Learning Mathematics » Methodology

How to Teach Children to be Honest?

Admin — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 03:33:09 +0000

(c) 2008 Lilia Parker

At a certain stage of our lives, we all meet with the dilemma on how to raise a kind and honest child. All of us who are concerned about moral education and successful future for one’s children are looking for a methodology that can assist in the upbringing of a good citizen in this world.

Books for children and workbooks for parents and educators: Kind Book project

Let’s start by thinking about why people lie. The answer is obvious: to avoid hurting people, to avoid looking bad, to avoid being punished, shouted at or humiliated. While aggression, humiliation, hurt and fear exist, lies will continue to exist alongside them. But life begins in the family. If children lie at home, it is for the same reasons: misunderstanding, hurt, humiliation, shouting or punishment. That’s the way people are. If we are afraid, we hide. Lying is a convenient and easy way to hide.

Sometimes it’s quicker and easier for us to tell a child off, and shout at him if he has done something wrong, than to try and understand the problem and devise a punishment that will not humiliate the child, but instead will help him to understand he has behaved badly. If a child feels afraid, it will only increase his inclination to lie and deceive. The first awkward, obvious lie might even make us laugh. In actual fact, it’s a huge, anxious sign to parents and teachers that; The child is afraid of you and is learning to lie! Toddlers don’t know what lying is. 3-5 year olds say: I’m just being clever, I’m not lying on purpose. And more often than not, they believe they are not lying, and even that they are doing the opposite. They simply don’t have any desire to lie. But as children get older, their attitude towards lying changes. Here are the opinions of 7-14 year olds.

Children lie for the following reasons:

Their parents are high up and see everything from up above. They’re embarrassed. They feel shy. They are not sure what to say. Their parents don’t let them do things. Their parents might not realise they’re lying. To stop their parents asking lots of questions. To get themselves out of some kind of situation. Children feel which reply should be given to their parents and, what should not be exposed. Children want to keep their lives secret.

It turns out that when children reach their teens, lying becomes a part of life. It builds an invisible barrier between parents and kids. And this barrier starts one’s existance from the very beginning of the life of a child.

How can we steer children away from the desire to lie?

Rule number 1: Above all, try not to lie yourself. This does not always happen. If a child discovers you have lied, tell him: “Yes, it is very hard not to lie. I don’t always manage it, but I am learning to be honest, and I want you to learn that too. Only strong people can tell the truth. I believe you’ll grow up to be a strong person.”The child won’t lose respect for you if he hears something like that. In reality, he will understand that he should admit his own slips and errors.

Rule number 2: Don’t ignore even the smallest, most insignificant lie. A suitable fairytale can help you no end. You can tell young children stories using toys as aids. Take the toys and act out a situation where a child tells a lie. Discuss with the children whether the toys have behaved correctly or not.

Bunny and bear lived together and shared everything. One day, bunny bought some tasty chocolates, while bear was out for a walk. He hid the chocolates in the cupboard and thought: “I’ll go to work now, and in the evening I’ll come back and give bear some chocolates.” But when bunny returned home, he couldn’t find the chocolates in the cupboard. “Bear, did you take my chocolates?” bunny asked. “No, I didn’t take them – I didn’t even see them,” bear replied, and he went red, quietly hiding the chocolate wrappers in his pocket. Bunny didn’t say anything, but he was really upset.

After the story, ask the child:

Why do you think bunny was so upset? Who took the chocolates? What should bear do to make bunny feel better?

The story will help the child understand their behaviour more deeply then a few general words about how it is bad to lie. A story linked with the child’s own life is a powerful teaching aid. When the children are older, philosophical and psychological stories can help children understand the harm that lying causes.

Rule number 3. When you’re telling children off, don’t humiliate them. Most importantly, discuss about the incident. Show the child that you’re worried and upset. You can bring an ‘honesty chair’ into the room ? an attractive, comfy chair. Suggest the child sits in it in order to become honest. If your punishment involves depriving the child of something ‘cartoons, sweets, toys or computer games – show them that you’re suffering too and sympathising with them. Be a good friend to your child, even when you are punishing them. If, for example, you are punishing your child by not giving him sweets, while you do eat sweets yourself, or forbid him to watch his favourite movies while you do continue to enjoy watching tv yourself. The child feels the world is unjust if adults are allowed what he is not, and will protect himself from this injustice using lies.

Rule number 4. Try to be in all situations and under any circumstances, a good friend to your children. Remember, people don’t cheat their friends. This will stop an impenetrable wall of lies dividing your family into two separate parts who don’t understand each other’s worlds.

Reading books and workbooks on moral education and attending relevant workshops: these are the main factors that will help you to maintain trust within the family and to teach your children how important it is to have qualities such as responsibility, honesty and strength of character. Kids won’t pay much interests to lectures, but they will visualize events in interesting storytellers and enertaining fairy-tales. After reading such story, it is the best time to gain their confidence and to make them explain what is troubling them. Both parents and teachers need teaching guidelines and good wise books to assist them in their not-so-easy tasks of upbringing of the next generation – honorable, honest, kind and wise citizens of our Planet Earth.

By: Lilia Parker

Successful Strategies For Improving Your Teaching Of Adding Up

Admin — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 22:38:37 +0000

Adding is an idea that a large number of students find difficult to master. Hopefully, this article will present practical solutions to assist teachers and parents working with children who experience difficulties when learning to add.

For most children, joining sets of physical objects is their most basic experience of addition. This strategy simply involves collecting two groups of objects, and then counting up how many objects there are in total. ie. the simple question 5 + 3 can be solved by building two towers of blocks, and counting up every block that has been used. A significant minority of children, particularly those with problems with attention, can find this approach very challenging. If the child is unable to hold their attention for the duration of the activity, blocks will be put awry, one of the towers will end up with extra blocks, blocks will get mixed up, and by the end of the activity the incorrect answer is arrived at. The length of the process, and its lack of transferability, mean that if the child in question does not grasp the concept quickly, they are unlikely to proceed at all. In addition, it is difficult to extend this methodology into a solution that can be tackled mentally: for example, try to imagine two large sets of cubes in your mind, and then count them up accurately. Even for adults, this is almost impossible.

An alternative to the lengthy process discussed above is to use jottings. Write out the sum on a piece of a paper. Alongside the first number, draw the appropriate number of circles (for instance, for the number 8, draw 8 circles). Ask your student how many circles you’ll need to draw alongside the other number in the sum. After they arrive at the right answer, tell them to draw the circles. Finally, ask them how many circles they have drawn on the page. This is a much easier method of bringing together 2 groups, is better suited to students with poor attention, and is less likely to be subject to mechanical error. It also encourages the student to relate what the written sum “says”, and why they are drawing a certain number of circles.

Playing board games is both enjoyable and a learning experience. Games that involve moving counters around a board (such as Ludo), do much to encourage children to count on. The child is needed to count the spots on the die, and move their playing piece along a corresponding number of places. If the board has numbers on it, the child can even see that the action is similar to counting out loud or using a number square. When using board games, always remember to emphasise the connections between this and adding up.

A fantastic way of assisting students to acquire valuable addition skills is by allowing them to become familiar with money. You being by putting out a handful of pennies, and then help your student to count up the money, by tapping each coin sequentially and counting out loud. As you are using pennies, this is isn’t difficult at all, as you are only required to count the number of coins. Now make the activity more demanding by including a 2p coin. When you get to this coin, say to your student that they are going to have to count it twice, because it is a ‘two’. Count each of the coins as you did earlier, touching each as you go, but when you arrive at the ‘two’, tap it two times. Include further twos, and practise counting each one a relevant number of times. This easy activity will help your student add up quite long sums of money without using apparatus, and see the very real connection between counting and addition. Both before and after, tell the student that they are learning about addition.

As a rule, our ability to solve addition in our minds is based on number facts we have learnt. We do not need to compute the solution to 5 add 6, we can remember it. Being able to remember a wide range of number facts allows us to tackle simple mathematics easily and quickly. Develop your student’s awareness of number facts by singing rhymes together that tell stories of number. Try taking part in the game of matching pairs with your student, where the point of the game is identify the location of the question (eg. 3+4) and its answer from a set of cards all turned face down. Assemble a pack of flashcards with simple addition facts printed on them, pass them the cards one at a time, and then ask your child for the answer, providing plenty praise when they say the correct answer. Now add to the number of facts. Providing an activity that is pleasurable will help stop your child looking at mathematics as tedious.

Practise makes perfect. The correct form of practise also lends greater confidence. By using simple worksheets and printables, aimed towards your child’s level of skill, you can improve the student’s ability with addition, both practically and in their head. There are lots of free sites on the web that offer printables to support the teaching of adding up; however, it does matter what maths worksheets you use. Check that the worksheets are of an appropriate length to maintain your child’s interest and are differentiated at the right level, being neither too difficult, nor too easy. You should really be using sums that encourage their recollection of number bonds, mixed in with a handful of sums your student hasn’t seen before. On the occasions that your student finds the correct answer, provide plenty of praise. If they get confused, do not look disappointed, but briefly explain how to solve the problem. In other words, using adding up worksheets and printables shrewdly can really improve your child’s ability.

By: Sarah Currigan

Forex Facts – Anyone Can Learn to Trade and Win But Most Fail Why?

Admin — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 21:45:03 +0000

It’s a fact of Forex trading than anyone can learn to trade and win and yet 95% of traders lose by giving the reasons why you can learn to trade successfully, we can reveal the reasons 95% of traders lose. This will allow you to step into the winning minority…

Here are the 3 reasons why you can win and the in these reasons are the clue to why most traders lose.

1. Forex Trading Is Simple

It always has been and while traders try and make things complicated and think technology will help them win it doesn’t help and this is proven by the fact that 50 years ago 95% of traders lost and the same ratio applies today, despite all the advances we have seen.

Forex trading is simple, because you are playing the odds and in any odds based market simple is best. A striking example of this is – more of the top traders in the world have come from a background of playing poker successfully, than from a mathematical background!

Markets are not based on mathematics and that’s why you cannot win by trying to use technology to beat the market. So you don’t need to be a nerd or college educated, to win – anyone can learn to trade and this leads on to my next point.

2. Learning a Method is Easy

As simple methods work best, learning a simple method is something anyone can do. You can easily learn a successful trading methodology in a couple of weeks or even less. Now so far Forex Trading look very easy – but the next point is the one which most traders have a problem with.

3. You can Get the Mindset for Success

You can get the mindset for success if you want – but most traders don’t, because they fail to understand its importance.

Forex trading requires a different mindset which many traders find hard to obtain. Here are the salient points needed:

- You need to understand you are totally responsible for your destiny and can’t blame or follow anyone else, success is on your shoulders.

- You need confidence in what you are doing and to have the mental discipline to trade through losing periods and keep losses small.

- You need to keep your emotions of greed and fear at bay

- You need to not seek perfection – but learn that you will look stupid on occasions as the market is all powerful.

Getting the right mindset is the hard part of trading – but it is also achievable but requires you get the right Forex education and confidence in what you are doing so you can make your own rules and follow them with discipline to Forex Trading Success.

Anyone can win but most don’t because they fall for myths, want to follow others with junk systems, want to put the blame on others and finally they don’t want to take responsibility for their actions.

If you understand the above you will see why anyone has the potential to be a successful trader and why most fail so get the right system and more importantly get the right mindset and you can win.

By: Kelly Price