Early Math Counts

One of our Early Math Counts readers requested the link to the Inchworms I wrote about recently.  I went to Google and put in the search terms inchworm and manipulative and the first thing that popped up was a site that sells the Inchworms I was looking for as well as Centibugs – a new manipulative I have never heard of.

They are essentially the same thing except they are a standard centimeter unit.

This got me thinking about how much easier it would be for children to understand units of measure if we taught and used the Metric System.  It is a Base 10 system which coincides much more closely with the way we teach counting and number.  There are no variances between liquid measures and solid measures in the Metric System (a liter is a liter is a liter, but an ounce is different if it is a fluid ounce or a solid ounce). There are many more reasons why adopting the metric system just makes plain sense, however it probably won’t happen in my lifetime.  This article explains why it won’t happen and why Americans don’t really want it to (or care enough to do anything about it).

Here’s to the Metric System.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O13luYEu6P0