Math in the Mail is a subscription program from the Saginaw Intermediate School District (Saginaw ISD) in Michigan that focuses on developing math skills in preschoolers by providing the tools needed for parents/caregivers/guardians to help their child learn at home through play. Each kit contains materials designed for hands-on play, a book, ideas for hands-on activities using provided materials in the kit, ideas for extension activities using items found at home, Tools for Talking which is a guide on how to use the materials provided, suggestions for parents and caregivers to engage children in mathematics, and a description of how these activities help children learn.
Eligible families can get this subscription for FREE:
To qualify to receive Math in the Mail for FREE*, families must:
•Live in Arenac, Bay, Clare, Gladwin, Gratiot, Isabella, Midland or Saginaw county (Michigan)
•Have a child in the household born September 2, 2014 through September 1, 2015
•Have a household income that is at or below 250% of the federal poverty guidelines
If you aren’t eligible for the free subscription, you can still join up and get this affordable educational subscription – 3 kits for $50 or 6 kits for $90. Eligibility for the free program will be verified, so use this option if you aren’t eligible.
We think this is a really innovative model for early learning resources!
This is a review of the Dino Kit, which is one of the 12 options the parents can choose from when subscribing.
There are no fillers in the box.
There are pre-, and post-kit surveys that the family can complete before and after they enjoy the kits. The kids can be entered into a drawing for a prize when you submit the Post-Kit survey.
Everything in my box! If your kids are a part of the free program, the dino kit is the first kit you will ever receive.
Bookmark. To start it all up, the kids will need something to mark the pages they left off on the book, so here’s an adorable bookmark.
The back of the bookmark provides additional resources for families receiving this kit!
There are some info cards that contains interviews, facts, and information on certain people, like this one that features Domingo Vazquez, the Manager/Owner of Musico Lessons LLC.
The other one featured is Jeff Somer, the Curator of Archaeology of Castle Museum of Saginaw County History.
There’s even a colorful numbered slide from Musico Lessons LLC.
At the back, it says that you are invited to join at Musico Corner where you can get some lessons that will help your kid practice early math skills using music!
1-2-3 Dinosaurs Bite! By Steve Jenkins ($14.15)
Gobble, gobble, munch, and crunch: watch the pages disappear! Five hungry dinosaurs–from mighty little Microraptor to colorful Carnotaurus–sink their teeth into this tasty novelty book, created with the American Museum of Natural History and Caldecott-honor winner Steve Jenkins. Kids can count along as the dinosaurs take bite-sized chunks out of each page. The number of bites matches the counting number on each spread! Fun facts about the dinosaurs–and what they liked to eat–appear at the end, along with a listing of dinosaur details from 1-10.
The kids will learn to count with the help of these ferocious yet colorful dinos!
The cardboard book is child-friendly. It has nice colors and the fonts are printed large enough for the kids to enjoy reading!
It helps the kids to learn how to count, and also to pronounce the dinosaur’s name correctly!
It’s really interactive!
The kit also contains some dinosaur figures to go with the rest of the activities. Math manipulatives (physical objects to help learn number sense and counting) can be anything!
Here’s the included Tools for Talking, a guide that teaches the parents or guardians on how to use the other materials provided in the kit.
There are lots of activities that you and your kids can do to keep everyone busy!
For dinosaur counters, you and your kids can use the figures to learn how to count.
The guide contains several large-numbered pages that you can use to count-up with the kids.
The pages of the guide are kept together by a book ring. Each page has a hole at the upper corner where you can attach it.
There’s a ten frame that can help the kids visually and physically make groups up to ten.
The kids started by reading out the book. They love the illustrations in it!
At first, they grouped the dino figures according to color…
And lined them all up! They’re ready to count!
For every large-numbered page on the guide, he put the correct number of dinosaur figures.
Correct! That’s 5 dinos for number 5!
Here, my son was counting the corners of the shapes. Still with the dinosaur figures!
Aside from placing figures and other items on the numbered pages, my son also started tracing the numbers using his fingers.
For the ten frame, he placed one dinosaur on each frame.
They also tried matching the figures on the dinosaur chomps in the book.
After counting, my kids just decided to play with the figures and used the kit’s box for play as well (that’s some popcorn taped down for rocks!).
Math in the Mail is a great way to introduce kids to the wonderful world of Math. The first kit we got is totally fun and engaging, my kids loved it! They included complete information and explanation on how the kit works, and the instructions are all easy to understand and follow. We love the book as it is interactive, and the kids really appreciated the good artwork. As for the guide, it’s really helpful to us parents as it provided ideas on how to make learning math more fun for everyone! We are looking for more fun ways to do math, and we’re excited about the next math activities from this box! We also think that this is a cool concept, and hope that other school districts adopt the idea, too!
Are you getting the Math in the Mail subscription kit?
Comments