5 Ways to Help Your Child Love Math
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Math is one of those subjects students seem to either easily understand or it completely overwhelms them. Many times, the difficulty with math is lack of understanding of basic math principles: adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing. These math facts can be presented in many methods, but showing children something they can actually manipulate will improve how they learn. Giving your children the advantage of an education in a Osceola County private school will aid in developing math skills and will provide them with a firm foundation for their entire education. Below are five ideas you can use to assist your child in mastering math.
Games: Solitaire, Yahtzee, Monopoly, and other well-known games are fantastic in boosting number awareness and helping your child in sorting, counting, adding, and other elementary math skills. Some corporations have created math-specific board games for family and school use. These games teach everything from counting to telling time to making change. Many of these games are inexpensive and provide hours of fun without your child realizing they are learning math.
Computer tools: This generation of learners is generally computer literate. Give them a website and they can open it and dive right in! A few of the better math websites are Dreambox, Mathville, and Prodigy. These interactive games advance as your child understands, so the information they learn at first becomes the foundation for later learning.
Give it purpose: Learning fractions seems odd to a child – why are these numbers piled up? What do they mean? When a picture of a pizza with eight slices is shown to a student, the eight pieces make a whole, and each slice is 1/8 of a whole pizza. Suddenly, the idea of fractions makes sense. By giving concrete examples of math concepts, math becomes purposeful. When possible, show students something they can manipulate to learn their math skills. Use math in the grocery store to round prices to the nearest dollar, estimate costs, compare prices, et cetera.
Keep it positive: Parents set the tone for most of their children’s attitudes. If you present math as something you are not good at, they will find that math is not very interesting and should not be trusted. On the other hand, if you talk about math in a positive manner and give fun examples of math in use, they will probably learn to love numbers.
Ask the teacher: To know how your child is doing in math or any of his or her other subjects, the ultimate solution is to ask the teacher. Finding out how your child learns, the best tools to help with math, at-home games you can play with your child, and other ideas to build math into your day will greatly improve how your child views math.
When your child learns math at home, as well as at school, the amount of information he or she understands escalates rapidly. Give your child the skills to tackle math with puzzles, games, and online activities. Go outside and find examples of math in nature, such as counting the points on leaves or the numbers of petals on a flower. Math is everywhere, and it is up to you as a parent to make the most of math’s bounty. Contact the Diocese of Orlando at 407-246-4800 and read our blogs for information on education, Osceola County private schools, and the Catholic schools in our parish.