Let’s face it, very few children look forward to learning math under any circumstance. Whilst math worksheets like division worksheets and fraction worksheets provide effecting, learning math can often be tedious and long-winded to many young people. But there’s plenty you can do to make it fun and subsequently more effective. Teaching math in the same boring way as usual doesn’t produce the best results, and by implementing some of the following intuitive methods, young people will suddenly become more responsive to how mathematics works. Young people who seem to constantly be having problems with their math work, or are reluctant to do their math homework are showing the classic signs of ineffective teaching methods.
Indeed, it’s usually unwise to limit the learning methods of children. Attention can easily be lost by using the same methods over a long period of time, and hence, by using more interesting and enjoyable methods of teaching children can more easily pick up mathematical skills.
One way that you might not have thought of will include getting your children to help you when preparing anything that involves some kind of mathematics. Perhaps the best example of this would be baking or cooking. Weighing out ingredients and calculating how much of an ingredient is needed proportionally to go with another is a great task to keep a child interested and involved with mathematics. This is a great way to calculate ratios and quantities, which will undoubtedly help in school. You’ll find it’s probably more effective than addition worksheets, or any other math worksheets that just has a child sat working at a table!
Another way would be to get your child involved in some basic finances. As well as teaching them the value of money, by allowing your child to help add up the cost of your shopping you are enhancing their ability to successfully add up sums of money to calculate an end cost. This will probably keep them quiet from being bored at the supermarket, too!
Distance is another great way of getting math involved with every day life. When you’re traveling long distances in the car, try your best to talk to your child about how long it will take you to get to the destination, the average speed you’re traveling, and how you can work out the end distance from these figures. It’s tricky at first, but your child will feel a great sense of accomplishment when they’ve finally got their head around it.
Sports are something that is enjoyed by near enough every child out there. Sports, hence, create a great opportunity for you to implement some learning activities potentially without your child even realizing that it’s educational. Try and implement math-related challenges and games into their sporting activity to make learning activities seem more fun. It’s a great way of getting kids involved with learning math, and a great way of keeping them fit and healthy – as well of course as keeping them in a good mood through having fun!
Finally, chess and other board games can easily include different kinds of math games. Playing chess involves a pattern, allowing your child to learn more about patterns in mathematics, rather than just numbers. These are just a few ideas, but if you’re really keen to get your child learning, then it’s easy to implement math into more things in your life
By: Maria Citadel S. Cantillas | MT-I | Ipag Elem. School | Mariveles, Bataan
