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Teach a Young Child Beginning Math Skills

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File:Fireside Education frontispiece 592.jpg
Homeschooling: Frontispiece to Fireside Education, Samuel Griswold (Goodrich).
Parents and older siblings can count somewhat as "The Count" does on Sesame Street. For example, you can help a child to count coins and spend them for a small treat, as part of family life. You can also teach toddlers and young children almost anything that is simple enough by just having fun with it. Then they will love to learn math, because you made it fun when you nurture talent by acting excited, smiling, and playing with the math skills. Be somewhat serious, however.

Steps

  1. File:Similar-geometric-shapes 895.png
    Put colorful cut outs of small, medium and large geometric shapes on the walls in the child's room.
  2. Get or make shapes of geometry figures. There may be the plastic ones that will float in the bath tub. Play with those.
  3. Tell the child the names of the shapes and make it fun to think about and play with them.
  4. Sort and use clusters of two, three, four,... balls or play blocks without necessarily counting them.
  5. Count things "most any time, anywhere..." like "Here's one. Oh, Hey! Another one; and guess what, that's a total or "sum" of two...!"
  6. Help them learn numeracy (compare to literacy) and also learn to count but never be too pushy or critical if the child's answer doesn't make sense. That will soon clear up.
  7. Start to add "like" objects (alike, similar items) or things after they can understand a little about counting. 1 can of food and 1 more can equals two cans of food. Right?
  8. Be sorta of a cheerleader. "Can I get a Yeah!"
    • Use technical words like "equals, sum, total, solution, objects," etc. They will get the hang of it... when you keep using them from day to day.
  9. Start to subtract similar (like) things after they understand about adding. "Let's "subtract". What is 3 bottles of drinks "minus" 1 bottle? (That equals two bottles of drink.) Right!
  10. Count, add, make change, subtract and spend money. Explain that when they spend their money then that is "subtracting" from what they handed to the cashier, and the answer or "solution" is what they get back as change...
  11. Introduce counting by 2's up to ten or more when counting by one is mastered, and so that would be 2, 4, 6, 8, 10... and that motivates and leads to learning to multiply.
    • Repeatedly adding 2 is what multiplying by two is based upon. It's a short cut for repeated addition of the same number:
      • 2, 2 + 2 = 4, 4 + 2 = 6, 6 + 2 = 8, 8 + 2 = 10, two is in 10 5 times. So then say, "2 multiplied by 5 is equal to 10," then also say "5 times 2 equals 10"...
    • Repeatedly subtracting 2 is what dividing by two is based upon.
      • 10 - 2 = 8, 8 - 2 = 6, 6 - 2 = 4, 4 - 2 = 2, 2-2 = 0, two is in 10 5 times. So then 10 divided by 2 is 5. Use multiplying to check division.
      • 10 divided by 5 = 2
        • "Check": 2 times 5 is 10.

Applications

  1. Use extra large dominoes to learn to recognize 3, 5 and 10, etc. at a glance over time.
  2. Play dominoes as a learning game.
  3. Half things all of the time. Talk about 1/2 off a candy, half of a drink, etc.
    • Ask, "Is this half?" Explain that it's only half if it is split into 2 exactly equal parts, numbers or amounts.
    • Ask, "Can I have the big half?" then ask why that is a silly question?
      • explain that "half" really means "exactly the same" and so either half should be exactly equal: the same...
  4. Flip 1 coin and talk about "heads and tails" and "probability" is 1/2 or 1 out of 2. So explain that 1 out of 2 possible or 2 out of 4 of the same kind of things is another way to say "one half" (of of the items or half of the "time").

Tips

  • Gently introduce the child ideas and words to see whether he or she understands it. Get the child to explain the concepts, ideas.

Warnings

Related Tips and Steps

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