A Practical Guide for Parents

Strategies For Use In The Home And Social Environments When Helping Children With Mathematics

5/22/2012 Heatherene Press Toni Cuevas

Whether your child is struggling with mathematics or you just want to reinforce what they are learning at school there are many fun and engaging ways to give them a mathematical boost. First we will look at some general guidelines and then move on to specific strategies for each of the major mathematics strands. The First Step The first step is to change your childs mindset towards math. Often children have difficulty with mathematics because they see it as nothing more than numbers on a piece of paper. Mathematics is not interesting to them nor is it relevant to their lives.

You have to help them see that math is everywhere and convince them that it is exciting and an important part of their world and the world around them.

Grab the camera and take your child on a math safari. Go around town and let them take pictures of all the math they can find like: an address on a house, parallel lines on the sidewalk, and signs of all different shapes and sizes. These pictures can then be turned into a photo book for them to look through. Show your child how mathematics is relevant to everyday life by having them help compile a list of all the ways your family uses math each week. If you would like to make this exploration of math ongoing you can hang up a mathematics bulletin board in the office or kitchen for your family to add to every time they see a picture or article in the paper or in a magazine that relates to math in some way. Activities and projects often cover a wide range of mathematics concepts at once and are a very effective way to convince your child of the importance of math. If your child has a special hobby or interest that is the best place to start. If they are athletic then have them keep stats on their favorite sports players, build a model with them if they are interested in space, or allow a budding chef to plan a meal from grocery list to table.

Once you have convinced your child math is important, the next goal is to raise your childs confidence in their mathematical abilities. Dont start with something they are currently having difficulties with. Instead, take a few steps backwards and begin with things you know they are good at, and then build them up gradually. This is also a good time to do some detective work and find out if your child is missing an earlier math concept that is causing them trouble now. By retracing their math

steps a bit you may find that they are not really having difficulty with subtraction but do not understand how to subtract across zeroes. Often once you have filled in any gaps in their mathematics instruction; everything else begins to click. The Second Step The next objective is absolutely crucial. Your child must know their math facts so well that they can recite them in their sleep. This is not only a confidence booster, but will make math infinitely easier for your child for the rest of their schooling. Children will retain their facts much better if a small amount of time each day is apportioned to math facts rather than a large block of time once a week. If you will dedicate just ten minutes of each day specifically to working on math facts you will quickly notice a big difference in their number fluency.

This does not have to be a grueling ordeal. It is always best to use the spoon full of sugar approach when helping your child learn their facts.

Buy them math apps Play number games with them Download songs that reinforce the facts You can also get them moving by skip counting on the trampoline or while jumping rope.

Once they can recall their facts instantaneously the rest of mathematics will become a bit easier as well. The best way to help your child excel in basic operations like addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, besides helping them to memorize their facts, is to help them understand how the two are related and the purpose and use of each. Your child should understand when a situation calls for addition and when it calls for division. You can make a game of it and call out different scenarios while in the car and have your child call out the best operation to use. If your child is a hands on learner then manipulatives like

Cuisenaire rods, Inchimals and number lines can provide scaffolding as they learn operational concepts. Most children will wean themselves off them when they are ready. The Third Step Finally, it is often taken for granted that children understand what symbols like the equals sign means, but this is often not the case. For example, they may be able to tell you that 2 + 3 = 5 but unable to answer the questions 5 = __ + 3. If this is the case then ask them to solve mathematics equations using a scale with an equal sign taped to its centre to represent each side of the equation and challenge your child to balance it.

Once children have learned the various forms of money and their amounts they need quite a bit of practice making change.

This can be tricky since most transactions are completed with no actual money changing hands! With younger children this can be done by playing store or restaurant with them. For older children you can have them circle things they would like to buy in a catalogues or a paper menu from a local restaurant and then give them various scenarios where they must figure out how much change they will get. You can also give them missions like sending them to the store with a specific amount to buy something small like a pack of gum or a specific number of things with the goal of leaving with a predetermined amount of change.

Teaching data and representation can be done by creating daily graphs at your home and switching up the type of graphs you make each day.

Allow your children to come up with a list of ideas for graphs like animal tail lengths or average salaries for different careers and then type them up and place them in a jar. Each day let them draw one from the jar and help them research the information and then create a graph. Older children can help to figure out the mean, median, mode and range of each graph as well.

Before children can comprehend spatial concepts and geometry in a textbook they need extensive experience doing geometry.

Hands on manipulatives like tangrams, geo-boards, pattern blocks, and puzzles can do a lot to help your child develop concepts of space and geometry. Building sets like Kinects, Legos, and regular wooden blocks are also very effective in teaching spatial skills. Much of the vocabulary of geometry can be taught by doing Origami with your child. You can also have your child create traditional game boards from around the world like Nine Mens Morris and Mancala while discussing geometric concepts related to the boards. Building shapes like creating 3-D shapes with your child using gumdrops and toothpicks is also an effective way to help them see geometry.

A significant portion of measurement can be taught in the kitchen. By involving your child in meal preparation as much as possible measurement will become second nature.

As they gain confidence you can challenge them to double a recipe or halve a recipe. As for measuring length and distance, involve them in any projects that need to be done around your home. You may also make up measurement task cards with different items on them for children to measure. If you trace and laminate the hands of younger children they can use them to measure things with them until they are ready for standard forms of measurement.

Chance and probability is best taught through simple dice, spinner and card games as well as by relating it to real life examples like figuring out the probability of winning the lottery or of a mother having a girl or a boy baby.

Using vocabulary like impossible, unlikely, equal chance, likely and certain will help your children become familiar with the vocabulary of chance and probability. You and your child can also make up silly statements like, an elephant will fall on you on your way to school today, and then use the vocabulary to assess the odds. As a final thought it is important to provide a variety of ways to allow your child to experience math. The more of their intelligences you engage the more likely they will be to remember what they learn. If you can bring mathematics to life for your child you will make math a puzzle to be figured out rather than a chore. Your childs attitude towards mathematics will have an enormous impact on their success.

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