A Home-life that Helps Children with Math at School
2006, Lori MacKinder, M.A.
Many
parents struggle with their multiplication tables, fractions and
decimals and feel too inadequate with the subject of mathematics to
help their child with math homework. For this parent who aguishly
wonders, “What can I do at home to support my child with math at
school, especially when I am so bad at math myself?” Of course, the
first quick answer may be to hire a tutor for the child. However, our
task as parents does not have to stop there. In the home, there are
three areas to offer math support in without ever doing a single math
worksheet.
The
first is to cultivate the child’s ability to form a mental image. This
is sometimes called inner picturing or seeing in the mind's eye.
Albert Einstein, who said, “If I can’t picture it, I can’t understand
it” summarized beautifully the importance of creating mental images.
The fundamental difference between children who understand math and
those that do not lies in the realm of having the ability to turn
numbers into pictures. 3 + 4, to a child that no longer counts on
their fingers is created in the mind as picture objects such as 3
apples and 4 apples. One way to strengthen the inner screen is to
limit or better yet, eliminate external screens such as television,
movies, computer and games from our child’s environment while at the
same time engaging the child in memory games and imaginative play. In
the absence of the already formed images on the external screen, the
mind has to grapple with and create it’s own pictures. Additionally,
for the younger child, associating a number with an object is helpful.
For example, the number 12 can be associated with the 12-pack of eggs.
The child can open and count the full carton again and again and that
full dozen carton of eggs will always total 12 eggs. You can later ask
the child what is a 12-thing and they can recall and picture the dozen
eggs. The number 5 is commonly associated with the five fingers on the
hand and the number 10 with the two hands together and so forth.
Perhaps the lunch sack is packed by the child and parent together in
fun each day with 1 apple, 2 slices of whole-wheat sandwich, 3 carrot
sticks, 4 cubes of cheese and 6 soaked almonds. Then, with a piece of
making tape and a pen, the correct number can be placed on the bag of
the corresponding item, further supporting the number-image-concept.
The
second area of support that parents can offer is simply put, interest
and support. If you are math-poor yourself, keep it to yourself. Many
times, children will adopt the beliefs of their parents. If you say
you enjoy math, chances are your child will also. This is not an
invitation to lie, however. Search your memory of math. Did you have
a favorite math teacher? Do you enjoy the symmetry of nature or the
structure of bones? Did you enjoy making models of the cube in clay
class? Did you love counting money after your summer day at your
lemonade stand? Did you love to measure or estimate? Find something
positive about math from your own life history and share that with your
child. Fill yourself with the love of math in an authentic way and
offer
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photo credit: Andrea Wood <!--[if !mso]--> | <!--[endif]--><!--[if !mso & !vml]--> <!--[endif]--><!--[if !vml]--> | your interest in what they are studying. Perhaps you ask your child to teach you the new topic in math this week.
The
third area that parents can support the learning of math at school is
through the support of the child’s health at home. Home health
includes a simplified lifestyle with balanced nutrition, fresh air and
exercise, and peaceful sleep. Tom Kraus, Certified Nutritional
Consultant, recommends foods rich in proteins (such as fish), organic
freshly ground flax meal and adequate hydration with minimized simple
carbohydrates, sweets and sodas to boost the math-mind at home.
Often
what happens in the subject areas where we feel lacking, such as math,
we shy away from with our kids and offer less support. Unfortunately,
these exact subject areas are usually the areas where our kids need the
most support from us. This unconscious antipathy in us can translate to
our children to mean “not important” or “don’t worry, I did without it,
so can you”. The agenda underlying this article is the invitation to
pick back up those subjects that we may be rejecting, on some level,
and find a new and refreshed way to support the learning of that
subject in our children, from perhaps, a “back door” approach. It is
never too late to reinvent ourselves. Very late in life, when he was
studying geometry, some one said to Diogenes Laërtius (fl. early 3d
cent.), "Is it then a time for you to be learning now?"
"If it is not," he replied, "when will it be?"
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