Do you know how Math skills can help your child have a better ability to decipher a majority of cause and effect relationships, reasoning, and a more realistic sense of the world around!
Developing sound math skills in kids at the right age plays a big role in assuring future success.
No doubts parents can play a big role in shaping the interest of kids in math.
But…is ‘Math’ a scarecrow to drive your kid away from the study desk?
Often lack of interest and the nightmarish impression of math subjects deters even the brightest of minds from not committing silly mistakes, forget equations and formulas, or get stuck in word problems. Wondering how to make your child good at math? Find the best parenting tips right here as we unpack the secret sauce to make kids fall in love with math just like that!
- Cheer, To Get Rid of Fear: What aggravates the fearsome confrontation with Math subject is the continuous nagging or passing negative remarks on child’s performance in math. Do not reprimand your kid for not doing well in Math. It is only positive encouragement and empathy that can slowly kindle your child to try befriending Math. Remember every little encouragement is like stepping up from 0 to 10 for your kid on the math ladder.
- Make Math Fun, Not Subject: This is the time to take your child out of the textbook and school syllabus and introduce math in a fun way. Try having a family fun time playing board games, puzzles, other games, or toys that inculcate stronger math skills by engaging kids in counting, geometric shapes, volume concepts, and basic arithmetic operations.
- Daily Math Gym with Ease: Apart from games and puzzles, there are many activities and chores which if kids do that can play a big role in speeding up their mental math and eventually calculation skills. The next time you are about to give your clothes for iron allow kids do the calculation of what the total bill will be for the number of clothes. You can also try asking them to do nominal grocery shopping from the community store and learn money-related word problems practically. Engaging them in cooking and planning a recipe can also open the inactive reluctant grey matter of kids!
- Know the Problem Areas: There can be many reasons behind math anxiety in kids. The trick is to closely observe and find out the problem areas. It can be a general nervousness to do basic arithmetic operations, identifying and naming large numbers, formulas, area-volume equations, theorems, or even mathematical tables.
Accordingly, the practice sessions can be planned and executed. Talking to the teacher can also help in finding the problem area. Do not force your kid to rote memorize tables or equations. Forgetting them can simply backfire and make your child nervous.
- Technology To Your Rescue: We are blessed to live in an era where we have a plethora of online games, quizzes, and interactive videos to simplify complex math concepts and kindle the thinking buds of kids to solve problems and tasks. The score challenges and game levels layout from easy to hard can boost the confidence of kids, reduce frustration and eagerness to solve math problems.
- Engage The Right Daily Practice: Ever thought in this direction? It can be not your kid. But an overall lack of interest in subjects due to an inefficient mode of teaching. Often crowded classes or the fast-paced instruction delivery can discourage kids from clearing their concepts on time. The school syllabus finishes, but your kid is still on the first page.v School assessments can bring up the pile of unfinished homework, blank textbooks or worksheets, and more than that an anxious mind that starts hating math for being so out of the league. Try to engage in a healthy daily practice either by tutoring yourself or by enrolling kids in one-to-one online math practice classes for kids that will help with clearing basic concepts.
Let us now try to hit on some of the most common problem areas, kids face in the foundation stage while dealing with math!
HOW CAN I teach my kid math tables easily?
Follow these cool tips to make your kid learn math tables with ease:
- Prepare table charts or attractive multicolored table strips in a neat and readable way and stick them to the refrigerator, snack cupboard, or in the kids’ room for maximum visibility.
- Try easier tables like 2, 5, 10, 11, and then slowly perk up to other numbers for boosting learning confidence.
- Try hanging a Waldorf Multiplication Flower which is the perfect aid to learn tables with ease and this works really well with creative kids inclined to understand more by the pictorial representation of concepts.
- Teach handy table tricks and shortcuts to reduce rote memorization of tables.
HOW CAN I reduce silly mistakes in Math?
Know the secret tips to help your child avoid silly mistakes in math!
- Inculcate the practice of writing down the rough work or calculation part instead of doing mental math. Always ask the child to maintain a handy notebook along while attempting a school worksheet or solving math questions in the textbook.
- Focus on ‘what went wrong’ instead of ‘what is the right answer’. Often silly mistakes are the result of not following the correct technique or breach of concept. On getting the answer wrong the first time itself, evaluate with patience which step gave the wrong result.
- Train your kid to re-check every time they finish a worksheet or assessment paper. This may help your child to evaluate and do away with the tiniest doubts about the solution of a particular question in the worksheet/testpaper. Make your kids understand, there is a second chance to correct mistakes only before submission but not after getting marks.
HOW CAN I help in making word problems easy for my kid?
Unfortunately, word problems are having numbers and we need to make them look simple to kids. But how?!
- Train how to sort the data given in the word problem first, by using the CUBES technique. C- circle the numbers. U – underline the important text. B- Box the tricky part or clues. E- Examine now the circles, underlines, and boxes. S- Solve the problem step-by-step.
- Solve word problems daily. Go easy to hard.
- Learn the basic calculus first and concept first in numerical form rather than directly jumping to word problems.
- Try even the reverse technique. Framing word questions from given equations. This will help in building textual clarity of word problems.
Pull-on all the strategies above to generate slow and steady interest in math. We cannot eventually force a kid into math. That will only alleviate their fear.
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