Dear Teachers Q & A

How to Turn Your Child into a Math Whiz

Parents: If you want your child to be a math whiz, the number one thing to do is to never say, “I was never any good at math.” And the number two thing not to say is,“I hated math when I was in school.” Say either of these things, and there is a strong likelihood that your child will also be saying these things or use them as a justification for not being a math whiz. Whether you were good at math in school or not, you can definitely help your child like math and have the skills to succeed in this subject.

Start Early to Help Your Child Become a Mathematician

            Young children are so fascinated with math that they begin to explore mathematical concepts long before they enter school. They explore such things as the sizes of objects, the similarities and differences of objects and people, and the sequence of events. By age 3, they start to use words like more, bigger and in the car, demonstrating they are beginning to learn about math concepts such as volume, size and the location of objects. They learn these concepts by handling objects and using all of their senses. Support this early interest by providing them with objects to explore. Ordinary objects like plastic measuring cups, pots, pans, empty carboard food cartons and nesting mixing bowls are all you need.

            Be sure to help your children learn how to sort objects, which is the most basic of all mathematical skills. They can help you sort the laundry by putting all the socks or shirts together. You can dump a variety of pastas on a table and have them put the like ones in a container. Since numbers can be placed in order from smallest to largest, your children can learn about this mathematical concept of ordering by having them physically place objects in size order like shoes, cups, spoons, various sized pieces of spaghetti, and other household items. Do give them this opportunity.

The Time to Introduce Numbers

            Before they go to kindergarten, your children should be introduced to numbers. Of course, this may be started at school if they attend nursery school or pre-kindergarten. The first step is rote counting of numbers 10 or less to help them learn the names of the numbers. No matter what they may have learned away from home, do have them do some rote counting at home. You can play games to help them learn For instance, count one, two, three, buzz, five, six and on up to 10 both forward and backward saying “buzz” instead of a specific number and then going on to another player.

            Once your children are able to count by rote, you want to have them apply this skill to counting sets. This is the meaningful counting of a collection of things that belong together like pennies, raisins, pencils or books. You can enhance this skill by asking them to count the forks on a table, the ducks in a picture or the windows in a room. Keep the number of objects small at first—typically under 10. Expand this skill by playing board games with them where they have to advance a number of spaces by either the roll of dice or the spin of a spinner.

            The next step in learning about numbers is to have your children learn to identify a number by its written form, a numeral. This is a skill they will need by the time they are in first grade. Begin by teaching them the numerals 1 to 5. You can do this by showing them the numerals on playing cards and tracing them in sand. Once they can identify the numbers up to 10, you can introduce them to dot-to-dot activity books so they can trace them in numerical order to make pictures.

Enhancing the Math Skills Your Children Are Learning in School

          All the ways you have given your children a good introduction to math before kindergarten will prepare them well for the early skills of addition, subtraction and beyond that they will be taught in school. To continue helping them like—or, better yet, love math—there are a number of things that you can do. Introduce older children to mental math tricks at the dinner table. Play games with them like 21 or Yahtzee that require some math skills. Take them to the grocery store and have them read the price labels to determine which brand of soup is the best bargain. Have them read speed limit signs as you travel. In other words, bring math into their daily lives in as many ways as you can.  And be willing to strengthen early skills by drilling addition, subtraction and multiplication facts and finding games that require these skills.

Helpful Math Websites

          Many websites have helpful drills and math games to enhance your children’s math skills. Just search for “best math websites” and choose those that appeal to you. And when you are lost and can’t help your child with a math topic, you will find explanations of every possible topic online. On our own DearTeacher.com website, you can find lots of interesting math activities for your children to do, from math riddles to math books to mental math tricks. In addition, our two math books on the website, Helping Your Child with Mathematics and Helping Children with Mathematics, each have fun activities and games for turning young children into math whizzes.

Parents should send questions and comments to DearTeacher@DearTeacher.com and visit the DearTeacher.com website to learn more about helping their children succeed in school. ©Compass Syndicate Corporation, 2023

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