“I am not good in Math’s”, “I hate Math’s. It’s so hard” – My 7 years old cried.
Most children grow up hating Math’s. Why? A child’s first teachers and parents play an important role in’ attitude towards math. In most cases, kids who have little or no interest in math’s did not have someone who loved Math’s as a teacher. Their teacher did not make Math real, engaging, playful and empowering. And sometimes, parents who do not love maths also end up passing on the dislike to their children.
For mathematics, play is the engine of learning. The secret to successful math education is to make it so much fun that children do not even realize they are learning something that will help them later in life.
Here are tips on how parents lay a solid foundation to help their children enjoy Math’s:
1. Make connections to real world: Parents help children make connections between the math topic and the “real world”. Help your children see how a particular math theory can help to solve a problem by showing them the thinking behind the solution.
2. Do fun math investigations with your kids: When you approach these as games and not lessons, you might be surprised at how much fun math can be. Maths is related to nearly every interest. Is your child a baseball fan? record statistics, calculate batting averages, Is your child into fashion? visit a fabric store, calculate the cost of materials to create a dream design, etc.
3 Make math real and meaningful: We are surrounded by real math problems in the form of money, measurement, time, and others. Point this out to your child as you go with him through life. This includes checking prices at the grocery store, driving down the street counting mailboxes, reading recipes, calculating coupons, or even measuring food, etc.
4 Integrate math into fun activities: Find out what games or activities your child enjoys and integrate math into it. If your child loves to bake or cook with you, have your child measure ingredients in wholes or in parts. One way to integrate subtraction problem, is to ask your child, “We need to put five eggs, we already placed two eggs, how many more eggs do we need?”, etc.
5. Make math a game: Help your child consider math not as work but as a game that can be played like computer games, sports, or fun board games. Use digital games apps, and numerous websites such as 9ijakids games as resources for making math a game. There are numerous activity books that make math fun, encourage your child to play card and board games that involve calculations (For example, Chutes and Ladders and Monopoly).
Math’s is one subject you cannot avoid. It’s everywhere in our daily lives – from using a recipe to cook, to giving your child medicine, to going shopping, building houses, and making “money” decisions. Understanding math is an essential part of building problem solving and critical thinking skills.
9ijakids have put together over 200 fun learning games across all subjects. In recent times, we have added more to the number of fun maths games to help children develop interest and be comfortable with numbers. Click here for details .
Would you like a free eBook on how to help your child with maths? Simply send us an email via lola@9ijakids.com to request for free.
