Help When Math Gets ScaryMathematics is absolutely essential for future opportunities in school and careers. Students will need to reach a certain level of competency in math to be admitted to college and to have a wide variety of career choices. Here's a few ideas how you can help them with their math-smarts.
1. Make sure your children understand mathematical concepts. Otherwise, math becomes a meaningless mental exercise of just memorizing rules and doing rote drills. Have your children manipulate objects to figure out basic concepts. For addition, they could add one, two, or more blocks to a pile of blocks and then tell you how many blocks are in the pile. 2. Help them master the basic facts. Mastery of a basic fact means that children can give an answer in less than three seconds. Considerable drill is required for children to give quick responses. Use flash cards to help your children learn the basic facts. Remember that this can become frustrating when they don't know an answer. There needs to be success even in the struggle. Help them solve the problems using objects around you. 3. Provide help immediately when your children need it. Math is one subject in which everything builds upon what has been previously learned. For example, a failure to understand the concept of percent leads to problems with decimals. 4. Explain how to solve word problems. Mathematicians have an expression: To learn to solve problems, you must solve problems. Teach your children to read a word problem several times. Also, have them draw a picture or diagram to describe it. Make it easier for them to understand the steps in a problem by teaching them to substitute smaller numbers for larger ones. 5. Help your children learn the vocabulary of mathematics. They will never get a real feeling for math nor learn more advanced concepts without an understanding of its vocabulary. Check that your children can define new terms. If not, have them use models and simple problems to show you they understand how the term is used. 6. Make mathematics part of your children's daily life. Mathematics will become more meaningful when your kids see how important it is in so many real-life situations. Encourage them to use math in practical ways. For example, ask them to space new plants a certain distance apart, double a recipe, and pay bills in stores. Let math be fun in your home! read More... |
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