How to Teach Kids Math: Get Kids to Love Math!
How to teach kids math?
Math is essential in everything we do, everybody needs it no matter what his age, occupation or job is. Some kids, by nature, love math and know how to "think" about math and solving its problems. Teaching math for kids can be a little difficult if you don't know how to get them to love the subject. You should help them love it and include math within their activities and bring it to their everyday lives.
Kids start to understand math from the age of 3-4 years and they start by counting from 1 to 10, which is a big step for them. Then, math starts to appear in their life, specially when dealing with moneym budgets and shopping. Back to school kids, some of them can have problems with mathematics, they don't really get the sense of numbers even if you, as an adult think a problem or an equation is very easy to be solved, they might find it difficult to deal with; they lack the basics of math.
How to get kids to love math
Mathematics studied at school can be really boring for kids, and that is the main reason why they start to hate it. Your job is to introduce math to them in another form, the real math they are going to use in their life. Try to make math more interesting, exciting and fun for them. You don't have to spend a lot of time doing this, 10 minutes daily of fun activities or games including math is enough to get them involved and teach them how to use math in their life.
Whenever your child uses math or tries to solve a problem, encourage and reward him even if his answer is wrong. Give him hints to guide him through the problem and help him learn the right way of thinking. Tell him that he tried to solve the problem in a right way but he made a mistake in a particular step, tell him why his answer was wrong and help him reach the right answer/solution.
- Bring math into their lives by helping them with money, give your kids some money and help him practice calculating prices and what he has to pay, etc.
- Ask your kid to help you during shopping and practice math at the same time: he can write a list of any items on sale and calculate how much you can save, how much each item in a package would cost alone, etc. This way he can practice, and you can find bargains/sales. This is shopping math, mom!
- Read numbers and signs on the road, count cars, buildings or anything.
- Help him read and understand the calendar, time, weights and heights in your housem street or anywhere.
- Calendar math can be fun, ask your kid to find out how many mondays in this month? Mark holidays, birthdays and important dates, which day is going to be the first day in the next month, etc. The calendar can be a lot fun than just a calendar!
- Give him fun math problems to solve at home.
- Play Sudoku and other math games with them.
- Use a math learning software. These can really save time and improve your child's skills in a very easy and fun way. Check the list below for some of the bestselling interactive math learning software at amazon.com.