If you struggled with math as a child, you probably don’t feel right to teach math at home school. However, the truth is that we use math all the time in our day and you can take advantage of those opportunities to share math with your children. Help your children develop a love of math using these tools:
1. Play games: Card games and board games are great tools for teaching number concepts. You don’t have to say anything about numbers or math, just play and have fun.
2. Use your time in the kitchen to work with numbers. Have your kids count silverware, cut pizza into fractions, measure liquids and solids in a recipe, count items that come in packages, subtract items from a group as you eat them, and count whatever else they can see there.
3. Show them in everyday life how math affects them. Show them how to look at a calendar and count the days until a special day. When they receive money, help them know the value of the coins or dollars and teach them how to count it. You can even divide the money into different envelopes with them.
4. Teach them that counting one by one is not the only way to count. They can use skip counting to count two at a time, three, four, five, and more. We have invented our own skip counting songs with popular nursery rhymes that we know. Now my 6-year-old son knows how to count in pairs, three, four, five and six, not because he is a super smart kid, but because those numbers have been put to music in a fun way.
5. Read books that reinforce mathematical concepts. Books like “How Much is a Million” and “How Much is a Trillion” can show children how huge numbers can be in a fun and entertaining format. For younger children, there are many counting books you can get at the library that teach them about numbers.
6. Use the calculator to show them how to add large numbers. They certainly need to know how to do the basics of math facts, but they can also have fun using a calculator from time to time for large numbers.
Use as many senses as possible to teach math. Different children will understand certain math concepts using different methods than others. You can use workbooks, manipulators, math games, real life, computer software, and more. Attitude is everything. If you have a positive attitude towards math, they will be more likely to accept that attitude.