Parents often ask why their children are doing poorly in math, particularly in grades 2-6. For young children, abstract quantities can be daunting, especially when taught in the context of skill drills. Many children do not find immediate meaning in numbers as symbols, although that is what parents and math teachers hope to convey to them.
Children in third through fifth grades who are having difficulty with procedural operations, such as long division and multi-digit multiplication, very often have not had any kinetic activity associated with the learning of the multiplication tables which are the basis for their computations. They become distracted from the procedures of multiplication and division by their concern over the “blank space” in their knowledge of multiplication tables and they lose momentum.
Parents often say that they download tables form the Internet or they use flash cards. Another, perhaps better, alternative is to provide art and craft materials for the student to use in writing his or her own personal multiplication tables. When the tables are personalized and used frequently with pride and familiarity, students gain in experience, confidence and expertise.
Children tend to enjoy having their own personally crafted multiplication tables from 1×1 through 12×12. They use these with pride and confidence. Even taking them to the supermarket to compute the total cost of multiple items will help to make the applications of arithmetic real and valued to a child.
Making a child’s learning experiential is of utmost importance in creating interest in math and developing skills. Many are not aware of the essential uses of elementary mathematical and spatial concepts in daily lives. Heightening awareness of these events is essential to pointing them out to children and sharing experience with them.
Just as parents read to our children, so should they communicate a reliance on mathematical principles. This may vary from family to family depending on individual pursuits and interests. For some families whose common interest is sports competition, a short discussion of the role of sports statistics could make that dreaded skills homework more interesting and relevant to a child’s life. Others may be interested in video games, which use computer programming that requires trigonometric applications. Cartoon animation programming uses principles of topology, the mathematics of mapping in space.
Road trips and map reading are also mathematical adventures for parents to share with children. Topographical maps use numbers in an obvious way, while road maps with scale measurements open the discussion to ratios and scale.
The history of measurement and attempts at standardization can become real when discussing money or the differences among the metric, imperial and U.S. measurement systems.
Toddlers, even with a rudimentary understanding of concrete quantity, can enjoy games of “which is less and which is more?” Counting games and rhymes abound and have been traditionally used to accustom children to quantitative symbols even at very young ages.
Perhaps the most useful tool of all in developing a child’s math ability at an early age is precision in language. Most students who have experienced the “drill and kill” math experience in school are shocked when they start to solve math word problems as a mathematical exercise. These applications of the skills so long deemed to be the foundation of math education are daunting to children who have been trained to believe that mathematical studies begin and end with computation.
If children learn mathematics as a foreign language, with symbols and grammar of its own, they are better able to handle the rigors of higher mathematics – with its whole new set of symbols and logic – and they are more productive students. Reading to a child, discussing concepts of “more and less,” “before and after,” “twice as much” and hierarchical classifications such as supermarket shelf organization and street name organization can pay off in a child’s mathematical performance.
By: Ann R Knapp
Posts Tagged ‘Flash Cards’
Math Help – Why is My Child Struggling in Math?
March 17th, 2010Kids’ Mathematics – How to Make it Fun 30 Minutes a Day
January 28th, 2010In this article, we are going to give you tips on how to make math fun for your kids. You can take the information and use it to increase your child’s math skills 30 minutes a day. Although most of the games are 30 minutes, you may find yourself doing it for an hour. Kids love to have fun and we’re going to give them what they are looking for.
Rapid Kids’ Mathematics
Kids interested in mathematics will love Rapid Math because it requires competition, speed, and accuracy. This game helps students become masters of basic math fundamentals such as multiplication, division, addition, and subtraction. Kids of all ages can participate in Rapid Math.
A minimum of four players are needed (one answering questions/one providing flashcards). Each player has one partner which will use math equations on their flash cards to answer math problems. There should be 100 flashcards per team.
The whole deck must be completed before the game ends. For instance, the child must understand and answer an equation no matter how many times it appears in the deck. Every time he or she gives an incorrect answer, the flashcard is placed back in the deck for the remainder of the game.
Why is Rapid Math a great way to teach your kids mathematics?
Parents can use Rapid Math as a game to encourage their child’s to seek knowledge. For instance, adding small prizes such as extra television time, recess, or a fun day at the park would make a child want to learn more to earn the prizes. The psychological and emotional impact of a job well-done keeps kids coming back to earn more.
Rapid Math can be an essential tool to ensure your child remains sharp in all areas of math. Parents can adjust the levels of difficulty from basic math to algebra; start your child’s academic future in the right direction by participating in Rapid Math to make learning fun. Other games are available for Grades K-6, but Rapid Math is the most effective in developing kids’ aptitudes for higher learning skills.
By: Kyle Taylor
Glenn Doman How To Teach Your Baby To Read
November 11th, 2009 All children have an incredible natural ability to learn. Before the age of five a child can easily take in an amazing amount information. Using flash cards is the easiest way to impart a huge amount of knowledge to a young child. If the child is younger than four it will be easier and more effective, before three, it gets even easier, and before two the easiest and most effective of all. The use of flash cards to teach babies is largely attributed to Glenn Doman who popularized this method. Doman’s books are available from Amazon. And there are a lot of proof available that it actually works to make tiny children smarter. Flash cards can be used to teach a baby to read, learn mathematics and gain an encyclopedic knowledge. According to the Doman method;
- The child before five can absorb information at an amazing rate.
- The more knowledge a child absorbs before the age of five, the more he retains.
- The child before five has a large amount of energy dedicated to learning.
- The child before five has a insatiable appetite to learn.
- The child before five can learn to read and wants to learn to read.
- All little children are linguistic geniuses.
Therefore can there be, any doubt that since a child before five can learn an entire language, he can therefore learn as many languages as are presented to him? The answer is an emphatic “No!”
So At What Age Should A Parent Begin The Process Of Learning?
One year of age or younger is the ideal time to begin if you want to expend the least amount of effort in teaching your child using flash cards. You can actually begin the process of teaching your baby right from birth. Although at birth, the skill of recognizing movement and shapes is the starting point, it is actually a program of visual stimulation.
Lets stop and think for a moment. We speak to the baby at birth, this helps the auditory pathway to grow. We can also teach the baby to read and provide the language of mathematics through the eyes, this helps the visual pathway to grow. There are two vital points involved in teaching your child. Your attitude and method, as well as the size and orderliness of the teaching materials.
The Best Time To Teach
The most suitable time is when mother and baby are comfortable, both physically and emotionally. If the baby is uncomfortable, tired or hungry, the teaching process should be delayed or cancelled. Find out what is causing the baby’s discomfort and pacify him before starting.
If it is the mother who is in an irritable mood, it is also not a good time to teach. All mothers and babies have days when things don’t seem right and it is unwise to teach a child anything. It is better to take a long term approach and understand that there will be many days ahead when both mother and child are more relaxed and happy and a lesson plan can therefore go on smoothly and enjoyably. On such days, the least amount of time and effort can be spent learning, on a happy note.
The Best Duration
Lessons should be enjoyable and happy. It should be approached like a game and your cheerful voice should reflect this. However, ensure that the length of time you play the game is very short. At first it will be played three times a day, but each session will involve only a few seconds. The parent should determine the timing to end the learning session and stop before your child wants to stop.
How To Use The Flash Cards
In teaching reading, math or encyclopedic knowledge using flash cards, parents have to recognize that Children love to learn and they do it very quickly. Therefore you must show your material very quickly. We adults do almost everything too slowly for children and this is very evident in the way adults teach little children. Generally we expect a child to sit and stare at his materials, to look as if he is concentrating on them. We expect him look a bit unhappy in order to demonstrate that he is really learning. But children don’t think learning is painful, grown-ups do.
When you show your cards do so as fast as you can. You will become more and more good at it as you do it more often. Keep practicing until you feel comfortable. The materials chosen should be sturdy and carefully designed to be large and clear so that you can show them very quickly and your child will see them easily
How To Teach Reading Using Flash Cards
White hard paper or stiff cardboard is the most ideal material to use to make baby learning flash cards, when teaching a baby to read. Ordinary printing paper may be too flimsy to allow you to switch your flash cards in a fast pace. Remember, it’s all about speed. Write the words using a broad-tipped red felt pen. The letters should be about 3 to 4 inches or 7cm to 10 cm. You can group the cards according to items found in the house like Chair, Table, Fork, Spoon. Or species of animals like mammals, for instance – Lion, Tiger, Monkey or even vehicles, like Aeroplane, Car, Truck etc.
Do not be concerned if the words seem a bit tough for a tiny child to learn. Just go by faith. Use one group of words for 3 days or so, and then replace 1 word a day with another group. Keep your lessons short, maybe 10 words a session, each session 3 times a day. To flash the cards, move the card from the back (nearest to you) to the front (facing your child). As you put the card in front of your baby, say the word out loud with enthusiasm. Write the word in pencil behind the card so you don’t have to turn them to face you to know what word you are flashing to your child. As you move the card to the front to face baby, read what you have written behind the card and say “This word says Tiger”, for instance.
How To Teach Math Using Flash Cards
You must understand the numerals like 1, 2, 3 ….and so on are abstract terms for babies. To teach your child math, you must start with a quantifiable symbol like a dot. You can buy stick-on red dots from the stationery shop. Cut or purchase white index cards 11 inch by 11 inch. To teach numbers, stick 1 red circle dot for the number one, Two dots for the number 2 and so on. Write the numbers on the back of the card so that you know which dot cards you are flashing to your baby. In the same manner as reading, move the cards from the back (nearest to you) to the front (facing baby) and as you do, say “this is one”, “this is two”, etc. You can flash the cards in sequence in the beginning, from 1 to 10 for example, then 10 to 1. You can make as many dot cards as you can. Later on, you can progress to addition or subtraction problems. For instance, to teach a baby 1+2=3, you need a 1-dot card, a 2-dot card and a 3-dot flash cards. As you flash the cards in mathematical sequence, you say “One plus two equals three”.
As a teacher to your baby, you now understand the basic steps in the Reading and Math pathway. The pathway just described is the method to follow and it works. However, it may be worthwhile for you to invest in an affordable baby education software tool that will take away the chore of making cards, for reading and math. Such computer programs can even store the lesson plans, do the calculation and generate the dots on the computer screen for you. You can also give your baby encyclopedic knowledge with the picture files that comes along with it or it can also flash pictures you have taken with your digital camera. The use of technology has certainly helped parents bring out the genius in their children quickly and easily.
By: Elaine Mak
