Four is a great age; it's so much fun. There are lots of activities that can be done with a four-year-old. Alex's interests also pull Christian along so it's been a double blessing.
Lately, Alex has become interested in numbers and math, especially after U started playing games with him like asking "If 3 alpacas are playing and 2 more join in the game, how many alpacas are there?" Christian joins in too.
In lieu of this new interest, I revived a game I tried unsuccessfully with them a few months back. We had some wooden numbers (1 through 6) from a birthday ring lying around. I lined up the numbers and had the boys park the correct number of cars underneath the corresponding number. Then I mixed up the numbers. Alternately, I lined up cars and had them label with the correct number. To my delight, they loved this game. Christian can only do up to 3 but it's a good start.
I was never much interested in math. I got good grades in the subject but it never made much sense to me; it was just about memorizing a bunch of formulas. U also had unpleasant math experiences so one of the things we're hoping to do is to help the boys have a different relationship with numbers and math. Today, I found this awesome book, Anno's Math Games and it's successor, Anno's Math Games II in the library. I know of the author (Mitsumasa Anno) through his other beautifully drawn picture books. Besides the attraction of the drawings in this book, he is able to introduce mathematical concepts in such a fun way. Alex couldn't get enough of it and some of it is easy enough for Christian to do too. We'll have to add these two, plus the third one to our library.
Coincidentally, the New York Times is doing a series about math.
This is what I love about having kids. I get to relearn everything I never learned well in the first place.
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