Money (Age 4-5)

Exercise 1: I gave Benny a dollar every time he completed his daily time for the Upstart program.  I gave him a pouch to keep the money.  I hand him the money and let him put it in the pouch.

Results: Pretty good.  He didn't care about the money much except as some generic reward.

Exercise 2: I take Benny to a store and let him pick a toy.  I tell him when he does or doesn't have enough money for each toy.  I have him hand the money to the cashier.  I also explain a couple times that it's not his toy yet until he pays for it and that he trades the money for the toy.

Results: Pretty good. When we went to the store the first time, he asked me how many dollars does each toy cost.  He probably asked about the price of 100 toys that first time.  He seems to get the concept of buying things.  The first time I explained that the toy wasn't his until he gave her the money (our cashier was female).  The next time, he asked if he can open it yet or if its "hers".

Percent (Age 5)

Exercise 1:  I printed this sheet and showed it to Benny and quizzed him on which is which percent.

Results: So-so.  Because of the fractions exercise, Benny immediately pointed to the 100% bar and said "I want that cookie!" Afterwards, he was able to point out which is which percent, but only by reading the labels underneath the picture.

Exercise 2:  Benny likes the Angry Birds app (too much).  When the Angry Birds app is loading, it shows a percent complete.  So I point that out to him and ask him what percent.  A certain version of Angry Birds also has levels that score on a percent.

Results:  Mediocre.  He understands that when the loading bar gets to 100, the app starts.  He also looked at the percentages and seemed to be thinking, but his focus kept returning quickly to the game and it was hard to tell if he got the concept.

Fractions (Age 5)

Exercise 1:  I printed this image (created with Google Sheets) and showed it to Benny.  I pointed to each pie chart and identified which fraction it represents.

Results: Good.  Benny was able to name some of the fractions and seemed to understand that the words "third" and "fourth" meant less than a whole.

Exercise 2: I printed this image, took out some crayons and filled in a couple circles, copying the color image above.  Then, I encouraged Benny to do the same for the rest of the circles.

Results: Poor.  He filled in a couple by copying the image and then got bored.  He didn't seem to learn anything.

Excercise 3:  I asked Benny if he wanted a half, a third, or a fourth of a cookie.

Results: So-so.  He said a whole cookie.  I repeated the question and he chose a fourth.  Then I showed him a fourth and he changed his mind to a half.