Talk With Your Kids About Math Using Everyday Life Examples

Learning Math Is More Than Doing Homework

If your child is doing poorly in math, then there are things that you can do other than continually scold them into doing their homework. This is because you may not know it, but there may be something missing in your dialogue with your children when you are at home that can help them do better in math. For lack of a better term, it’s referred to as ‘math speak’ or ‘number talk’ by psychiatrists.

Simply put, number speak is the amount of times that you speak to your child about math every day. Think about it this way. When your child is little, as a parent it is easy to take the time and count how many birds you see or how many people are in the room because it is fun to see your child learn to count.

And believe it or not, you were teaching your child the Cardinal Number Principle – that the last number reached when counting determines the size of the set. You probably didn’t know that you were teaching your child such a fundamental principle of math, and they probably didn’t either. This is what made teaching and learning math fun for both of you.

However, as kids get older, math becomes dull, repetitive, and hard to understand. Math is no longer fun, and the only reward that a child gets is some positive recognition for a good grade - or some discipline for a bad one. As you can see, this isn’t much for you as a parent either, especially if you have to punish one child while you reward another.

So to get started with math speak, here are some helpful ways you can introduce math into the conversation for an older child and help them do better in math:

1.      If you are going on a car trip, make your older child part of the process.

Have them figure out how much gas you will need, where you can stop to rest, when you should leave, how long it will take to get there, etc.

2.  If your child is interested in sports, go over stats with them and figure out averages for the stats and how they are determined.

The same can apply to the subjects of art and crafts or anything that your child is interested in.

3.      If you give your child an allowance, help them manage it.

Talk about how many hours they need to work over a period of time to earn a certain amount of money. Then help them spend it. Talk to them about percentages when something goes on sale or how much interest you pay on a credit card if you charge something.

Even small things, like how many days to a holiday, average temperatures, how many minutes it takes to get somewhere, how much flour you need if you double a recipe, are all great ways to get your child acclimated to constantly thinking about math and keep the math speak going.  

See also: writeyourselfrich.net