Here, Have Some Beans

I love beans and not just because the are cheap and taste good. For more than 15 years now I have used them very successfully as math manipulative's. We've used them for counting and for adding. I've made bean sticks to teach the boys how to carry. Now I am using them once again to teach multiplication.

Multiplication can be a difficult concept to understand. Yes it's a short cut to addition, but if you think about it, it's a rather complicated series of maneuvers that we do thoughtlessly once we know the process but in the beginning are difficult to remember and think through. This is where the beans come in. I can say "If I give you two beans two times how many beans do you have?"

After completing the first 10 digit problem together he was off and running on his own without my help. I checked his work as he went along but he had a decidedly Please mom I'd rather do it myself attitude. And he was having fun. How cool is that?

I may appear as if I am schooling out of the 1800s sometimes, but as I told the guy who said he couldn't understand how it could work as he watched me thump watermelons, "Neither can I but you can't argue with success." Besides, when your from a rural southern tradition beans are the perfect manipulative because you always have some around.