5 Ways To Help Your Kids Do Math
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Uh oh.
Your kids arrive home with their school reports and it'spoor marks from the math department. Now what do you do?
You may not be a math teacher, but thankfully there are waysyou can help your kids improve their grades.
Studies have shown that children are much more likely toperform well in a subject that interests them.
So here are 5 ways to get your kids excited about math andactually looking forward to the next math class:
1. Inspire them.
Some kids don't enjoy math because they just can't see thepoint of it. Unlike reading or painting, all thosemathematical symbols and numbers don't seem to meananything.
What you need to do is show them how important math is inthe real world.
Tell them stories about the great engineering featsthroughout history. From building the great pyramids ofEgypt, to the Hoover dam, to the latest space missions toMars, nothing would have been achieved without mathematics,and mathematicians.
2. Get practical.
Involve your kids in some real world math away from theclassroom. Find something your child is interested in andrelate it to math in some way.
For example, do they like baseball? Terrific. During agame, ask them how many points the losing team has to scoreto beat the other one. And how many games do they need towin before they have enough points to win the league?
If they enjoy helping around the home then let them do the"clever stuff". Ask them to work out the sizes for thatwood you're going to cut. Or get them to measure out theingredients for the cake you're about to bake.
When you're in a store, ask your kids to add up the pricesand keep a running total while you shop. Then ask them howmuch change you should expect at the checkout.
3. Take life "step-by-step".
Success in math - as in life - is largely about breakinglarge projects down into manageable, bite-sized pieces.
Many kids feel overwhelmed when they see a list of mathquestions, and it's at this point they may decide that mathis "boring" or "hard".
Show them the magic of taking one question at a time, andbreaking it into tiny steps that make it easy.
4. Encourage creativity.
Kids may become mentally "stuck" on a topic because they'reonly looking at it in one way. Perhaps they need to stepoutside the box and see it from a different angle.
Show them the beauty of alternative viewpoints. Help themto see situations from other people's perspective.
Get them into the habit of exploring different ways ofsolving a problem. Even something simple like tidying up aroom can have several possible "solutions" or ways ofapproaching it.
Crosswords and lateral thinking puzzles are good for thiskind of flexible thinking.
5. Be positive.
Eliminate negative statements like "math is hard" (even ifyou thought of yourself as a math dunce at school!).
Explain how everyone has a natural ability to do math andthat solving math problems isn't so different from solvingother kinds of problems in life.
Above all, inspire confidence in your kids. Teach thempersistence and how there's always a solution to everyproblem.
We all perform better when we enjoy what we do, and gettingkids interested in math is the real key to success.
They may not turn into mathematical geniuses, but they'llthank you in later life when they enter the world of workand start counting their salaries.
Now who said your kids couldn't do math?
'Fun With Figures' shows anyone of any ability the easy wayto do mental math. Visit the site today and find out whatyou didn't learn in the math class.Click here => http://FunWithFigures.com
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