Acorns and addition: using the same manipulative in different ways.

One of the biggest challenges I've found in homeschooling is presenting information and activities that are age appropriate when dealing with multiple age groups.  Age appropriate activities are both safe for the child to participate in, given their age, and are the correct difficultly level - challenging, but not frustratingly difficult.  One way I deal with this challenge that we have found to be particularly effective is through taking the same general activity, using the same manipulative, and presenting it in three different ways, based on my children's skill levels.  

I found these glass acorns at my local craft store.  I bought one bag (which contained about 25 assorted acorns), then found additional bags on clearance, so I bought a few more.  Each bag contains the same three colors and two sizes.

One of the activities that we're working on this week is sorting by attribute.  Sorting activities, at any level, are incredibly beneficial.  They provide the foundation for fundamental math concepts, help develop logical thinking, increase visual discrimination, etc.  

For Bigger Bit, who is two, I introduced a basic sorting activity.  Because she's still young, I pulled out only the large size acorns in only orange and brown.  This isolates the variable that she's working with to one (the only difference between the objects is the color), and provides only two forms of that variable - either orange, or brown.  The use of only the larger acorns is also better for her age because she still occasionally puts things to her mouth.

For Bub, who is three, I removed small acorns in all three colors.  While this isolated the variable again (the only difference was color), it gave multiple options for that variable (it could be orange, or brown, or red).  This is a slightly more difficult sorting activity, and requires increased visual discrimination to perform. 

For The Princess, who is four, I left all the acorns (two sizes, and three colors, for a total combination of six types of acorns) together, and let her sort them by attribute. 

She sorted them by color and size both, and additionally she lined up all the large acorns, by color, on the left side of her tray, and all the small acorns, by color, in the middle slots of her tray. 

We're also working on numbers and counting this week, using the same acorns as manipulatives. 

For Bigger Bit, we're just introducing the concept of associating the amount of objects to the number.  So, she's working on a very simple numeral-and-counter exercise.  I used the large acorns, and gave her the numerals 1-3, as well as cups to put her counters in (I only used cups because she gets frustrated trying to line the counters up correctly, which distracts her from the counting). 

For Bub, we're working on teen numbers, so I introduced a cup of the small acorns and numerals from 11-19.  He picked a numeral at random, then laid out the right amount of counters for that numeral. 

The Princess is working with the concept of addition lately, so I gave her a series of addition problems, and a series of answers (we used only addition problems with sums of 10, 11, 12, or 13, to avoid the confusion of having too many possible answers out).  

Using the same manipulative in a variety of ways, based on age and skill level, allows you to re-use the same manipulative, over and over.  For families with multiple children, it allows you to tailor each child's lesson specifically to them without having to prepare different activities with different maniplatives. 

Using the same manipulative in different ways also increases the life of your manipulatives from year to year.  This year, Bigger Bit is working on a simple sorting activity, with one variable and only two choices.  Next fall, when we get these acorns out again, she'll be sorting by multiple choice or even multiple variables.  This year, The Princess used these tiny acorns to determine that 7+5=12.  Next year, she fall, she might use them to determine that 7-5=2, or that 3 groups of 4 acorns (3x4) =12.  

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;and ABCand123Learning.