Best mathematics & counting toys according to redditors

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000F8XF86/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_1/179-1892885-6232712?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_r=1PJFRS180FCPV0XDPG1S&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_p=1944687542&pf_rd_i=B0006PKZ7W


I found these really familiar 'counters' online. maybe you are remembering parts of counting lessons when the teacher used physical pieces to count with?

TL;DR - You can encourage your child to speak more frequently and fluently with behavioral reinforcement.

Sorry for the long post. I don't know what support your child has received/is receiving, so this may not be very relevant.

I have worked with a child with autism for over two years now. She was seven when I began working with her and had a similar speech pattern to what you described. She is also diagnosed with hyperlexia. She specifically had great trouble with who/what/when/where/why/which/how questions.

I first started with a simple token economy to reinforce "appropriate" speech. I used these bears as her tokens and placed them on a piece of paper on which I had printed a series of squares that were just larger than the base of the bear. I would ask her simple questions. If she answered them correctly, she would "earn a bear," and I would place it on a square for her. Once she filled a row with bears, she could trade them in for a high-preference activity. We would spend a few minutes on the trampoline or listen to a song or video and get back to work.

At first, she earned one bear for each answer, and she could trade them in when she had earned five. Within a day or two I was sure that she understood the system and moved up to ten. Within a week or two she had to earn 15 before she could have play time.

Throughout the process, I also conditioned her to be reinforced by the sound of me scooping a bear out of the bucket. I would intentionally have them make noise when I picked one up. Over the course of a few weeks, I worked to the point of:

• Answer 1 = hand to bucket, make noise moving bears
  
• Answer 2 = pick up bear
  
• Answer 3 = place bear on paper
  
  This way, she answered many questions before earning play time.
  
  When she was well adapted to this program, I began implementing punishment for "inappropriate" speech, which we called "chanting." When she would begin repeating phrases or speaking in sing-song, I would remind her to respond correctly. If she repeated the behavior, I would remove a bear.
  
  The questions that I asked began as simple ones. We would often look at photo flash cards and talk about the pictures. I began by asking the simplest questions possible:
  
  
• What is this?
  
• What color is it?
  
• What shape is it?
  
• Where do you find it?
  
• How many legs?
  
• Which one is tall?
  
  When she began to master these simple questions, I began adding in more difficult ones:
  
  
• What does it do?
  
• What is it made of?
  
  I continued to increase the difficulty of questions until I could simply ask her to describe or tell me about the image.
  
  I had accepted one-word responses at the beginning, but began encouraging multi-word responses or complete sentences when this became easy. If she answered with a phrase or sentence, I would give a bear immediately. When she used a single word, I would tell her a sentence using that word and have her repeat it before (possibly) getting her token.
  
  I did this for 30-90 minutes a day, five days a week, for about five months. We trailed off over the next several months and spent more time working on other skills until we did not do this at all anymore. Her language improved drastically in this time, but it did not develop her conversational ability. It brought her to the point that she could respond to questions and instructions with much more consistency than before. Because of this growth, she was able to begin classes in a general education setting with my assistance. Toward the end of the school year, she began occasionally initiating conversations with schoolmates on her own. Throughout the next school year, her interest and ability to speak with peers has continued to increase. This may be greatly due to her great interest in socializing and having friends, but your child definitely has hope.

Yep! Math Magic Mixer! Here's a newer model.

Did anyone else play the 24 card game as a kid? My math teacher always had us play it in middle school. Basically, you get flash cards with four numbers, and you have to figure out how to get to 24. Say, the numbers are 3, 5, 2, and 7. 7 x 3 = 21 + 5 = 26 - 2 = 24.

Anyway, this sub has inspired me to do that with pretty much every set of numbers now, in a quest to get to 69.

I don't know about a calculator, but he might have been talking about these:

Learning wrap ups

You use them to learn multiplication tables by wrapping the string around and around from question to answer. The back of them has lines that show where the string should be if you got it right.

The only other one it might be (again, not really a calculator) acts more like a slide ruler, but with string. But it doesn't do anything a normal slide ruler can't do, and it also can't be used as a ruler:

Arnold string caliper

For the price of those 300 beads you can get 1,000 cubes.

I don't know what a 3D graphic class is but it reminds me of the base ten blocks I used in elementary school to learn math!

Colored plastic tokens are $5.60 on Amazon, you can write in them with a sharpie or erasable marker.

[Learning tokens] (https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B00004WKPM/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_t1_sbfHAbT0B0Q9R)

These stack well:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000F8T9B8/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Before I had miniatures, I used [Centimeter Cubes] (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0799SW2SL/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_Td14AbYG5CKXM)

I think you're thinking of Translucent color counting chips

I use this calculator for calculating cost. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00SQVXSMM/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_71oJybFX0TZVT

The card game 24! My fifth graders really struggled at first and within a few days, they were k i l l i n g i t. They'd come up with really complex gorgeous solutions I hadn't even found! https://www.amazon.com/24-Game-Single-Digit-cards/dp/B002AODZFQ

Set is another fun game that serves the same general purpsoe.

Kid most recent fav is
Educational Insights Raccoon Rumpus Game https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ATWSQR8/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_p3YKAbD0B4JSW

He loves this one since he was 18 mths and still plays it weekly
ThinkFun Roll and Play Game for Toddlers https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0070A9OUA/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_S4YKAbHTXCEA0

He also loves
HiHo! Cherry-O Game https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00D8VHIOE/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_C5YKAb4CTGWSV

My niece loves
Educational Insights The Sneaky, Snacky Squirrel Game https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00FNK6P6U/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_f6YKAb98Y9BHF

Lookup educational insight games on amazon or on the educational insight site and they have fun games - i find amazon has good prices on them.

My 3 yr old also loves kinetic sand.

This is the next one on my list for him since he now loves dinosaurs
Dinosaur Escape https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00S288BKI/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_wbZKAbRVN5AKM

IMHO this concept is best taught with manipulatives, like so: http://www.amazon.com/Learning-Resources-Plastic-Base-Starter/dp/B000F8VBBO

Really good for enhancing visual math thinking and can be introduced to the child gradually through play.

I only own of a couple of these, but if I were to throw a prototyping jam I would get:

Color Sharpies

Blank Boards

Blank Cards

Blank Tokens

Pawns

Counters

Dice

I think that would cover 95% of anything you'd want!

I remember this as well. Two of the dice were colored differently - one giving multiples of 10 (10-60) and the other giving 1-6. You'd combine these to get a 2-digit target number (30 + 4 = 34). The challenge was to use the rest of the dice (single digits, maybe 1-6 or maybe different combinations of 0-9) in some mathematical combination to achieve the target. So if the numbers were 1-2-5-5-6, you could go 5x6 + 1 + 5 - 2 = 34.

EDIT: found one for sale on Amazon

If he's going to be making his own cards, get him a corner rounder. It adds such a professional touch to have crisply rounded corners on cards. You might also get him one of those tubs of colored wooden cubes/primitive meeples as I have found that merely having some meeples (even if i know they aren't my final choice) is really inspiring to the game design process.

Set of 500 cubes https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000QDTVFG/ref=cm_sw_r_other_awd_9TR4wbGDN5EXN

Corner rounder: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000WWIPEE/ref=cm_sw_r_other_awd_XWR4wbKRGC9KT

I have a bin of these multicolored cubes. I model whatever looks cool on the plane, and assign ordinance with cubes. Red is Skystrike missiles, black is something else etc. They’re small enough to sit on the base too

I purchased a a bucket of these. They have come in very handy for all kinds of games, including print and play games.

edit: Just looking around amazon, I also found these not really cheap but there is a bunch of colors. Each color looks to be sold seperately for $5

I have done this for cruises a couple ways. I took a game box about the size of a Ticket to Ride box and collapsed about 20 games into it. It was pretty compact and you could definitely use a smaller box to fit and compact more games in.

The other way that was a bit easier and lighter was I took a 500 card count deck box and put 4 decks of cards in it: A rage deck, 2 decks of playing cards, and a pyramid deck (I used a Great Dalmuti deck for this one). I then used the rest of the space to fill with counters using these plastic cubes. You could also magic marker values on some of them for specific games. Jaipur is one that could come to mind.

There are geeklists like this one where people have figured out how to get creative with rage decks. With the playing card decks you can find a cheap playing card games book, and a book like all the Pairs variants for the pyramid deck.

>once they're sitting down for lunch they dont wanna stay seated, they will get up to go play in the middle of eating

I got a timer from amazon that we use during our mealtime. While the light is green, it is time to eat/drink (or at least stay in their chair). Once it's flashing yellow, they can either continue to eat or pack up their food and move to the reading corner. Once it's red, it's time for everyone to pack up. This is for a class of 3/4s so it may have to be adapted somewhat to fit your kiddos, but it's been a huge improvement for us over last year without it!

Hi date twin! We're doing the DIY little gold animals, with this as inspiration. Bought buckets of safari animals ($18 for 60) and wire picture holders ($15 for 48) from Amazon. Plan is to spray them with Krylon gold metallic paint.

Try playing with these: Learning Resources LER0615 Rainbow Fraction Tiles https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001604R1G/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_hj4pDbSRH7X3C

You can get 500 plastic cubes for $12 on amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/CENTIMETER-CUBES-500-PK-10-COLORS/dp/B000QDTVFG


If you want wood, it's $5 for 50:

http://www.amazon.com/Craftwood-Wooden-Cubes-56-Pkg-Multicolor/dp/B007LAWO60

Seriously, this. Cubes can represent anything. 1000 for $20 on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000F8VB4G/

For our campaigns our group uses the miniatures for our characters, and those colored circles for enemies. These ones specifically.

Then I bought some small star stickers and used a sharpie to write numbers on them so we can keep track of hp. Different colors === different enemies.

Edit: we also use the lids to the dice containers for large creatures and three jenga blocks for huge

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0006PKZ7W/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_qU6VCbM11JD1W

My school used these!!

Legos

• Red Dragon
  
• Mini-Skyflyer
  
• Arctic Ice Crawler
  
• Police ATV
  
• Fire Chief Car
  
• LEGO Movie Batman & Super Angry Kitty
  
• Surfer Rescue
  
• Swamp Police
  
• Castle Forest Ambush
  
• Space Port
  
• 221 pc Lego Brick
  
• Red Go-Kart
  
• Spiderman vs. Electro
  
• Sleeping Beauty
  
• Race Car
  
• Deep Sea Explorers
  
  Games
  
  
• Frozen Monopoly Junior
  
• Frozen Trouble Game
  
• Bounce Off
  
• Guess Who
  
• Superhero Squad Chutes & Ladders
  
• Monopoly Junior
  
• Scrabble Junior
  
• Frozen 6-in-1 Game Collection
  
• Frozen Matching Game
  
• Spot It! Frozen
  
• HiHo! Cherry-O
  
• Fruit Fiesta Game
  
• SpotIt! Jr. Animals
  
• Shelby’s Snack Shack
  
• The Sneaky, Snacky Squirrel
  
• Let’s Go Fishin’!
  
• Battleship

Counting chips

Learning Resources Transparent Color Counting Chips, Set of 250 Assorted Colored Chips, Ages 5+ https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00004WKPM/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_-XoRDbAK621V7

So go buy some then: https://www.amazon.com/Learning-Resources-Counters-Recognition-Assorted/dp/B0006PKZ7W/ref=pd_sbs_229_t_2/136-8851110-4852326?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B0006PKZ7W&pd_rd_r=aaf14e25-ca07-401c-b2ea-2da3da7055c3&pd_rd_w=AUaRQ&pd_rd_wg=BjwMw&pf_rd_p=5cfcfe89-300f-47d2-b1ad-a4e27203a02a&pf_rd_r=CF7BX92KNM6P6CQ0Z3EW&psc=1&refRID=CF7BX92KNM6P6CQ0Z3EW

I use these! https://www.amazon.ca/Learning-Resources-Centimeter-Cubes-Set/dp/B000QDTVFG/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1483815507&sr=8-2&keywords=counting+cubes

Well, this is Awesomely Randomly Random

=]

Hey! I was diagnosed with ADHD a little over a year ago. I used to think I was INFP but now I think I'm ENFP.




Anyway, I find that my biggest challenges are with concentration, persistence, and emotional regulation. Some things I've found that help me:

• I have the Time Tracker Mini Timer which I keep on my desk at work. I use it when I have to do a long boring task so I can break it up (basically use it to do the Pomodoro method). With the job I have I can't do it all the time because of how my tasks are broken up, but I do it when I can. Any timer will do, but I like that timer in particular because it has a light on top that changes from green to yellow to red, and you can choose the time that it changes from green to yellow. The only thing I don't like about it is that it doesn't count down (i.e. you can't see how much time is left).
  
  
  
  
  
• Writing things down!! I have a tendency to think I can remember WAY more for way longer than I actually can. I have a Leuchtturm1917 pocket notebook and a pen that I always keep with me. I kind of do Bullet Journaling but I've modified it to a system that works better for me. But keeping paper and pen with you is essential! And it's better than notes in your phone, in my opinion. The hard copy is a better reminder.
  
  
  
  
  
• Write down 5 positive things about myself every day. We ADHDers can be our own worst critics and can tend to get down on ourselves when we don't do the things we want to do. It's good to remind ourselves of our positive qualities.
  
  
  
  
  
• Try to practice mindfulness, especially in moments where I'm feeling especially distracted or emotional. I at least try to take a few deep breaths and just clear my head. My counselor always tells me to practice mindfulness, and I think it's a challenge to us as ENFPs and as ADHDers to focus on the present moment and not get caught up in our thoughts. But I definitely notice a difference when I consciously try to practice it.
  
  
  
  
  
• If you haven't already, pick up Taking Charge of Adult ADHD by Dr. Russell Barkley and Delivered From Distraction by Dr. Edward Hallowell and Dr. John Ratey. Learning all I could about ADHD made all the difference for me. It helped me to understand what's going on in my brain, why certain things are harder for me than most people (like concentrating on things that are boring), and some of the positives of ADHD. Now I can recognize when something I'm doing or thinking or feeling is because of the ADHD and that makes me feel like I have some measure of control over it.
  
  
  
  
• Go easy on yourself!! I feel like this is the most important and also the hardest tip to follow. The previous tip will help a lot. Once I learned about ADHD it made giving myself a break a whole lot easier. I don't know about you, but I tend to expect a lot from myself. It's important that we give ourselves permission to take a break, take a walk, or to fuck something up (it's life, it happens...most mistakes are fixable) and not be hard on ourselves over it. It seems like you're in the honeymoon phase with your diagnosis - you just got diagnosed and it finally explains so much about your life. This is a wonderful phase and I don't want to cast a shadow over it. But I'll tell you that you'll most likely eventually hit a phase (especially if you decide to get medicated) where you grieve how much of your life you "wasted" not knowing about your ADHD and not having your medication. There are also times where having the knowledge and the medication only give you the realization and the perspective of how much more it seems like everyone else in the world can do than you can. This is when it will be so important to practice self-compassion. Other people are good with organization and sticking to their budget and paying their bills on time and remembering their appointments and getting places on time. And people like us are good at empathizing and reading people and problem-solving and thinking outside the box and forging our own path. Different isn't always bad, sometimes it's just different.
  
  
  
  I hope some of this was helpful and what you were looking for!
  
  
  
  Edit: To add to that, I just watched this beautiful TEDxTalk: ADHD sucks, but not really

"But I have a lot of outdoors combat so this comes up a lot."

For outdoor encounters, I generally don't roll out the battlemat until combat is a sure thing. Unless there's some kind of kill-on-sight order or racial enmity, most fights don't start until both sides have had a chance to exchange words, well within 30' of each other.

So, it sounds like you're setting up a lot of encounters where either one side is ambushing the other, or the majority of encounters are solved by combat so there's no reason to approach to comfortable speaking distance. That's generally not the experience at my table (my players like talking but rarely plan ahead), so I can't say my solution addresses your "a lot" case.

In cases where one side is attempting to ambush another at longbow ranges or when I want to set up huge battlefields, I'll use a battlemat scaled so 1cm = 5' (rather than 1" = 5'), and then use centimeter cubes to represent Medium humanoids, standard 1" minis or tokens for Large size creatures, etc. This requires prep work, but like I said the long-range encounters are the exception rather than the rule with my group.

You could also run combat theater-of-the-mind style until the sides engage each other at a range that can be represented with your standard battlemat.

Learning cubes for generic cubes.

Get a set of little plastic animals - something like this, or even more exotic like this. Combine with blocks or paper+crayons for endless zoo building, animal battles, races, parades, etc. Plastic dinosaurs work great for this too.

EDIT: Also, never underestimate the creative potential of a big ol' cardboard box!

According to this site a digital calculator costs $200 in 1970, so $1,300 today .An Abacus would probably be much cheaper. You can get one today for $8, and I doubt it was any more back then.

I thought the same thing until I checked the Amazon page

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B079YGNQ6K/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_kL7oDbZPWR0WT

I like Pathfinder Pawns, but they don't work for everything (and are still pricey to collect).

I have 1", 2", and 3" wooden circles and 1", 2", and 3" hole punches. I print off the minis on card stock, punch them out, and glue them onto a wooden circle of appropriate size.

I also have some multicolored counting chips that I can write numbers on for large groups of monsters. They also double as status effects when needed.

Essentially, I go through the pawns first, but they don't always have everything, so then I go to printing.. but sometimes if I have a pawn of it, I'll just use the one pawn, then use the tokens for the rest of them. One representation is good enough usually.

I'm designing a board game, so I've been wanting to try out these Centimeter Blocks for awhile now. They help loads with making board games as they can be used for tons of different purposes!

Elephant Barber

Well I graduated college a few months ago and now I'm hanging out at home until I find out where I want to go! :D

Thanks for the contest!

Pandemic is great for cubes.

For other things it depends on what you want. I am using catan houses in a prototype right now, and before I used an othello board/tokens for something else.

One thing that I have is a bunch of circular colored tokens. (something like this https://www.amazon.com/Learning-Resources-LER0131-Transparent-Counting/dp/B00004WKPM IDK where I got mine)

and a bunch of dice in ten colors. I got this https://www.amazon.com/dp/B074C8N5XG/ref=sspa_dk_detail_0?psc=1&pd_rd_i=B074C8N5XG&pd_rd_wg=Y6rqd&pd_rd_r=5YFCCSC3XA4CFKBSB0HV&pd_rd_w=yuvJX two of the dice had a little extra paint on the two side that made them look like a three at a glance, so I threw them away. Still got 98 dice though.

This

This does me justice. If you want something more creative, try what /u/namgorf said with miniature market or buy some Warhammer 4000 miniatures and paint them yourself. It's up to you.

Addition facts flash cards including 'ways to make a number' cards with markers and facts charts

Multiplication facts flash cards with markers and facts charts

Base-10 blocks are great for this!

Start by making sure she's comfortable with the ones blocks. Put several in front of her and ask her to count them out and write down her answer. Then write down a smallish number and ask her to collect that many ones blocks.

Use this same process with some numbers in the teens. Then introduce the tens blocks and help her understand how to use as many tens and few ones as possible to represent a number. Help her understand this is what determines which digit appears in each place value of the written number.

Clear the table and put down 7 or so cubes. Ask her to keep adding 1 cube and writing out the new count. If she doesn't replace 10 cubes with a 10-valued stick sometime after passing 10 (or 20 or 30 if you're both patient enough), ask her when she could have started using the 10-valued sticks.

Once it's clear she's got a good intuition for the mapping between the base-10 written form and the cubes/sticks, hide the cubes and do the same exercises with the sticks and 100s squares. After it's clear she's caught on to the carry-over effect between the 10s place and the 100s place, add the cubes back to the mix.

Basically it sounds like she's struggling with the notion of place value and the relationships between adjacent place values.

I've been using these colored counting chips:

https://www.amazon.com/Learning-Resources-Transparent-Color-Counting/dp/B00004WKPM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1465596815&sr=8-1&keywords=colored+discs

Cheap and small. The transparency does make them harder to see if they're in a pile. And you'd have to remember what color is what denomination.

You can also try pennies/nickels/quarters as someone else suggested.

Crazy idea, but what about a Lords of Waterdeep style game? Not sure if you have played, but it's a fun game.

You can get a bucket of 500 misc colored cubes from amazon for $13.
Get some poster board, or something, and have the kids draw maps of the world. Block off certain sections, and each one of these areas of the world will produce goods (cubes)...you could say each cube represents: produce, technology, raw materials, "education." ...I don't know, something like that. Kids take turns placing units, and getting those resources.

Create a few "quest" cards (cure polio, space exploration, disaster relief, etc.) that need various amounts of resources to complete. Maybe a system where the kids could "invest" in certain areas which would allow those areas to produce more goods.

...just rambling here...

Here you go: https://www.amazon.com/Learning-Resources-Centimeter-Cubes-Set/dp/B000QDTVFG/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1479863937&sr=8-4&keywords=counting+cubes

I miss having a 3 year old! We started with the earliest Singapore Math stuff around then. I made it very gentle. Oh, also, these things https://www.amazon.com/Learning-Resources-Plastic-Base-Starter/dp/B000F8VBBO are the greatest things ever. We used them for years to try out different concepts in math.

Which counters? Are you talking about the digital ones? It's just a calculator.

There's stuff like these: http://www.amazon.com/Richards-Company-Counter-Finger-SPR24100/dp/B0008GOGI8/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1457999673&sr=8-3&keywords=counters

or just small tokens

http://www.amazon.com/Learning-Resources-Transparent-Color-Counting/dp/B00004WKPM/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1457999673&sr=8-5&keywords=counters

I have been using 1" plastic squares that I got on Amazon. I'd seen a few Kickstarters for stampers to put a pattern onto bases. I figured I could make my own.

I used the Clay to make my positive. I made one of a cobblestone and another of bricks. They are much larger than the size of the base so that I can use any portion to create the impression.

I then used this low melting point plastic. Soften it up and then press it into the clay pattern. Now I have a negative that I can use over and over.

I then got some Green Stuff. Put it on my 1" square base and then gently press into my negative image. Now I have a positive and I can let that setup and glue/pin my mini to the base.

do a search for "Centimeter Cubes"

easily found on amazon

False! https://www.amazon.com/Learning-Wrap-Ups-Multiplication-Keys-Yellow/dp/B0007P95JA

They’re still available! https://smile.amazon.com/Learning-Resources-Baby-Counters-Pieces/dp/B0006PKZ7W/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1542010397&sr=8-3&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=counting+bears&dpPl=1&dpID=41znuJ1ogjL&ref=plSrch

We mentioned this in an episode of our podcast, I was using these colored cubes in lieu of tokens. Each color represented something different. They're fairly cheap and you can use them as stand-ins for pretty much any game, in case you ever lose a piece, or as caltrops in the event of a home invasion.