Reading Practice: Treasure Hunt (Age 5)

Exercise:  I hide a cookie somewhere, then hide a hint describing where the cookie is, then hide a hint describing where that hint is, and so on.  I try to use some words he knows, some phonetic words, and some sight words he doesn't know.

Results: AWESOME!  Benny loves the game more than the cookie.  And he's picking up words quickly and voluntarily making a lot of effort to learn the words.

Putting a Video on YouTube (Age 5)

Exercise: We uploaded a couple videos to YouTube (unlisted, by link only) and then he viewed them in the YouTube app on my mom's tablet.

I want to plant the idea in Benny's mind (many times in many ways) that the world is malleable - that he can change things and contribute.


Results:  So-so.  Benny thought it was funny to see himself on YouTube.  But he lost interest quickly.  It's hard to tell if it will make a lasting impact on him.

Addition and Subtraction (age 5)

Exercise: I wrote addition and subtraction expressions using small numbers on cups and hid the same number of peanuts of fruit snacks underneath each cup.  Benny gets to eat the contents if he can guess the right number.  I started off with very simple addition (e.g. 1+1, 1+0) then moved to more difficult addition (e.g. 2+2, 3+2) and then to simple subtraction (1-0, 2-1) and then to more difficult subtraction (e.g. 5-3, 4-2).

Note: Benny had previously learned some addition through flash cards and a YouTube video.  He had also had some exposure to subtraction by "subtracting"/eating small food items.

Results: Awesome! Before he started kindergarten, Benny understood the concepts of addition and subtraction as well as the symbols for both.  Using his fingers, he is able to add two small numbers (< 5) and to subtract 0 and 1 from small numbers successfully.  He still struggles with larger numbers.