Time (age 5)

Exercise:  Benny asked what time travel is (after watching a cartoon).  I then tried to explain to him what time is, using three things he cares about: dinosaurs, himself, and how old he is.  "In the past, you were a baby.  Now you're five.  In the future, you'll be ten.  In the past you were a baby.  Far in the past, there were dinosaurs."

Results:  Not sure.  At the time, he looked at the picture for a while and then went back to his cartoon.  But later, he asked if in the past, he was a baby in his mom's tummy.

Waterford Institute Upstart program (year before kindergarten)

The Waterford Upstart program is web-based software that teaches kids to read.  The software feels clunky and old, but it does the job.  It's relatively complete.  Benny now can read a little bit and this program did more than half of the work

It was frustrating for the first month or two because Benny wasn't very interested in the first few activities.  But once he got used to it, it worked wonders when he was in the mood for it.

Anatomy Book

This book was pretty good.  Benny liked it, asked a lot of questions about what different things are.  Although I don't think he'll remember everything, I do think it was a good introduction.

http://a.co/4xtEMWB

Addition (age 5)

Exercise 1 (age 5): Benny surprisingly liked this addition video on YouTube.

Results: Benny memorized how to add 1 and 0 to small, one-digit numbers.  He also got exposed to the "+" and "=" signs.

Exercise 2 (age 4):  Flash cards with dots.

Results: Awesome.  Benny understood the concept immediately.  However, he still has to count the dots most of the time.

Zero (age 4)

Exercise 1 (age 4):  I put 2 peanuts in my hand.  I asked him how many peanuts there were.  Then I put 1 peanut in my hand and asked him how many.  Then I took and asked him how many.

Results: Great! He seemed a little confused at first.  I told him there were zero peanuts.  To reinforce the idea, I put 1 peanut in one hand and 0 in the other and told him "There is 1 peanut in this hand and 0 peanuts in this hand."  He seems to understand the concept of zero very well.

Number Square (age 5)

Exercise 1:  I printed a numbers square showing 1-100, but with several numbers missing.  The missing numbers were cut out and I told Benny to tape the missing numbers in place.

Results:  Somewhat good.  He knew which numbers were missing maybe 30% of the time.  He could get most of them with a little prompting.  He really liked this activity and asked to do it again.

Chores / Responsibility (age 5)

Exercise 1 (age 5):  I got Benny a calendar, ask him to clean his toys and give him a star after he does.

Results: Mixed.  I don't always remember to tell him to clean his toys.  And even when I do, he isn't always motivated by the stars.