Learning is an interesting phenomena and continues to intrigue. While every child is capable of learning and succeeding; they do so at different times and levels.
Math is one of those subjects many students wish could be removed from the list of things they need to learn. Unfortunately, math is not going anywhere and anytime soon.
If your child is struggling to understand or do well in math, you’re not alone.
Exploring different approach might be the answer. Finding the right approach to teach and help children understand math is important. It helps both the learner and instructor to feel at ease and increases the learner’s success opportunities.
7 Interesting Ways To Help Your Child Understand Math
#1 Start With Counting
Teaching math begins with your child knowing numbers. You can help them learn to count by memorizing numbers by hearing. That’s one of the reasons repeating songs and nursery rhymes are employed in younger classes. One example is The Ants Go Marching One by One song. While learning to count, your child will also be learning how to pronounce, build up vocabulary, and read key elements in laying the right foundation for early childhood literacy.
Another method is allowing students to watch and follow as you pick up objects like sticks or food items like items like apples and count them.
A method that may work for one of your children might not be right for another. Gauge each child individually. Once your child begins counting, you’re ready to start with some basic math principles. They’ll be adding and subtracting before you know it.
#2 Use Everyday Objects
You already have everything you need to begin teaching math to your child. Buttons, pennies, money, books, fruit, soup cans, trees, cars — you can count the objects you have available. Math is easy to teach when you look at all of the physical objects you can count, add, subtract, and multiply.
Everyday objects also help you teach your child that objects don’t have to be identical to be important in math. Counting apples is a great math lesson, but counting apples, oranges, and watermelons together expands the thought process. The child is connecting counting with various objects, instead of running through a routine numbers game of 1, 2, 3.
#3 Play Math Games
There are lots of games in the market that can aid in teaching children math. Hi Ho Cherry-O and adding dice teach simple addition. The game Chutes and Ladders introduces children to the numbers 1 to 100.
Advanced math board games come and go, so check stores for today’s hot games. Classics like Yahtzee, PayDay, Life, and Monopoly are always good resources for addition and subtraction.
Some of the best math games come from your own imagination. Tic-Tac-Toe and scavenger hunt for objects. Use chalk to scribble numbers on the driveway and quiz your kids with math questions they have to answer by running to the correct number.
Begin basic counting skills with blocks. Math can become an activity they enjoy rather than an educational drill.
#4 Baking and Cooking
Soft cookies make excellent teaching tools. While you can count the cookies you bake for simple math, a fresh batch is also perfect for teaching fractions. With a plastic knife, kids can learn how to cut a cookie into eighths, fourths, and halves.
The act of visually seeing a fourth created as well as them getting to cut that whole into fourths makes an impression in a child’s mind.
Use those small cookie pieces to teach your child how to add and subtract fractions. For example, 1/4 of a cookie + 1/4 of a cookie = 1/2 of a cookie. Put the pieces together so they can see the cookie in half. An alternative to baking cookies is to use raw cookie dough or make your own play-dough.
Of course, you can’t eat your fractions when you’re finished learning math, but you can reuse the cookie dough or molding clay.
#5 Invest in an Abacus
Even the smallest hands love sliding abacus beads back and forth along the wire. An abacus can be used to teach kids addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. There is so much knowledge and skills to acquire when learning math with an abacus.
At a young age kids develop problem-solving and analytical skills.
#6 Test Flash Cards
Using flashcards is a great way to help kids visualize numbers like 2 + 2, but letting kids get hands-on experience with counting might work better. Evaluate your child’s learning preferences by trying both flashcards and hands-on experience.
Some children learn better by seeing the answer on a card or counting pictures on a card. Others won’t truly get the concept of math until you let them count physical objects. Mix up your math lessons to see which method seems to be working best for your child.
#7 Make Math a Daily Activity
Use math in your day-to-day routine. Help your child get the most out of your math lessons (link to our courses) when you incorporate it into your daily life while setting goals they can achieve.
- At a red light, how many blue cars do you see?
- At the grocery store, how many boxes of crackers could we buy if we only have $10? [change the currency to suit your location or preference]
- At the doctor’s office, how many kids will be left in the waiting room when three are called to the back?
- If we only ate 1/4 of our lunch, how much would we have left?
- How much will diapers cost if they’re 25 percent off?
- On the freeway, how much do the numbers on the license plate in front of us add up to?
- How many shirts are you putting into the washing machine?
- If you need to divide eight quarters among four people at the arcade, how many quarters would each person get? Seven strategies courtesy of Thoughtco.com
Maybe you feel that you’re not able to give your child the necessary support to learn and understand math – you’re not alone.
We can support you. Click HERE to book a free consultation. Just like you, we believe it is important to lay the right learning foundation from the beginning in mathematics and literacy. Doing so will increase kids’ success level in other subject areas.
Our math tutorials for students from elementary to secondary are handle with care and by experienced staff to ensure the right concepts are taught and understood by students.
Helping Children learn and Understand Math Can be exciting & offers bonding opportunities for parents & kids
Explore helping your kids learn math with the 7 Simple Strategies For Teaching Math above. Whatever the method you decide to us, start with helping children understand what they are doing. Doing so will help them build on and expand on what they’ve learned. As a result, they’ll be better prepared to navigate and solve other math problems by themselves or with little or no help
Keep it real and use objects and materials around you. When talking about math, the focus is usually on numbers and counting. More than numbers, math can be seen as messages displayed through numbers or stories told through numbers.
Use real-life learning methods to help your kids understand and appreciate what it is they are doing. While some children feel that math is beyond their ability, helping your child see it, feel it, touch it, smell it, hear it and even eat it like the cookies can help him/her feel less intimidated.
Games: Many children and even adults think that math is for special people. You’d be surprised that math can be learned and understood by anyone if kept real, nice and simple. Games like monopoly and counting different types of car while on the road can give children real-life opportunities to interact with numbers and understand how counting work. Math games don’t have to be expensive, aim for fun and your child will be excited to engage and learn more.
Learning math in the kitchen is among children’s favorites activities. Kids love exploring, tasting and getting their hands messy. Think about the play dough and you’ll love the cookie dough. For baking ideas visit Dedells and let your child experiment with measuring and mixing ingredients.
Watch the how to videos and pick a recipe to work on. Cooking and baking are simple and fun ways for learning and understanding math concepts like fractions and math facts – add, subtract, multiply and divide.
Maybe you’ve noticed that abacuses are in many places like hospitals and in the waiting rooms of offices where children are permitted. They come in different sizes, shapes, colors and patterns and children love to play with them.
The abacuses encourage children to engage in computing without the stress and invite them to use their imagination to explore different combinations of numbers and sequences. In the absence of an abacus, make strings of Cheerios cereal or pastas or make math beads string and use them.
Flash cards are excellent for math games. In addition to using flash cards to help children learn and understand math concepts and facts, they are ideal for practicing speed math and other card games like Race to 100 or Go Fishing.
Lastly, making math a daily activity can create awareness and help increase your child’s curiosity to want to explore things from a math point of view. Simple activities like brushing teeth, lacing up shoes, eating and even sleeping are math in action. Play authentic Q/A games with your child. For example, “How many hours do you sleep everyday (or every week)?” How long does it take to brush your teeth in the morning?
Get your child excited about learning and understanding math. Search, find, and explore what works. Try one or all 7 interesting Ways to Help Your Child Understand Math.
If you feel that your child might need help or some form of support to learn and understand math book a free consultation.
TakeAways!
- Go beyond teaching kids how to do math and move towards helping them understand math.
- Find a suitable teaching and learning method(s) that works for your child.
- You’re not alone, ask teachers, friends and families for suggestions and tips.
- Keep it real, fun and simple.