Did you use Cuisenaire Rods for math when you were a child? My mother found mine in a closet and gave them to us. They are a wonderful tool for math. Wonderful. Little Hen wants to do a math lesson with them daily, and after her intense focus on the lesson, both she and Firecracker will play freely with them for quite a while before putting them away.Â
For those not familiar, these are beautifully colored wooden rods used to teach anything from simple addition to geometry to fractions, to patterns…you name the mathematical subject, and you can use Cuisenaire Rods as a natural learning tool.Â
(Little Hen and Firecracker laying out sums – here it’s 8’s.)
We are actually using set curriculum, which includes the lesson cards that came with the set, and a notebook of lessons from my days taking educational math methods in undergrad.  (Yes, sometimes I stray from the “unschooling” path…although, if it’s  Little Hen’s request to work from the curriculum, isn’t that still unschooling? For that matter, why are labels important at all, especially when simply cultivating a love of learning is the goal?)
Wishing you a day full of mathematical enjoyment and exploration! (Yes, math can be fun, as my girls will tell you!)
I think Cuisenaire rods are the coolest! I’d never heard of them until I met DH. He loved them growing up (and now he’s a Mathematician :-). We’ll use them with DS for sure!
Of course math can be fun (says your math teacher husband).