. Getting really familiar with numbers up to 10. And she has some great ideas for resources and activities.

We play a lot of games - playing with dice, talking about stuff he wants to buy with his allowance ($1 per year), etc. And he's very comfortable with the basic computations, though I've seldom "taught" him anything (which he won't let me anyway).