The CAMathories® Approach
Much of the teaching of early mathematics to young children, including that provided by current online packages, is ineffective as it fails to take into account what we know about how young children learn. In particular, it has been consistently shown to be crucial that children are emotionally engaged by tasks, as they are playful and relevant to their interests. The approach of the current CAMathories® games design is fundamentally based on this considerable body of evidence which shows improvements in performance and learning in young children when tasks are placed in contexts that give them a meaningful purpose. This is a long-established principle related to children’s learning dating back to the early, classic work of Istomina (1975) and Donaldson (1978) (For a fuller discussion of these approaches, see Whitebread, 1995).
In CAMathories®, using a story (a meaningful context) that young children and parents are familiar with and fond of, is more effective than teaching abstract math as our approach engages the emotional and cognitive responses and development of young children that can give children confidence and ensures that they feel comfortable and engaged as they learn.
Donaldson, M. (1978) Children’s Minds. Lindon: Fontana.
Istomina, Z. M. (1975). The development of voluntary memory in preschool-age children. Soviet Psychology, 13(4), 5-64.
Whitebread, D. (1995) Emergent Mathematics or How to Help Young Children become Confident Mathematicians, in J. Anghileri (Ed.), Children’s Thinking in Primary Mathematics: Perspectives on Children’s Learning, London: Cassell.
(Written by Dr. David Whitebread)
劍數說™金髮小姑娘和三隻熊
計數原理，基本形狀的特徵，大小排序
This first one of CAMathories® series, designed for 3-5 year old children, tells the tale of the Goldilocks and the Three Bears. What will Goldilocks find when she goes into this cottage that she hasn’t seen before? What will Daddy Bear, Mummy Bear and Baby Bear find when they return from their early morning walk?
This telling of this well-loved fairy tale involves young children in helping Goldilocks to enter 3 Bears Cottage, to eat some of their delicious breakfast, and to choose a nice comfy bed to have a lie down on afterwards. But if only she had read the sign over the door, she might have thought twice about entering a cottage when she didn’t know who lived there!
The math games and puzzles involved in this little adventure involve the children in:
• knocking on the cottage door the right number of times to open it
• naming the shapes of the toast, counting their corners (including the idea of zero)
and many more....
General notes on the CAMathories® website provide guidance for how to play the games with your children so that they have fun and learn some valuable math skills. Each game in the story is also accompanied by abundant parents' notes. The icon of Notes for each game is at the top right-hand corner of the screen. Click on it and the notes will pop up on the screen.
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劍數說™三隻小豬和大壞狼
排列組合，觀察技巧，模式和形狀
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劍數說™醜小鴨
計數原理，加總數字對，加法和減法之間的反向關係
父母和照護者的角色
如果不間斷地直接一口氣看完，這些劍數說™每個約佔5到10分鐘。
然而，它們都包含許多由坎特伯教授提出的遊戲和謎題，幼兒們解決這些問題的時間也各不相同。這些故事，遊戲和謎題均以符合3-5歲幼兒們適當的挑戰性而特別設計。
因此，首先，作為父母和看護人，與您的孩子一起共賞這些故事以及共玩其中的遊戲是非常重要的。享受與孩子一起討論這些遊戲，並鼓勵孩子談論他們的想法。過程中的一些操作孩子可能會需要您的協助，例如: 在螢幕上拖移物件或使用滑鼠，手指墊，觸摸屏..等等，之類的點選操作。
如果您的孩子需要協助，可以由照護者先向他們示範如何玩一個遊戲或拆解一個謎題，示範的過程中仔細地跟描述孩子照護者的動作和步驟。一旦照護者和孩子一起玩了幾次故事而感覺孩子準備好了，就鼓勵他們自己玩。
幼兒往往需要多次經驗的累積才能完全掌握新的概念，而這需要時間。因此，使用實際的日常例子來複習演練特定遊戲和謎題中的數學概念對於孩子信心和理解的建立是很有幫助的。
在每個遊戲附註的父母筆記中都會提供相關的建議。
照護者的黃金準則是，所有與孩子的討論和延伸思考都是玩樂的並契合孩子的興趣。最重要的是，孩子享受我們的劍數說™並從中獲得樂趣。如果對孩子來說這些故事是一種寶貴的經驗，他們會想要一遍又一遍地播放同樣的故事。這些都將有助於建立孩子對於學習和玩數學的熟悉感與信心。