Who doesn’t want their child to be smarter at math? Who wouldn’t like to see an A on the report card, rather than that one legged version called an F?
Interestingly, it is REALLY simple to make this happen.
Before I tell you how to make this work, however, before I tell you the one step method for making your child’s math grades shoot up to an A, let me tell you the secret: you have to get your child to appreciate math as a game.
Hey, they can play video games like a world class champ! And they can program your smart phone like it is an abacus! And the difference is that they want to. And by getting them to play with numbers in a games fashion, they will want, and they will excel, and their grades will go up.
To begin with, I taught school for a number of years. First as a teacher, then owning my own private school. I used the method I am about to tell you with great success, and I got the kids to use this method during ‘play time.’ That’s right. Instead of them going out and actually playing, I got them to do math and ‘think’ (he he) they were playing.
Now, the biggest lack in math schooling, in my humble opinion, is the lack of basics. This is the times table, the addition table, the basics of how to manipulate numbers.
When I was in school (had to walk 20 miles, uphill both ways, through the driving snow) we had to do a page of tables every single day. Rain or shine, all the way through grade school, we did basic math.
Nowadays they don’t. They give a few pages in a book and think it is sufficient. It’s not. And for the simple reason that it doesn’t make math intuitive. It remains, even through high school, something they have to think about. Think. Long and hard and laborious. Any wonder why they don’t do well? The basics are TOTALLY out.
So, a page from the Case family larnin’ book. Cards.
Yep. Mama Case brought out a few decks of cards and we played. We learned how to play solitaire, and in group fashion. To this day I feel a profound happiness swell when I remember four of us, my brother, myself, my mother, and even granny! slapping those cards down, trying to beat one another, and laughing hysterically. Or crying foul when we was beat!
But the point is that we learned to look at numerical symbols and understand them. The speed at which we could differentiate a 4 from a 6, or a 9, or whatever, enabled us to win the game. So we wanted.
And, when the group wasn’t spending a night slapping cards down, we learned other games. Several forms of individual solitaire. Hearts, Rummy, whatever!
And here was an interesting bonus: when we played monopoly with the kids in the neighborhood, we became adept at reading the dice, at adding those cubes littered with one of six digits face side up!
What, you think it won’t work? HA! That’s like saying your child is immune to games. But if there really is a lack of enthusiasm, take another page from Mama Case’s book.
‘Oh, you don’t want to play? Shucks, I was going to bet a cookie. But that’s okay. I’ll eat that cookie myself, and you can watch those delicious crumbs dribble down my shirt front.’
Guaranteed. Those kids of yours are going to be making math a game, they will become adept at manipulating numbers, and when it comes time to learn a new math concept they are going to be LIGHT YEARS ahead of the curve.
About the Author: Al Case is a rabid advocate of Home Schooling. Check out his website, [http://homeschoolmychildnow.com]. And if you’re interested, he makes language skills fun with a profound book on ‘how to Make Your Own Secret Language.’ [http://homeschoolmychildnow.com/books-by-al-case/make-secret-language/]
