Using Subitizing with an Object Addition Table

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  • August 30, 2019 at 11:46 am
    CarmenMiller
    Participant

    I’ve been using Richele Baburina’s book and DVD to teach my son and so far, it’s going great. We are at the stage of learning addition and subtraction facts using a table constructed of pennies or beads, but my son resists using it. I think that part of it is that he’s trying to challenge himself and wants to do it in his head, but lately I’ve wondered if it’s too visually “busy” for him as a tool. (My hunch is based on my own reaction to the table and knowing that he thinks and learns a lot like me). When I see long rows of objects (more than about 5), I can’t quickly take in the number and have to sit and count the objects instead, so once we get to the larger numbers using the tables, it becomes very tedious. Before I found Charlotte Mason, we had already started another pre-K/K level curriculum that taught subitizing in order to build number sense, and I’m wondering if modifying the table so that the objects were grouped in rows of five (like many subitizing cards I’ve seen). What do y’all think? Is this a crutch or still in the spirit of how these tables should be used?

    August 30, 2019 at 1:59 pm
    Wings2fly
    Participant

    It has been years ago for us, but RightStart taught addition strategies of five and one are six, five and two are seven, etc.  Their AL abacus uses five yellow and five blue beads.  My children did well with these.  I have watched Richele’s math video, and I like the CM methods.   However, I think I would tweak the table to see those five objects a little differently than the rest.  Maybe five old wheat pennies and five shiny new pennies in each row?  Or use two different colors of beads.  I like how the pennies help teach one cent or one unit, though.

    September 14, 2019 at 10:08 pm
    CarmenMiller
    Participant

    Thanks!

    I’m going to try just grouping them into two rows of fives. And I’m also going to use a large whiteboard that I can lay flat and actually draw lines between each row to make it a little more visually clear. 🙂

    September 15, 2019 at 10:09 pm
    Ruralmama
    Participant

    I have read Rachel’s book and really liked it, but am using rightstart as it is easier for me (4 children 1 a baby, fixing up old house canning…;)

    1 thing I really like about Rightstart is the abacus. It is already set up to use and the baby can’t eat it;) If you want something less visually busy and time consuming to set up, you could easily add the AL abacus to Rachel’s lessons sometimes. I think Kate’s homeschool math website has ideas for using it with any math curriculum. The 9 is 5+4 and 7 is 5+2 so 9+7 is two fives (so 10) +4+2 has really helped my son easily learn his addition and subtraction facts. He is accurate and fast.

    Now on to conquer multiplication….; ( I never really memorized these…

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