no more troubling doubling

I'm really trying to get over my mental angst about math and set aside more secret--and fun!--math learning throughout the day.

Maddy's been working on doubling, so for the last week or so, we've been having a little doubling fun.

We're not drilling the facts nightly. We're just showing Maddy different ways of checking her work, and (okay...) we're talking silly about doubling now and again.

And we're making math-related computer games a more regular pastime around here.

• Double Trouble: Before we started with the Doubling Activity Sheets I created, we talked about doubles.

the doubling practice sheet with Maddy's little
tally marks below

I'd say, out of the blue, to try to make her giggle: I'm glad I have two eyes, but if I had two more eyes, how many would I have? Or,

I only have three kids--a Maddy, an Owen, and a Cora. If I doubled that and had three more kids, how many would that be? Or,

In my dreams, I'd eat five ice-cream cones today. And then I'd eat five more right after I finished the first five. How many would I have just eaten? Do you think my belly would double in size?

Then one night after dinner, we played with the Doubling Activity Sheets a bit. The Doubling Activity Sheets are here to download as pdf's if you'd like.

I grabbed a handful of marshmallows, and we used them to demonstrate the doubling problems. The low numbers she knew already, but as we reached 6's, 7's, 8's, 9's, and 10's, the marshmallows helped her count out the problems.

We also showed her how to make tally marks or dots to count the numbers if she was stuck, then add the numbers together for the answer. She was totally fine doing a few problems a night--every other night or so--even when we didn't use marshmallows.

I've been on a search lately for some really cool, reliable, ad-free sites packed with worthwhile math games for little ones.

So far, here's what I've found:

• Haunted Hill: Maddy loves this--she gets to practice her tally marks!
• Spooky Sequences by 1's: Silly ghosts line up, and kids pick the missing number.
  
• Spooky Sequences by 2's : Same as above but counting by 2's.
  
• Spooky Sequences by 5's
  
• Spooky Sequences by 10's
• Rats: A funny rat tries to catch objects--colors, shapes, numbers, or letters--and little ones use the arrow keys on the keyboard to show him where to go.
  
• Number Train: Simple counting and mouse-movement practice.
  
• Count Your Chickens: Easy--counting chickens and then clicking on the correct number
  
• Mr. Elephant's Matching Game: Loud. Loud. Way too loud. But it's a simple memory-type matching game, and Owen loves it.
  
• Ambleweb: Not a game, but three levels of straightforward, simple addition facts practice.
• flipping monsters: Finally-- game to practice left and right. We love this one because it's kind of a brain-teaser puzzle and left and right practice in one.
  
• Pattern Blocks I and Pattern Blocks II:Kids design patterns that match the ones given. More difficult, even for Maddy, but I hope to move to this one in a few months.
  
• Interactive Math Site: Most of the sites I've mentioned are listed here, under "Elementary". Some links don't work, but most do. This site is pretty awesome.
  

I'm hoping our math-shift helps a bit.

Even at Maddy's Math Curriculum Night last week (where I was introduced to some of these sites), I nearly had an anxiety attack right there in the media center when they put us in groups and had us work out a few word problems. I ended up copying the guy across from me, and I'm not kidding. I did ask before I did it, though, which in my mind makes it okay. . .

Feel free to send me any other math-related sites you think are worthwhile, and I will add them to this list.

I am scheduled to post our favorite literacy-related sites next week, I promise!