How to Make Math Fun For Your Kids

Help your Child Develop Strong Basic Math Concepts with these Math Games & Learning Resources

Now you can start basic math lessons and concepts the right way by building on what your child already knows. Here are some valuable resources that makes learning match fun and easy.

There is a lot of research happening out there with the aim of making preschool math lessons much more fun, and a lot less tedious.

Why learn math?

The word “Mathematics” comes from the ancient Greek language. For thousands of years, people have been accumulating mathematical knowledge, i.e. knowledge about numbers, quantities and quantitative relationships.

Without such knowledge, the ancient Egyptians, for example, would not have been able to build their famous pyramids. Satellite launches, construction of motorways, weather forecast, simply would be impossible without mathematical calculations.

The moment a child is born, s/he finds herself in a world of numbers – height, weight, pulse, and so on. As the child grows up, she uses numbers to communicate – “I want two ice cream!” says a five years kid. Mathematics? Yes, math! The real arithmetic!

Mathematics encourages thinking, it teaches you to find new, unexpected solutions.

Bollywood actor Tiger Shroff may not be a math whiz but he is all in favor of kids learning math in school. Even though The Bombay High Court has urged all education boards to consider having mathematics as an optional subject for all school certificate examinations, Tiger Shroff has come forward to champion the cause of education.
The actor is now a Shiksha Superhero in a CSR initiative.

“I wish this suggestion of having mathematics as an optional subject had come when I was in school. I believe in holistic learning and education. We make a living by doing work to earn money and how do we take care of that money? Some amount of knowledge of mathematics is vital for that,” said Tiger on a lighter note.

With good math skills, the threat that students face is that within job interviews there are often mini-tests for maths so that they can get an idea of if you are able to do simple maths formulas; adding, subtracting, dividing, multiplying, ratios and percentages. If you’re unable to show a good set of maths skills then this could stop you from getting a good job because of a lack of numeric skills. Clearly, all employers are interested in individuals that are good at both English and Mathematics.

Having Maths skills is vital to work in any business. If you fail to develop your maths skills in the long run it could prevent you from getting a good job due to average mathematics skills. It is vital for you to improve your mathematics skill if you want to pursue your desired career.

Math vs. Maths

Math and maths are equally acceptable abbreviations of mathematics. The only difference is that math is preferred in the U.S. and Canada, and maths is preferred in the U.K., Australia, and most other English-speaking areas of the world.

Neither abbreviation is correct or incorrect. If you were raised in a part of the world where people say maths, then maths is correct for you, and the same is of course true of math. Don’t listen to anyone who says otherwise.

Here are some Examples.

North America

1. Math is the strong suit of students at the Ward Elementary School, where 50 percent of third grade students scored “advanced.” [Boston Globe]
2. Math professors are appalled at the lack of math skills they see in some education students … [Winnipeg Free Press]
3. Apollo paid less than $100 million to acquire Carnegie Learning, a provider of computer-based math tutorials. [The Atlantic]

Outside North America

1. It lasted a long 40 minutes, which is how I remember maths lessons. [Financial Times (U.K.)]
2. But scratch below the surface and you’ll find the maths is seriously flawed. [Sydney Morning Herald]
3. The Government has been under pressure from business and employer groups to boost standards in maths. [Irish Times]

Exposure to Maths from a Young Age

We all know how important Math is; its important for kids when in school and it remains important in your adult life as well. No wonder teachers and parents want kids to excel in Maths, but not all kids get excited about maths and puzzles (in general).

Most teachers and parents strongly believe that children need exposure to Maths from a young age. It is believed that students in their ‘math lives’ can either go on from their early math schooling and learning, or they will detest the subject lifelong. In most schools, ‘math life’ is formal and regimented and that is one reason why many find the subject boring (in some case even fearful).

Most students are well aware of the importance of learning Math, but get discouraged because it comes across as ‘difficult’.

Speaking from experience, a math teacher says, “I strongly feel that if a child is exposed to a difficult concept in a subject with an equally difficult teacher, there are chances that the child will not pursue that subject later.”

However, there are some schools who’re trying to incorporate innovative ways of teaching Maths.

“For example, students are shown scenes from different movies and are asked to figure out how each of the scenes is possible or impossible mathematically. For example, taking the animated movie ‘up’, the children calculated the total amount of helium that would be required to lift an entire house, including furniture and people.” Students use videos, Power-Point presentations, printouts, group investigations, and giant cutouts to prove their formulae.

“We prefer making videos in the class because it makes it a lot more interesting,” said a teacher.

Students are also made to realize that learning Math is an integrated approach, where children can connect what they learn in Math to other subjects. Says one student, “We’re given very interesting projects where we’re asked to decode complicated answers from real life situations. For example, one of our assignments was to figure out the mean age of the gamers of the game- Clash of Clans.”

A very passionate math teacher says that children are not pots to fill, but their passions need to be ignited. “The key to teaching children Mathematics is adopting contextual learning. Children need to be taught that it is relevant and you are basically setting the child is in pursuit of knowledge, making them critical thinkers.”

Parental Involvement

Though it is always helpful to begin early in life, as far as kids are concerned a couple of suggestions:

• Make learning spontaneous and fun
• Use resources to help you child learn at home, and not just at school
• Parental guidance and involvement helps children learn better

Most kids spend time playing different types of games, some as simple as board games whereas some would play video games (not necessarily learning related).

Most studies have shown that certain kinds of board games do improve preschool math skills, though these games might look very simple to adults.

But the fact is that the more math’s related board games or video games that a child played, the better is their performance when it comes to:

Counting, Identifying Numbers, Choose greater or lesser of two numbers, etc.

This is where your involvement as a parent helps, as you can determine how usefully your child spends his/her time.

How to inspire your kids to learn Maths

Must do’s for parents…

• Inspiration, not jail sentence: Math is all about inspiration, and not enforcing a jail sentence on children. Try to avoid keeping set timetables for children to learn Math
• Maths becomes perfect with practice: Parental involvement in learning Math is very important. Sit down with children and perform experiments that involve Mathematics
• Give children plenty of opportunities to count and measure : For example, while cooking, allow the children to count and measure ingredients. Budget your groceries with your children
• Find ways to practice number operations: Pick a number between 1 and 20 (or between any two numbers up to 100). Have your child guess the number, then you tell if your number was greater than or less than his guess. Have your child keep revising his guess until he guesses your number. Then trade roles
• Find ways to collect and organize complicated information: Read weather charts, movie schedules, and other common numerical information you find in the news

Importance of Math Homework

The importance of math is known to teachers as well as parents of students. Although its an important subject, for years, Mathematics has been plaguing several students. However, the only way you can get better at the subject is by regularly doing your Math Homework.

Mathematics is the way to calculate or exactly describe amounts. And Math homework is the best way students can learn the principles of mathematics.

Math in the Initial Years
In the first years of school, math homework takes the form of simple additional and subtraction. These are skills that are simple enough that even a parent can help with math homework.

Addition and subtraction are basic to all forms of mathematics and will be used every day for the rest of the student’s life. Be it pocket money, or expenses at the movies, or any sort of budgeting, knowledge of math will definitely help.

Next comes multiplication and division, which in addition to adding and subtracting, gives you more control over the numbers. It makes the process of dealing with large amounts or numbers of repetitions of events much faster, in the long run.

More Uses of Basic Math
To be better at math, students need to learn multiplication tables, so these are definitely part of any homework. However, once you learn it, math becomes easier.

Mathematic calculations are used in nearly every form of business. So math homework will definitely pay off one day (in terms of better salary or becoming better at your profession).

Look for Practical Applications
Math homework is not going to be only about addition, subtraction, multiplication & division; over time it will increase in difficulty when percentages and decimals will be introduced in the curriculum.

However, if you’re a parent (and you were weak in the subject yourself), there’s really no need to panic.

Look for practical ways in which you can teach your child how to apply the concepts learnt in school. Hopefully, once you show the students some practical applications, they will remember it for the long term, and that really should be the objective of any math homework.

Math Games & Resources

Here is a good collection of math resources, which will be useful to children, teachers, and parents.

Interesting math games and activities, sums and puzzles makes it fun for kids to learn math. The various resources can be grouped in the following:

• Toys & Games, which includes Board Games, Mathematics & Counting Toys, and other Games
• Educational Books, which includes math games books, puzzles, children’s math books
• You also get some good children’s math software programs, education & reference software programs that focus on math learning.
• If you are a school, nursery, play-school, you can also have a collection of Early Childhood Education Materials, which focus on Maths.
• If your child loves to play video games (almost all kids do) then you may choose to go in for some math based video games. A good collection of math video games is available from Nintendo, Wii, Xbox 360, Sony PSP, PlayStation, and others.

Smart Targets to Improve Mathematic skills

• Join regular mathematics support groups within the school or the university student centre.
• Read the Improve your maths book By Jon Curwin to boost my skills. Read this book for one hour every other day.
• Watch online maths tutorial on YouTube for 20 minutes every day.
• Use Math apps on your phone as a way of testing and training your memory 15 minutes every day.
• Practice past math papers to help increase maths knowledge and skills. Do this for an hour over the weekend
  
  

Mathematics: Weakness of many students

Reflection by a Student

I first found out that mathematics was one of my weak points within primary school. I was always a great student who listened and always did my home work but when it came to mathematics I always came bottom of the class. I even joined a support class but no progression was being made and it was clear that my Mathematics skills had started to become a real issue that needed to be addressed before it became too late.

When I went to secondary school I had an extra maths lesson per week to help me to achieve the expected grades within my GSCES, however, I was still falling bottom of the class. I started taking home maths guides and maths papers every week to try and help me to develop in maths. I finally started to see slight progression within the last two years of secondary school. Even though I knew I had done well within My GSCES compared to what I was like at primary school I still didn’t manage to leave with a pass in Mathematics.

I then moved on in my education and started attending college. Due to not passing my maths I had to attend an extra lesson away from my core subject being Business Management and I had to attend Maths Functional skills lessons. After attending regular lessons for five months I finally started to feel as if I understood certain aspects of maths and started finding the work allot easier than I had done in the previous years. A month later when I had my first maths functional skills exam I passed achieving a level one. This was equivalent to a level D. Clearly there had been slight improvement since when I achieved a level E in my maths GSCE. For the rest of the two years that I had left on my Business Course I carried on attending the maths functional skills lessons in the aim to achieve a level 2 , equivalent to a level C grade. I found it extremely hard to pass and still did not leave college with a C grade in maths.

Clearly I have progressed over the years but there is still major room for improvement. I still need to achieve a level C in my maths in order to have the employability skill that every employer wants if I want to reach my career goal within Human Resource Management.

I realised in day to day situations that I really needed to work on my maths, and I am not able to interpret information presented in graphs, charts, tables or diagrams. Clearly Mathematics skills are needed within Human Resources as if an employee came to you with a problem regarding not getting their right pay for the hours of work they do, I would not be able to work it out and look extremely unprofessional. You also need mathematics within Human Resources to be able to sort out the payroll for employees. If you have not maths skills then this could lead to many consequences as errors would be made along with causing yourself to look unprofessional and unqualified along with giving yourself and the company as a whole a bad reputation.