My guys are into numbers lately. My eldest, especially, is big into number crunching and playing with the calculator. He spends a lot of time on, well, time.

Just last week I had a funny “aha” moment when his brother asked to play Star Wars Legos with him first thing in the morning. He said, “Well actually I need fifteen minutes to eat my cereal and stuff.”

His brother, not quite four, innocently inquired, “Well how long is that?”

Little Math man responded by saying, “Well, it is 15 times 60. You know, 900 seconds.”

I was dumbfounded, then I ran to check to see if he was right. I knew that my brother-in-law had given him a calculator to play with over the summer, but I had no idea that he was sooo into math. When I asked him about it he told me, flat out, that he wanted to go to a school that taught only math and soccer. So, I decided to check out some good websites for budding mathematicians, stuff that he would really get into and seem like a lot of fun and a small bit technical too, to challenge him a small bit. (more…)

This topic idea was born out of necessity in our house. My very precocious 4 year old has run the gamut on dangerous and costly experiments, always conveniently performed in the space of 90 seconds or less. When he finally stopped up my toilet with an entire double roll of toilet paper I decided it was time to stimulate his devious mind with something a bit less destructive than an inch of water splashed across my tile floor and a pipe so stopped up we needed a plumber. I powered up the computer and began to show him the ropes. Within a few weeks he had a basic grasp of dragging, dropping, clicking, and closing. Together with my boys, and with the help of a few other moms, I have compiled a list of the top ten websites for preschoolers and their parents that do more than just entertain, they educate too! (more…)