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If Your Child Hates Math

For many adults, the worst subject at school was mathematics.   Is this how you feel about it?  Perhaps you hadn't understood real concepts of what numbers are when you were taught those symbols and had to learn how to manipulate them.  Or perhaps you understood very well, and were bored to tears with the drill and repetition.

Math is not an easy subject to teach in school, because children grasp it at such different levels, in such different ways.  Even when the class is divided into ability groups, there will inevitably be some who are bored because it's too easy, and some who fail to grasp what is going on at all.  There will also be some who quickly see what they need to do, and apply the principles correctly, without having any idea what they are actually doing.

Home education is perfect for math because children can go at their own pace, learning in their own ways, following books which are appropriate to their styles.  Yet many parents are nervous about helping their children with this subject, perhaps because of their own prejudices against it, learned through inappropriate teaching many years ago.    Perhaps this is why so many use rather formal curriculum math text books, complete with extensive drill.  If such text books inspire your child and help him or her to enjoy math, that's fine.  If not, perhaps you have introduced Cuisenaire rods, or other manipulatives.  Or perhaps you are convinced that math just is difficult and dull, but is something to be endured.

But what do you do if, despite being free of competition, and with plenty of manipulative tools available, your child still hates math?  How can you reconcile the freedom and enjoyment in home learning with the dread and complaining that sometimes goes along with math sessions?

If you are using workbooks or text-books with a young child, either switch to something completely different, or stop math altogether for a few months.  This might sound radical.  You might worry that your child will 'fall behind'... but the chances are that he or she is just not ready for the skills currently being taught.  Until the age of about 7 or 8, there is no formal math that a child needs.  I query if there is ever very much that is essential - and I speak as a mathematician myself!  So long as basic concepts of number are understood, and children know how to weigh and measure and deal with money, they will cope with adult life.

Children learn early math skills most effectively from ordinary activities: playing with Lego, baking, making dolls' clothes, building models, having a small amount of their own money to spend, and sharing out food.  Use mathematical language in everyday conversations, and show how simple fractions work when cutting up apples or cakes.    But avoid making this into a 'lesson'.  There are lots of good board games for math skills too: Junior Monopoly is good, (as well as the real version of course), card games, dominoes, Yahtzee and so on.

For a wonderful book about the exciting parts of math, with lots of ideas for investigations and explorations, I can heartily recommend Carol Voderman's 'How mathematics works', published by DK/Eyewitness.  It has fascinating sections on history of math, and anecdotes and puzzles and quizzes.  Even if children don't seem immediately interested, it can be inspiring for parents!

When your children are older, they may show interest in math and ask to learn more.    Perhaps particular mathematical topics will arise naturally from other things they do.  You might discuss with them that it's useful having some basic math skills, and look together for a text book which appeals to you all.  But keep it low-key and never insist on drill or repetition of skills they have already mastered.   Math is not supposed to be dull!

Some children, given freedom to learn in their own way, will rapidly understand quite complex math and enjoy solving problems and learning new techniques.  But others just aren't gifted in this way.  We would never expect our teens to play a sport they hated, or force them to study an instrument they found tedious... so why do so many parents (and schools) insist that math must be continued way past the stage where it is useful and interesting to a child?

Advanced geometry and algebra are fun (yes, truly!) for those of us who enjoy math, but frankly, they are of little use in any but a limited number of careers.  If an older child struggles with these things, abandon them.  Think of them on a par with learning to speak a little-known language: useful for some people, fun for linguists, but quite irrelevant for the majority.  If at some stage in the future your child wants a career where these skills are essential, the motivation will be there and the study likely to be far less painful than if it is forced because of someone else's pre-planned agenda.

copyright Susan Fairhead (used with permission)

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