My 5 year old was given his monthly homework packet. One of the assignments was to have your child to count backwards starting with the number ten. In the EMM (Elementary and Middle School Mathematics, Teaching Developmentally) book by Walle, Karp, and Bay-Williams had given advice in how to help children to aquire this skill such having a rhythmic fashion (page 128). Well, I taught my son the cool song that they use to sing on Sesame Street 1,2,3,4,5 and... Catchy tune, right? But, we are Starwars fans and we traveled through the Galaxy. We used the Millineum Falcon to travel and varies charaters to go to places such as Tatowine, Mustafaha,Naboo, and the planet of the Kaminoans. We started the space ship and counted down to zero. It was fun and my son had something to connect to what he is learning to something that he loves-STAR WARS!

Now, I am slowly coming on board in regards to using calculators. I used the microwave to teach my five year old to recognize his numbers. We are up to 2:00 minutes but for him it i"2-0-0". He has been fixing his pancake corndogs by himself! And I was visiting my eldest son's math teacher and she had calculators available and hung up on the wall for easy access for each student.
Technology is really cool once you try it because pen paper can be tedious but it is still necessary. Since I have been taking this math coarse;it is has allowed me to put into action some of the things in the book with my sons. Trust me they both learn differently. The youngest wants total technology and the other is likes pen/pad and technology.
It is possible that I will see how one can use fractions on a calculator. I am sure that it is possible.