When my almost 7-year-old was in preschool, she brought home a plastic jar filled with pom poms and declared that she needed to count each and every one of them. “Huh?,” I thought. “I’m not exactly sure that’s what your teachers had in mind,” I gently replied. We all remember the “guess how many jellybeans are in the jar, and win a prize!”-type contests. For some it was pure delight–can I count to one gazillion?–and for other kids, a source of frustration. “How can I know for sure if I don’t count them one by one?,” rationalized my daughter, teetering on the brink of a fit. Taking an educated guess is a great life-long skill that can be refined over time, so it certainly helps to make a game of it. The Estimation Station is the perfect anecdote to makeshift guessing jars that don’t quite make the grade. It comes with a handy scooper that lets kids portion out some of the jar’s contents, enabling them to make a more calculated guess. To further pique the interest of your mathematician-in-the-making, an activity guide offers up more ways to dabble in statistics, graphing and reasoning. A great tool for in and out of the classroom, the Estimation Station is worth a visit.
In a Nutshell: Counting isn’t always as simple 1-2-3. Your kid will become a master of “guesstimation” with this easy-to-use learning toy in disguise.
