Numeracy

In the same way that we teach numeracy through experiential learning to young children, this will be the best way to teach Kate numeracy concepts. Kate will need to be actively involved in her learning and learn numeracy via real life, integrated experiences, so the numbers and concepts have meaning.

One big gap that needs to be filled in relation to Kate's numeracy skills is understanding that numbers match with something. A good start on this would be to teach Kate what numbers not only look like but feel like in her life. Everything needs to be applied to her life for her to understand it.

Telling the time, using money and other real life skills are other areas Kate still needs to work on.

Here are some tips for integrated learning experiences that will help with Kate's numeracy reasoning, problem solving and ability to apply numeracy to life situations. These are also experiences that Kate may one day replicate with children on a smaller scale.

Numeracy Based Integrated Experiences

Design a Dress

This is a project Kate has started where she designed her dream dress that she and her mum will it sew together. It involves numeracy concepts such as measurement in centimetres and metres, money and online shopping, multiplication as well as literacy (reading patterns), developing fine motor skills (cutting, matching) and design (this helps with thinking skills, making decisions, imagination and problem solving).

Plan a Holiday

Kate really wants to go to India and has done a lot of research on India as part of Project India. A natural extension of Kate's learning and her interest in India is for her to plan a holiday including: finding out how much everything will cost including researching flights and accommodation and then making a budget/how much spending money you need each day, learn about currency exchange, learn how far India is and how long it will take to get there. You could drill down to find out the distance between certain locations in India and plan specific day trips. You could start small before India and plan and budget for a mini break to Sydney or somewhere in Victoria. Another extension is to start with budgeting for 1 person and then find out how much it would cost for two people or a group of 4, leading into numerical operations like addition and multiplication.

Plan a Dinner Party for Your Friends

As something to look forward to post lockdown, Kate could plan a dinner party (plan the menu, find out how much of everything is needed and measure for the number of people coming, budget for the shopping, write a menu, write invitations, do the decorations, pick the play list, set the table, cook the meal with mum). The possibilities are endless here. You can go so far as to choose dress code and explain restaurant and table setting etiquette. You could link into cultural competency by planning a culturally significant menu - Indian perhaps? Morrocan? Greek? All are Kate's favourites. This is a project that Kate could do with her mum who loves to cook.

Build a Kitten House

Due to Covid-19, Kate has not been able to explore a very important type of play that she is not so familiar with and that is constructive play. Kate has always been a bit aversive to "building" things even with lego and was very fixated on children being safe when shown photos of children showing their capabilities and sawing wood for example. She did enjoy building the turtle enclosure but it would be great to combine "building" and "design" in a project where Kate could build something. She should use real life materials, hammers, nails, wood, super glue, saws. All this is part of taking risks and would also help strengthen Kate's fine motor and gross motor skills and muscle tone. Kate could research Kitten scratching posts and figure out a design for one, find out what materials would be needed and go to Bunnings when its open or do click and collect and get wood and tools and build a kitten post or house for her cats. This would be a great project to link in with sustainability and use recycled materials like scraps of wood, scarps of carpet etc.

Create a Rally

As Kate has been really enjoying getting out for a walk, as a fun Covid lockdown activity and working on connection with friends as well as numeracy, she could create a Rally. It could involve Kate walking to different destinations and taking a picture of herself there on her iPhone. She could send those pictures say to Alle with a clue for each picture and Alle then goes for a walk to where she thinks Kate was (the places would all be within 5 kms) and takes a picture of herself there and sends back to Kate. This could become a two way game. You could extend the game so that there are no photos just clues based on distance (how far), close to/far from, descriptions of the places, activities that are usually done at those places.

Write a Dance

"Dance Writing" has been shown in research to promote numeracy understanding of sequences, symbols and patterns. Kate could write a dance and write down the number of beats each step will go for. She can use counts of 8 or 16 or base it on the music cues. She could then write down the steps with the beats next to the lyrics, combining physical activity, literacy and numeracy all in one.