Summer is a great time to help your children get ahead in math. Once they show understanding of what math facts mean, it’s time to help them memorize answers to math facts!
First check to make sure they can show understanding:
Give them the math fact 6+4 or a word problem story for 6 + 4. They can take 6 counters and put them together with 4 more counters, and figure out that there are 10 in all. Or, they can tell you a word math problem such as there are 4 chickens sleeping and 6 chickens eating so there are 10 chickens altogether. Drawing dots or pictures to represent 4 and 6 is another way to show understanding.
To show 10 – 4, children can either draw 10 items and cross out or erase 4; show 10 counting items and take away 4; or think about “What plus 4= 10?” to get 6. Encourage interesting word math stories about their friends and family, pets, places visited, or things they like to do. Give them word math problems such as if there are 10 ice cream flavors. If 4 are have chocolate in them, how many do not have chocolate?
Counting items can be simple Unifix cubes, M & Ms, buttons, crayons, pencils, pieces of paper, paper clips, or anything that you have at least 20 of.
My friend suggested I draw pictures to go with my blog posts. My friend is a talented artist and very able using graphics on the computer. I, however, am neither artistic nor very good with graphic design on the computer, so please use your own creativity and resources to help your children learn!
When they are ready to memorize, use these strategy-filled reproducible workbooks! Two Plus Two Is Not Five and Five Times Five Is Not Ten. Look for the FREE shipping offer on any purchase! It’s good through August 1, 2013 for orders in the U.S.
