Children with parents who show an interest in and enthusiasm for mathematics around the home will be more likely to develop that enthusiasm themselves. Collecting patterns, playing with spatial reasoning and number sense are all methods by which parents can easily encourage positive attitude toward mathematics.
Finding and collecting patterns:
Exploring patterns everyday around the house and in nature is easy with games, sound, color, objects and movement. At first children need help to recognize patterns. Then they need to understand how a pattern can be copied and extended. Finally, with practice, children are able to make predictions about patterns. Outside children can find patterns easily with the side of a crayon and paper. Creating rubbings they can find patterns in leaves, rocks, and tree bark. Create a pattern album taking pictures of shells, flowers even waves on a shore, or animal coats at the zoo.
Playing with spatial reasoning: Playing with Blocks, cubes, Lincoln Logs®, Legos®, Tinker Toys®, puzzles, Jenga® cubes and tangrams all help develop spatial reasoning, a foundation for mathematical understanding. With practice manipulating objects your child gains an awareness of shapes and how they relate to each other. Even a family project using wood, nails and instructions how to make a flowerbox can encourage special reasoning.
Learning about number sense: At first, children need an awareness numbers. This can happen throughout each day by pointing out numbers on clocks, houses, phones, calendars, any number you see. Children need to learn the concept of what the symbol of a particular number means. So as they see the number three on a clock count out three blocks together. When they find a number two count two apples, together; pointing and moving each apple as you count. Count socks, cars, cookies, simple daily objects. Then, move objects into sets…two socks, three carrots, four spoons. Playing board games that require a child to count numbers on a dice then count spaces on a board are wonderful.
Math through literature:
Reading to children is a treasured activity in many homes. What better way to integrate mathematics into the lives of children than to read them stories that bring mathematical ideas to life? Children's books related to mathematics can be separated into four categories: counting books, number books, storybooks, and concept books.
Some titles to get you started:
- The 512 Ants On Sullivan Street by Carol a. Losi
- X Marks the Spot By Lucille Recht Penner
- Pieces =Part=Portion by Scott Gifford (Fractions, Decimals, Percents)
- Pizza Counting by Christina Dobson
- The Purse by Kathy Caple
- The M &M Counting Book by Barbara McGrath
A wonderful resource to check out is:Helping Your Child Learn Mathematics available at http://www2.ed.gov/parents/academic/help/hyc.html, this booklet helps parents communicate the importance of mathematics to their children and become more involved in their children's mathematical education. A large part of this booklet is made up of fun activities that parents can use with children from preschool age through grade 5 to strengthen their math skills and build strong positive attitudes toward math.
R.R.Cratty
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