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by Cindy Leave a Comment

Math Manipulatives: Why Use Them?

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Math manipulatives make math easier to understand, especially in the younger years. If you can only buy a few, these are my top choices.

(This post contains affiliate links and links to my business website.)

I love living math!  Thus, the title of my how-to book, Loving Living Math.  Living math is special for so many reasons!  One of those reasons is the use of math manipulatives.

What are math manipulatives?

Math manipulatives are things your children touch, move – ahem, manipulate – in order to understand various math concepts.  Manipulatives can be store-bought, homemade or even simple objects you have around the house.

Math manipulatives make math easier to understand, especially in the younger years. If you can only buy a few, these are my top choices.

Why are math manipulatives part of a good living math curriculum?

The purpose of math manipulatives is two-fold.  First, they help children to form a concrete understanding of abstract concepts.  When a child can “see” that 1/2 + 1/2 = 1 whole by using fraction manipulatives, the oftentimes tough concept of fractions gets a whole lot easier because there is now a picture in the brain of what a fraction really is.  In other words, the manipulatives have helped build brain connections!

Second, manipulatives meet learning styles.  If your child is kinesthetic (learns through movement) or visual (learns through seeing), manipulatives provide the perfect learning environment.  I’ve found, though, that even children who normally thrive linguistically (through language) need math manipulatives to help them “get” certain math concepts because their learning style is words, not numbers.

 What are my favorite math manipulatives?

Math manipulatives make math easier to understand, especially in the younger years.  If you can only buy a few, these are my top choices.

10 Must-Have Manipulatives

Over the years (in homeschooling and teaching in public schools), I’ve consistently found these 10 manipulatives to be the most used and most crucial for understanding tough math concepts.  Having these (or making your own) will be very helpful tools in your homeschool for many years.

1. 100 Board – This can be used with teaching skip counting, all operations, prime numbers, square numbers and much more!

2. Balance – There are many types of primary balances that will compare weights of all kinds.

3. Base Ten Blocks – The concepts of place value and regrouping can be very abstract and hard to grasp. This set of blocks provides a concrete and visual understanding that makes math make more sense.

4. Fraction Circles or Fraction Tiles – Fractions can be tough to grasp for many children, too. A set of fraction tiles or circles helps children see and build relationships between fractions – and that makes a world of difference in understanding.

5. Pattern Blocks (with activity cards) – Pattern blocks not only teach patterning – simple and complex – but geometry, critical thinking and reasoning, as well.

6. Square Color Tiles – We use these tiles all the time in the early years. They come in handy for patterning, measuring, graphing, and more.

7. Snap Cubes – This is another manipulative we use all the time in the early years. The cubes are pretty much used for similar purposes as the square color tiles with even more uses like determining volume and building geometric figures.

8. Student Clock – A simple hands-on clock is imperative for helping children understand minutes within hours.

9. Tangrams (with activity cards) – A tangram set only has seven little pieces, but they pack a big punch when it comes to spatial reasoning.

10. Tessellation Puzzles – Tessellations are repeating patterns gone wild. They repeat up, down and all around without any gaps or overlaps. Puzzles like the one I’ve linked challenge brains!

Nice-to-Have Manipulatives

If you really like the way manipulatives enhance your homeschool and have extra money to spare, each of the following can also be very beneficial tools for mathematics education.  Again, in some cases, you can create your own homemade versions.  You might also be surprised to find a few things you already have around the house as math manipulatives!

Animal Counters

Attribute Blocks

Cards

Cuisenaire Rods

Dice

Geoboard

Geometric Solids

Measuring Worms

Measuring Tape

Number Tiles

Play Money

Scale

Stopwatch

Stringing Beads

Unifix Cubes

Math manipulatives make math easier to understand, especially in the younger years. If you can only buy a few, these are my top choices.

How do you use math manipulatives?

There are many books, how-to videos and how-to blog posts to find for any manipulative you buy.  I suggest a simple Google search for your particular needs.

Here are some posts that share how to use a few popular manipulatives.

Using Attribute Blocks

Using Animal Counters

Using Tangrams

Measurement with Manipulatives

Using Linking Cubes to Teach Volume

Using Beads to Teach Classification

Patterning with Manipulatives

Candy as Manipulatives: M&M’s

Candy as Manipulatives: Hearts

Candy as Manipulatives: Various Candies

Play Dough as a Manipulative

Are you excited about math manipulatives?  They are SO good for your homeschool!

Learn more about living math and how to incorporate it successfully in your homeschool with my easy-to-read and easy-to-implement how-to book for parents – Loving Living Math.

Loving Living Math teaches you how to add living math to your homeschool - it's not hard!

More Living Math Resources

Take a look at this Living Math Course to expand your knowledge of living math and how to apply it in your homeschool. There are so many benefits to living math!

  • What is living math and how can you easily add it to your homeschool schedule? Let Cindy help you figure that out!
    Living Math Homeschool Masterclass
    $15.00
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Last Updated: November 23, 2020 Filed Under: Charlotte Mason, Creative Homeschooling, Elementary, Living Math, Middle School Tagged With: concrete math, hands-on, manipulative, Math, math help, math that makes sense, math with manipulatives

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Happy birthday to my favorite girl in the world! L Happy birthday to my favorite girl in the world! Love you, @mahaylawest_1! 🥰
The breath of God produces ice,⠀ and the broad The breath of God produces ice,⠀
and the broad waters become frozen.⠀
He loads the clouds with moisture;⠀
he scatters his lightning through them.⠀
At his direction they swirl around⠀
over the face of the whole earth⠀
to do whatever he commands them.⠀
He brings the clouds to punish people,⠀
or to water his earth and show his love.⠀
Listen to this, Job;⠀
stop and consider God’s wonders. ⠀
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Job 37:10-14⠀
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Winter isn’t my favorite season, but an icy landscape is truly incredible to see. ❄️⠀
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When my boys were little, I loved reading these “letters from God” to them as blessings to start the day.
As I was sorting bookshelves earlier this month, I stumbled across this sweet book again. I decided the blessings are still as pertinent today for my bigger boy as they were years ago. So, we’re starting our day yet again with a quick, but powerful “letter from God” before jumping into our daily Bible studies.
Do you do anything special to start your day off on the right foot? I’d love to hear about it!
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When the world seems to be falling apart around you, the sun never stops shining. The seasons never stop moving. Without a single, solitary effort of human hands, the woodlands still buzz with life.⠀
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A student of nature can see the consistency in cycles and notice the incredible and creative intricacy of even the smallest specimen and be in awe that we truly serve a God who isn’t unaware of even one tiny detail in our world right now. ⠀
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Breathe, friend. Take a nature walk today and let God speak to your soul.⠀
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It might seem trite to post a winter picture book It might seem trite to post a winter picture book list right now, but I’m a big believer in keeping things as normal as possible in my home when things aren’t so normal otherwise.⠀
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It’s the principle of putting one foot in front of the other as you simply do the next right thing. Good books almost always can be a “next right thing” choice.⠀
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Even though I’m not homeschooling younger children anymore, I’ll probably never stop sharing wonderful picture book ideas with you. 🤓 I’ve spent way too many hours reading and collecting to ever stop loving them!⠀
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Eli and I may not be using these books right now, but they are still some of my favorites for winter reading. Whatever may be going on around you, the winter months are always a good time of year to get in lots of extra reading. Snuggling and hot chocolate are optional, but encouraged.⠀
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Click the link in my bio to find a blog post about these books + some of our favorite winter chapter books, too!⠀
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