Teaching Your Child Maths

Dominique Thoughts

This is the first post in the series on Teaching Your Child Maths.

Like a child playing with plasticine. Mathematics is a subject which can be both fun and educational at the same time.

Mathematics or Arithmetics as it is sometimes know is a subject which basics are essential for daily living.

Everyone uses maths almost everyday.  We use maths to calculate the change we need to get back after purchasing the bowl of ramen for our lunch.

Maths is  also frequently used to calculate our taxes, estimate the travel time taken and measure the proportion for the ingredients needed to bake a cake.

Many children are visual and kinesthetic learners.  They do best when there are  maths manipulative around to help them understand the various concepts taught in maths. I personally have used various manipulatives to re-enforce the different mathematical concepts which I have taught to my students.

Here are some recommended items which can enhance your child’s learning of maths.

Flip Over Math Tub of Manipulatives (Set of 522)

This is a excellent set to get as it consists of pattern blocks, connecting people, connecting cuisenaire rods, coins and bean counters. These items can be used to explain addition, subtraction, multiplication division and even patterns.

Plastic Base Ten Number Concepts Set

We commonly use this set of base ten number concept set when I was teaching lower grades. It helped to explain to the students about counting in the various units – ones, tens and hundreds. The student can physically see how a hundred is broken down into tens and ones.

Learning Resources Rainbow Fraction Tiles with Tray

This set of color-coded tiles, students can manipulate parts of a whole to see how they relate to each other. The  tiles  can be used to perform simple math operations with fractions, decimals and percentages.

Learning Resources Big Time 12-Hour Student Clock

To learn to read the time properly is an essential skill in life. With such a clock your child will find it easier to learn the association between minutes and hours. It is not common that there are digital clocks around for us to read. In fact most classrooms are still having an analog clock and it is important to learn how to tell time properly.

In the next post I will be touching base with the various maths websites which you can use to enhance your child’s learning of maths.

5 Questions Friday- End Jan Edition

Dominique Thoughts

Here are my answers to the questions asked this week.

1. If you had $1,000 to donate to a charity, which would you choose?

I would donate the money to the Feed the Needy Kids Charity which aim is to help feed the needy kids around Asia.  There is still much poverty in this region and many kids go undernourished due to this.

2. Snow days: Do you welcome them happily or are they a pain in your butt?

I haven’t really experienced any snow days as I live in the tropics. I would certainly welcome it as a relief from the heat that I have to endure year round.

3. What talent did you wish you had and why?

I would like to be able to be a great entrepreneur  who is able to develop and patent a concept or product which would be in great demand. I would then  have the chance to really live the lifestyle  where there is a constant stream of passive income. It would be great to be able to eat a comfortable income while taking care of the family without compromising on spending time with them.

4. Are you a news, politics or celebrity gossip junkie?

I’m definitely a news junkie. I’m always reading out on news articles around the world to keep up with the latest trends and happenings. I really do not bother too hoots about the in’s and outs of the various political cabinets if I am not directly affected and celebrity gossip really does not interest me.

I like drinking Bloody Mary Mix. Actually anything with tomato and tabasco  is tasty for me.  I’ve been off alcohol for the past 7 year since I started breastfeeding my #1.