Inspiring Confidence in Math
From the desk of Carol…
Sometimes it’s easier to find ways to build on children’s reading skills. You know you can have your little one read to grandma, grandpa, best friend, and mail carrier. You can have them read the cereal box, street signs, and fast food menus. These kinds of activities strengthen our confidence as readers, but what about building on math skills? Do you have your child count for people? Quickly add or subtract numbers? Pull out a graphing calculator? Probably not. So what should we do to inspire confidence in our children’s math abilities?
Encourage the use of manipulatives. Young children begin counting on their fingers or using other manipulatives to figure out an answer to a math problem. This is natural! Unfortunately, many of us discourage the use of fingers much too early. Using manipulatives leads to figuring out the correct answer; however, more importantly manipulatives reinforce a person’s understanding of how numbers work. They create a picture for every number. The more anyone understands the number system, the more confidence they’ll have in their mathematical abilities.
Take advantage of real life situations. Instead of just reading the cereal box ask your children to find the size of one serving. Then follow up with asking them if they eat one serving or one and a half servings a day, how many days will the cereal last. When you’re driving ask them questions such as, “We are in the 800 block of Maple Street. How many more blocks do we have to go before we get to the bakery in the 1300 block?” Real life questions can be made as easy or difficult as your child can handle. Have your child make up some questions for you.
Combine reading and math. Miguel Cabrera, Detroit Tigers, currently has one of the highest batting averages in the league. Who is tied with him? Who has the all time highest batting average? How much higher is it? What does “batting average” mean anyway? How do they come up with it? California Chrome went into the Kentucky Derby with a 2:1 odds. What does this mean? Can I win money if the odds are 1:2? Who was the last Triple Crown winner? The answers to all of these questions (unless of course you already know them) require some reading and some math.
Emphasize reasoning. Don’t misunderstand this. The answer does matter, but how you arrive at it matters just as much. Seeing the reasoning behind a math answer is a key component of math confidence. It’s important to talk to your child about how they view a math problem. Talk about what the problem is asking. Discuss how you might solve the problem as opposed to how your child might. Ask if there is more than one way to go about finding the answer. Don’t be afraid of figuring out strategies together. You’re not expected to have all of the answers so to speak. After all productive struggling leads to a deeper understanding.
Confidence in our mathematical abilities comes when we begin to understand numbers and how they work. It comes when we are willing to push ourselves to solve problems. It comes when we talk about math. We read at night, go to library, check out books, and talk about what we’ve read. However, we don’t sit down together for math unless it’s homework. Let’s start a math conversation with our kids today!