Fun with numbers

A few months ago Emma and I started playing with numbers. It is a game where we make up math questions. This game and the rhyming game are two of our favorites.

Off and on and in odd places, Emma will ask if we can play either one.

Lately it has been getting much more complicated.

The other day;

Emma- "Mama, if I have 5 piles of 4 rocks, how many rocks do I have?"

Multiplication! I was a little intimidated. I hate math. Oh well.

Me- "You would have...(counting four times on each finger on one hand) 20 rocks."

Emma- "So if I have 5 piles of 4 rocks and we take 2 piles away, how many do I have now?"

I counted out the 20 again, then we counted out 2 'piles' to subtract, then counted how many we had left.

Might not be the best way to go about doing it, but she understood and enjoyed it (and surprising enough, so did I).

I also explained to her that she just did a math equation. She wanted to do more.

Emma- "If I have 5 horses, I give you one, then you give me three, how many do I have?"

For the last 2 days, it has been this is how we have played our number game. It really is fun, and easy or hard, depending on what we are in the mood for.

Amazing that my child is the one to teach me that math can be fun.

A blast from the past. Emma and Grampy (my dad) reading a book together in 2008.