Multiples are more fun to learn in the sandbox than with tables

I'm preparing for our County homeschool review, scheduled for later this week. This has me looking over what we've done this semester (and realizing how much I intended to post here but haven't... watch more for catch-up!...)

In early May, I saw how other families had used math boards to work on learning their multiplication tables. How much more fun than sitting there, memorizing facts from tables on a piece of paper!

We have ample scrap wood in the garage, and nails as well. I wondered, however, whether our sandbox might serve us for a temporary "math board" ...

While the boys were playing in the backyard, I found a long twig, and broke it into smaller pieces. I smoothed out an area of sand, and then arranged 10 pieces in a circle. I cut 10 small pieces of paper. Then, I invited S to come over and write the numbers 0 through 9 on the papers. Carefully, we poked a hole into each paper, and stuck it onto a twig piece. We then tied a length of yard to the "0" twig, and let the fun begin!

Counting by 4's created a 5-pointed star!

Here, we switched yarn colors...
Counting by 3's created something that looks more like a sun!

When we wrapped up, we added the twigs and paper slips to the compost pile.