Math
Mathematics is much more than computation problems, equations, and word problems. Mathematics is a way of thinking and exploring. Mathematics is a language that helps us communicate about our world. Most important, mathematics is a tool that we all use in our daily lives to solve practical and abstract problems.
A major goal for students today is to learn mathematics with understanding, the same as the goal you have for your child when reading. Not only do you want your child to be able to pronounce and decode words, but you want your child to be able to comprehend what he or she reads. Doing so involves a much higher level of thinking than simply decoding a word. Learning mathematics with understanding is essentially the same thing. No matter how well your child can perform calculations, this ability is not very useful if he or she does not know how to apply these skills. The goal is for your child to develop a lifelong understanding of mathematics that is useful both at home and in the workplace.
Top Ten Ways to Help Your Kids Do Well in Math
by Peggy Gisler, Ed.S. and Marge Eberts, Ed.S.
Mastering mathematics is absolutely essential for future opportunities in school and careers. Your children will need to reach a certain level of competency in math to take many advanced high-school courses, to be admitted to college, and to have a wide variety of career choices. Here's how you can help them maximize their math-smarts.
1. Make sure your children understand mathematical concepts.
Otherwise, math becomes a meaningless mental exercise of just memorizing rules and doing rote drills. Have your children manipulate objects to figure out basic concepts. For addition, they could add one, two, or more blocks to a pile of blocks and then tell you how many blocks are in the pile.
2. Help them master the basic facts.
Mastery of a basic fact means that children can give an answer in less than three seconds. Considerable drill is required for children to give quick responses. Use flash cards to help your children learn the basic facts. When they don't know an answer, have them lay out objects to solve the problem.
3. Teach them to write their numbers neatly.
Twenty-five percent of all errors in solving math problems can be traced back to sloppy number writing. Improve your children's number-writing skills by having them trace over numbers that you have written. Suggest they use graph paper to keep the numbers in problems neatly aligned.
4. Provide help immediately when your children need it.
Math is one subject in which everything builds upon what has been previously learned. For example, a failure to understand the concept of percent leads to problems with decimals. If a teacher is unable to help your children, provide the help yourself or use a tutor or learning center.
5. Show them how to handle their math homework.
Doing math homework reinforces the skills your children are learning in class. Teach them to begin every assignment by studying the textbook or worksheet examples before beginning the assignment to make sure they understand the lesson.
6. Encourage your children to do more than the assigned problems.
Considerable practice is necessary for your children to hone their math skills. If the teacher only assigns the even problems, having them do some of the odd ones will strengthen their skills. The more time your children spend practicing their skills, the sooner they will develop confidence in their abilities.
7. Explain how to solve word problems.
Mathematicians have an expression: To learn to solve problems, you must solve problems. Teach your children to read a word problem several times. Also, have them draw a picture or diagram to describe it. Make it easier for them to understand the steps in a problem by teaching them to substitute smaller numbers for larger ones.
8. Help your children learn the vocabulary of mathematics.
They will never get a real feeling for math nor learn more advanced concepts without an understanding of its vocabulary. Check that your children can define new terms. If not, have them use models and simple problems to show you they understand how the term is used.
9.Teach them how to do math "in their head."
One of the major ways to solve problems is by using mental math. Kids should use this method frequently instead of using pencil and paper or a calculator. When helping your children with a problem, help them determine when it would be appropriate to use mental math.
10. Make mathematics part of your children's daily life.
Mathematics will become more meaningful when your kids see how important it is in so many real-life situations. Encourage them to use math in practical ways. For example, ask them to space new plants a certain distance apart, double a recipe, and pay bills in stores.
From Family Education.com
Developing Automaticity with Basic Facts
Parents often ask us about the basic math facts. “Do students need to know their basic math facts? If so, when? Do students learn their facts in school? What should we do at home to help our children learn the facts?” Because the math curriculum encompasses far more mathematics than most of us experienced as elementary school children -- including topics beyond number such as geometry, probability, data, measurement, and algebra -- it’s easy to wonder if learning the facts is still a priority and how children learn their facts. Here are some responses to some common questions about math facts.
Do students need to know their basic math facts?
Yes. Knowing math facts and knowing them with automaticity is an important goal for all our students. Efficient computing and estimation rely on being able to produce answers to math facts with ease.
Should students be able to do math facts quickly?
Premature emphasis on speed, or drilling for speed when students’ understanding is less developed, causes anxiety and leads students to use less sophisticated strategies more quickly They become faster counters and use counting to get a result. Automaticity develops over time. Student answers to math facts must be automatic. Not knowing math facts with automaticity slows down estimating, calculating, and problem solving.
When do students learn the facts?
By the end of third grade, we expect students to know all their addition and subtraction facts to 20 and their multiplication facts to 10 as easily and fluently as they know their names. Some students will develop automaticity sooner, while others need more time.
How do students learn the facts?
While our goal is for students to provide answers to math facts with automaticity, we aim for more than just a quick recall of answers. Students must also develop a strong understanding of what that fact means and how it’s related to other facts.Understanding relationships between facts contributes to automaticity.
Some children seem to learn their math facts with ease while others seem to struggle to recall answers. Children who seem to have an easier time are not simply those who can memorize better. They tend to be those who have a well-developed understanding of number relationships or a strong number sense. These children understand the operation and they see how individual facts are related to others. For example, consider the math fact 3x6. Beyond being able to produce a correct result with automaticity, we want students to have mental models for the fact and to know how it is related to others. Students should recognize that 3x6 is 3+3+3+3+3+3 and 6+6+6, but they should also recognize that 3x6 can be represented as 3 rows of 6, or 6 groups of 3.
Having a network of number relationships like those shown helps students to learn the large number of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division facts more efficiently and, if necessary, works as a basis of strategies for reconstructing forgotten facts. For example, if a student forgets 3x6, she or he might use a known fact like 3x3. Knowing 3x3 is half 3x6 the student would double 9 to get 18.
What Can We Do at Home?
Practicing facts at home is important and will definitely help your child in math class. Teachers ask students to practice specific facts at home. In addition to these assigned opportunities to practice facts at home, many students need more practice time. Focusing on a few “need to learn facts” for short amounts of time can be helpful. Using flash cards or playing math games can help students learn their facts. There are also a variety of websites that have electronic versions of flash cards or have fact practice games which are appealing to some students.
Thank You Mrs. Russ