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It’s not just about the hair braids.

Our morning ritual of braiding is far more than just some pretty hair it is all about math! At first my daughter learned to match the colors of the bands. Then we started to count the number of bands she needed to braid her hair. Now she tells me how many she wants and finds the right number of bands. As she gets older I will have her do the math for two bands per braid, or sections (3 per braid). I will also look forward to helping her separate her hair, though I imagine by that time dividing in half will be easy. There is soo much math in a simple chore! We count the bands in her hand as we subtract one to put it in her hair; we add them up as we finish (two braids on the right and two on the left is how many all together?) I love our morning math. Especially since my daughter is not my math lover. To her math is merely a means to an end (preferably an end to silly questions about numbers) but by combining it with pink hair bands suddenly it is a necessity, and one she will gladly figure out, in return for fancy hair.