Math games/toys bleg

Dale is good at math. He started the kindergarten book when he was around 3, I think, because it was yellow. Scoop was his favorite character in his favorite show so it made sense to me.

Now he's 6 and has started the second grade book. He gets the concepts with ease--time, money, fractions, even multiplication from his sister--not a problem. I think he gets bored before he gets stumped. Therein lay the problem.

So I'm looking for puzzles, games, toys, etc. that will capitalize on this. We already have Cuisenaire rods and I have plans to get those out more often. I remember these puzzles from when I was younger. They were about the size of a Rubik's Cube and involved putting three-dimensional pieces back into the clear box. Different colors were different degrees of difficulty--yellow was the easiest; white and blue were harder. I think there were red and green, too.
I can't Google or eBay them because I don't remember what they were called. Anyone else know what I'm talking about?

I don't want to just add busywork; as a former school teacher, homeschooler, and parent I know "more work" doesn't mean much if it's "more of the same." That's punishment, not enrichment.

And let me add this caveat--I know there have to be tons of computer games, software, and websites for this, but I'm reluctant to start those. He has a hard enough time tearing himself away from the computer for things like meals and chores; I don't want to add to the list.

Thanks!

Vignettes from my life

Back in May or so, I was having one of those days. The kids weren't misbehaving, just driving me crazy. Rachel bounced up to me and asked, "Can I play on the computer?"
With a manic gleam in my eye, I replied, "Can you tell me the square root of nine?" [Madeleine is the only one who has done multiplication, and only up to the 5s.]
"Ten!" she guessed.
I went to the Patience Well. "Honey, what times itself makes nine?"
Confused blinks from Rachel. Dale from the kitchen table said, "Three, plus three, plus three."
Uh oh.

* * * *
Louie has taken to storing items down the front of his shirt. This is a variation on having to imitate Napoleon and find and manipulate a nipple or navel. Usually he's wearing a Onesie, so whatever he's stuffed in there doesn't go very far. Items include Hot Wheels cars, handfuls of pea gravel, Goldfish crackers, a two-inch stalk of celery, a bitten Roma tomato, capless markers, and a non-functioning Lightning McQueen Shake-N-Go Racer. Not all at once, but that was just yesterday.
If I just start putting him in regular shirts so his treasures drop through, would it make life better or worse?

* * * *
Last week we attended my beloved's work picnic. The pavilion had been rented, it was close to the bathroom, food was ample and delicious, all was well. In the general vicinity, there was a family not associated with our group. I'd guess they were Filipino; English was not their common language. Yes, that's relevant to my tale.
However, there were kids there roughly Rachel's size. Being the kind of kid she is, they became fast friends. I tried to keep one on eye on her and her pals while also chaperoning the other three during Daddy's softball game. It wasn't too hard; they were at most 30 yards away without much obstruction by trees.
Rachel wandered over to us with a hot dog on a wooden skewer. Ummm... I don't recall seeing that before. "Where did you get that hot dog, Rachel?"
"From my friends," she said, indicating the Filipino family with a wave of her hand.
Close eyes, sigh. "Did you at least say 'thank you'?"
Grin. "Oops."
After she finished that, she wandered away again... back to her friends, of course, because next she had a grilled breast of chicken on a skewer. "Did you say 'thank you' THIS time?"
"Yes, this time I did."
After this, Rachel stuck pretty close to us and no more unfamiliar food appeared. She shared the chicken and it was pretty good.
At the end of the day, when we were all packing up, the mother of the Filipino family came over. My husband started to apologize for Rachel's behavior, but she politely interrupted. She wanted to tell us what a nice, well-mannered, friendly and trusting little girl we were raising; not afraid of people that were different.
Well... we weren't so upset then. It makes me wonder what else she said to them.

* * * *
I think that's enough to push the Moon Landing clip down past my links.

Why we use "Old Math" here at Price Classical Academy

Old math did this:


"New math" does this:



Do I really need to say more?

Math question--any help?

I think Dale is experiencing "math burnout."

He's about halfway through the MCP Mathematics A (first grade--the green one). We're working on addition, sums to 18. He gets the concept, easily. But doing a single page, all I ask of him, has become an exercise in diminishing returns. It doesn't hold his attention, it's not fun, it's not even interesting. It has taken an excruciating three hours, wherein I remind, cajole, scold, coax, nag, yell, threaten, and banish to his room before I do something I really regret. I've tried working for half an hour, then he can run two laps around the backyard. By the third trip outside, though, my patience is shot and he's still not done.
Hence, the burnout suspicion.
I do not wish to buy a whole new math curriculum. I'm thinking a vacation, of sorts; after a given period of time, (a month?) we return home to MCP with renewed interest. Or at least the ability to grasp the idea of staying on task.
I'm thinking something like Starfall but for math. Does it exist? Is it interesting to kids?

Would puzzles like Sudoku keep math-type stuff on his mind? What about a tangram puzzle? Any suggestions for a five-year-old boy?

UPDATE 9/5/08--A touch more background. This kid would sit, willingly, enthusiastically even, for over half an hour and six pages a year ago. He's not having trouble with the concepts; I think he's just looking for a change of scenery, math-wise.