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)
剑数说®金发小姑娘和三只熊
计数原理，基本形状的特征，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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剑数说®三只小猪和大坏狼
排列组合，观察技巧，模式和形状
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剑数说®丑小鸭
计数原理，加总数字对，加法和减法之间的反向关系
父母和照护者的角色
如果不间断地直接一口气看完，这些剑数说®每个约占5到10分钟。
然而，它们都包含许多由坎特伯教授提出的游戏和谜题，幼儿们解决这些问题的时间也各不相同。这些故事，游戏和谜题均以符合3-5岁幼儿们适当的挑战性而特别设计。
因此，首先，作为父母和看护人，与您的孩子一起共赏这些故事以及共玩其中的游戏是非常重要的。享受与孩子一起讨论这些游戏，并鼓励孩子谈论他们的想法。过程中的一些操作孩子可能会需要您的协助，例如: 在屏萤幕上拖移物件或使用滑鼠，手指垫，触摸屏...等等，之类的点选操作。
如果您的孩子需要协助，可以由照护者先向他们示范如何玩一个游戏或拆解一个谜题，示范的过程中仔细地跟描述孩子照护者的动作和步骤。一旦照护者和孩子一起玩了几次故事而感觉孩子准备好了，就鼓励他们自己玩。
幼儿往往需要多次经验的累积才能完全掌握新的概念，而这需要时间。因此，使用实际的日常例子来复习演练特定游戏和谜题中的数学概念对于孩子信心和理解的建立是很有帮助的。
在每个游戏附注的父母笔记中都会提供相关的建议。
照护者的黄金准则是，所有与孩子的讨论和延伸思考都是玩乐的并契合孩子的兴趣。最重要的是，孩子享受我们的剑数说®并从中获得乐趣。如果对孩子来说这些故事是一种宝贵的经验，他们会想要一遍又一遍地播放同样的故事。这些都将有助于建立孩子对于学习和玩数学的熟悉感与信心。