Review & Giveaway: Math House Games

I've spent a bit of time over the past week or so with a new math product intended for kids in preschool through early elementary ages.  Trina, my kindergartner, has been my test subject.  Richard (2nd grade) thought he was far too mature for this.  He will, however, be joining in.  Just not at the beginning.


Carlito C. Caterpillar's Math House Games is a set of 8" x 4" cards -- thirty of them -- on a ring.  Twenty of the cards have math games, with a version of the same concept on each side.  That means there are forty math games in all.

The games are split into three stages:

1. Quantity (Steps 1-10)
2. Numeration (Steps 11-14)
3. Operations (Steps 15-20)

The final games involve multiplication and division, so this definitely is something that can take you well past "preschool" math.

The cards contain the instructions for playing the games, and a list of "stuff" you will need.  That stuff might include socks, fruit, chickpeas, notepaper.... or it might include the special manipulatives that you can download.

I was disappointed that the link to the downloads was incorrect.  However, it was pretty easy to find on the website.  From the home page, you click through to downloads, and scrolling down to the manipulative pages, which are available as pdf files by stage.


The first cards are introductory in nature, talking about the myths about teaching math to young kids, for instance.  I disagreed with a couple points made, but overall, I thought this was an excellent discussion, particularly good for parents who are just starting off with their oldest child.

Trina and I are having a lot of fun with these games, and I will continue to use these for a lot of her kindergarten math.  I don't tend to believe in "formal" math at this age anyway, and I am impressed with the approach used here.

Would you like to win a copy?  I have one to give away.  I'm trying something new with Rafflecopter, so I'd love feedback on this as well!  And...for the Facebook option for me, if you are friends with me on Facebook already, go ahead and click "I did this."  If you aren't, you can find my page here, and friend request me, then click "I did this."  It wouldn't be any fun if I did this all right the first time!





Disclosure of Material Connection: I received one or more of the products or services mentioned above for free in the hope that I would mention it on my blog. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.