5 ways to help your children make friends with Math
Post written by Quyen Nguyen on February 18, 2022
In this article, you will find information on:
The reasons why children might be afraid of learning and speaking about Math
5 ways you can try at home to encourage your kids to learn Math
*****
You are sitting in front of your kids and asking them about their Math classes. The answer you receive will probably be: Either they ask you again about something totally irrelevant, or they won’t even answer at all. Sound familiar?
The fear of Math is real and can apply to almost everyone. For children, this number can be more drastic: In one study conducted among 154 American first and second grade students, almost half of them reported that they felt somewhat nervous towards math (Ramirez, Gurderson, Levine, and Beilock, 2013). Certainly this is not a small number.
Where does the math anxiety come from?
When we think of Math, we often remember numerous hours of hard-core calculations, multiple formulas, and crazy numbers. Only mentioning those aspects is enough to make anyone of us feel baffled, let alone our children, who would normally prefer running under the sun or looking at artistic pictures. Math is also associated with “Test anxiety”, where we are timed to perform accurate calculations and solve problems under time pressure. Who wouldn’t be afraid of not being able to finish their exams and having to go to the teacher's office to discuss that score?
More importantly, compared to reading, children are less exposed to the concept “Math is fun” when they’re at home. If your children would want you to read them the multiplication table rather than a short story, congratulations, you have 90% reached your goal of making your children love math.
So….what can we do now?
Here are 5 tips you can take to make Math less daunting for your children:
1. Associate familiar objects with calculations
You have to agree with me: Doing calculations to see how many chicken nuggets you can eat is definitely more attractive than pure number calculations.
Math doesn’t have to be restricted to classroom learning and textbook formulas. It exists in our daily life. Instead of just studying with your kids via workbooks, parents can utilize daily objects, animals, and even family members to ask children math questions. You can ask your kids to remember all the dogs and birds they see during their way home, and then do some calculations with those numbers.
If you want to challenge them, you can even teach them fraction numbers by breaking the object into its components. For example, if you have 8 chicken nuggets, you can cut each into half and make your children do calculations to eat all of them. Your children will get disappointed because of the fewer portion, but they will thank you later for training them this way.
2. Discuss patterns and shapes of home furniture and decorations
Math not only has algebra; there is also geometry. The world contains thousands of objects and creatures with different shapes and sizes, so make use of those. Teach them the names of shapes, how they would look in certain situations, and how objects can consist of different shapes and patterns. To take this to the next level, you can ask your kids to use the available objects at home to either create their favorite shapes and do basic calculations with them.
One word of warning: If you don’t want to see your white wall decorated with cute little shapes from your children, clearly identify a safe space where you and your kids can have fun together without worrying about cleaning up after.
3. Play math games
Learning math is not supposed to be stressful and test-related. Whether it’s board games, card games, puzzles, or computer games, let your children explore different options that can allow them to both learn and have fun. We have thousands of learning lessons in our life, but we probably would never forget those that are engaging and make us forget the time while learning.
That’s how we should create math lessons for children. There are countless math games on the internet which can help you encourage your children to learn math. If you are not a fan of online games, you can invest in some math-stimulating board games to enjoy with your whole family. Those games not only help your children learn, but they can also teach you something that you never expect!
4. Integrate some math into your bed-time reading
Bed-time reading is probably the only time in the day you can spend with your children to fully check-in with them, so making a good use of this time is essential. Instead of just reading them stories, you can try to use the characters and objects mentioned in the book to ask them math questions. For example, if you read your children “Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs”, you can hypothesize some strange situations to make them calculate using the number 7. This method will associate math with a more peaceful and exciting part of their childhood, thus eliminating the fear of math from a young age.
5. It’s all about attitude
Finally, learning math is all about having the right attitude and mindset. Since children are heavily influenced by the actions of people around them and their surroundings, parents should pay attention to the way they talk to their kids about math-related topics. It would not be a good idea to complain about how hard you had to study for Math during your school days, or how complicated it is to recalculate your grocery bills in front of your kids.
In addition, whenever your children have difficulties in their math homework or your math questions, instead of feeling frustrated and impatient towards them, encourage them to try again until success and compliment them for that. In this way, math will no longer be that terrifying subject that children often think of. They will also know that with practice, they can definitely get better at Math.
What’s next?
The sooner you start doing these steps, the better. Just try to include math in your daily conversations with your children. You can do so during your meals, when you go grocery shopping, when you ask them for help with household chores, or even when you are waiting in the line. In this way, children can get exposed to math daily and stop feeling fearful towards it. One more important thing: Learning math is a journey for both you and your children. There is no need in training your children to become a math genius, so you can take the time and experiment with different learning methods. If one day, when you ask your kids about their math class and they actually answer your questions, then no more worry, you crash your goals!
Source:
https://childmind.org/article/help-kids-with-math-anxiety/
https://www.naeyc.org/our-work/families/5-ways-build-math-your-childs-day
https://childmind.org/article/help-kids-with-math-anxiety/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wpf1AwRRAR0
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/15248372.2012.664593?needAccess=true
https://www.npr.org/2019/05/14/723182826/raising-kids-who-love-math-even-if-you-dont