Good knowledge of mathematics and being able to apply this knowledge is an essential part of our daily lives.
Does your child find calculating difficult? You may want to lend a hand, but you have no idea where to start.
It is understandable that some children have difficulty remembering arithmetic terms, the order of operations, or simply their schedule.
To help your children view maths more positively, you can start by discussing the topic at home.
Sometimes all that is needed is a good and safe learning environment and a different approach to making full use of the possibilities and math skills of a child.
Let’s look at the ways in which parents can act as teachers and help their children at home with maths and maths.
Discuss Mathematics at Home with your Child
The problem with only learning math at school is that children sometimes feel too far away from the subject when they are in a different environment.
This means that if children come across a math problem at school, they are less likely to tell their parents because the discussion would take place outside the school context. This applies not only to maths at primary school but also to mathematics in secondary education.
Rightly or wrongly, if parents do not play an active role in offering math assistance to their child, it does not occur to the student that parents might be able to help because they do not take math lessons together.
On the other hand, being at home can be a way to avoid mathematics, especially when solving math problems and making math exercises makes them anxious.
Whether they are learning about algebra, geometry or mapping coordinates, math can be a fun and stimulating discipline for children who have a natural curiosity about the world around them.
By placing mathematics in a familiar context, you will familiarize yourself and your child with math concepts and increase the self-confidence of your children by asking you questions. All children are able to learn math, so be surprised!
Learning what your child learns can also help to remove anxiety and add extra support to their learning process.
The best way to combat anxiety is to acknowledge, approach and discuss anxiety with the people around you.
The same applies to mathematics. Whether it is about fractions, decimals, arithmetic, calculating sums or making graphs: just because you as a child struggled with a subject, that does not necessarily mean that your child will face the same difficulties.
Talk to your children about mathematics ǀ Source: Pixabay
You can also use your child’s upbringing as an opportunity to overcome your own fears. For example, it is not at all true that boys are better at maths than girls!
This is also possible with a math tutor who has the feeling that he or she does not have enough knowledge. You could even take lessons together!
Talking about math in contexts such as cooking, crafts, traveling and playing with your children is the best way to make this discipline an active part of their daily lives.
For them, the use of math will become just as normal as the other topics you discuss.
The environment is the key: as long as you give children a reason to discuss arithmetic, they will. That is why it is up to parents and guardians to lay the foundation for future academic success.
The more you talk about math in a positive way in the presence of your children, the greater the chance that they will get a personal interest in it.
Do not hesitate to ask them questions about math, such as calculating certain things while cooking or taking a walk.
Exercises such as these will help them develop their recollection skills and make them comfortable with arithmetic so that a smooth transition to more difficult mathematics becomes possible in the future.
Learn Math by Playing Games
Whatever field your children will choose later, they will always learn better when they have fun than when they memorize things because they have to.
So take advantage of this! Whether it is in the form of free online math lessons, interactive math games online or by playing with Lego, math can almost always be turned into a game!
Use toys to teach your children to count. ǀ Source: Visualhunt – Ashley Mackinnon
Playing cool math games with your children offers a good opportunity to learn basic math. Teach them about counting, sorting, telling time, numerical value, comparing, reasoning, probability calculation, estimation, and completion.
For example, you can ask your children to measure the amount of pasta in a dish or to count the pieces while you cook.
Lego can also be used to visualize operations such as addition and subtraction or multiplication and division.
Younger children who go to nursery schools can have figure figures colored in to teach them about writing numbers.
Use your child’s interest to help with math
Being exposed to a subject that covers as much as math can be somewhat intimidating for children.
If you have to memorize all notations, vocabulary, comparisons, graphs, and propositions, you can get dizzy as an adult, let alone a child!
However, learning to count can be fun for children if they can practice their math skills in a familiar environment and at their own pace.
Children learn to a large extent without even realizing it!
Educational games also include playing with cars, playing with a tea set, building towers from Lego or similar toys, or playing fun math games on a tablet.
Some budding mathematicians can even learn arithmetic at home without knowing it is related to school.
Play fun math games online ǀ Source: Visualhunt – Gwenaël Pleaser
Learning to recognize the interests of your children and to involve them in their upbringing is an excellent way to keep children involved.
You will be pleasantly surprised to see how quickly children learn when they have fun.
There are also many free math sites where children can play math and play maths, such as Math games and Games square.
You could even download a free math app on your tablet.
The Seeing of Mathematics in Everyday Life
For many children, there is no real connection between the content of their maths lessons and daily life.
However, there is a possibility of this relationship in your home, garden or while running errands show.
For example, ask your children to count the change in your wallet or to calculate the number of your purchases as you walk through the store.
If you like to cook, why don’t you give your child the role of sous-chef for the day and let them help with the recipe? Measure the quantities of flour and sugar, beat the eggs, calculate the weight of us to grams, estimated cooking time, change in hours and minutes using the clock to calculate when you should cake from the oven.
All these little things are quickly absorbed into your child’s memory. On the one hand they will be happy to help you and on the other it will keep them involved.
You suddenly see how removing the pressure of math in the classroom makes learning easy, as children learn to appreciate the applications of math in a given situation.
This way of learning is much more fun than spending hours with math exercises, elaborations or math questions.
See More than One Solution for a Math Exercise
Children must learn that math is more than calculators and (is) equal signs.
There are always different ways to solve math problems and there are many math tricks that can make your life easier. For example, why would you use a calculator for simple operations and estimates, while mental calculations can save you time?
By showing them that there are different paths to the same answer, you help your children to think critically and develop logical skills by teaching them to consider each approach.
Provide a suitable environment to learn arithmetic
Children develop their basic math skills by getting to know the world around them.
It is the responsibility of parents to develop and nurture this natural curiosity by sharing their personal experiences with math and helping children to see and appreciate that math is all around them. For example, point them to the mathematical elements of how your own house is built or look together at the bookshelf that you have made yourself.
You could even try this kind of element to reproduce with Lego bricks.
If you look closely, math is everywhere.
However, it is impossible to do well in math if you work in the wrong environment.
Whether it’s doing math homework or taking a math tutoring, trying to concentrate in a busy or disorganized room can be difficult for many students.
Give your child a learning corner that is equipped with a number line, math games, and educational toys such as cubes or modeling clay, so that they can satisfy their hunger for knowledge in a calm and familiar environment.
By setting up a special room for this, your child will be able to become independent in his or her learning while he or she examines math concepts such as place value, addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and series.
Give your children their own learning corner ǀ Source: Visualhunt – Cathy Cassidy
Knowledge of mathematics is not innate, but it is something you can work on from a young age.
It is quite possible to introduce children to mathematics by integrating basic concepts into their favorite activities and involving them in the mathematical parts of your daily tasks to demonstrate the importance of mathematics in everyday life.
A good understanding of numbers outside the classroom will ensure better grades in the future as children feel more comfortable with increasing their knowledge of the subject. A math tutor is a good example of someone who can offer this support and interaction.
As a parent, it is up to you and your child to develop an interest in math through playful yet educational math activities.