How are your children being taught the fundamentals of Maths? Do you know? Or is it all a bit of mystery, a secret carefully guarded by the teachers?
At my school - and it is a fabulous school in almost every respect - we don’t have textbooks for our 5-9 year olds and maths workbooks remain in class (there is no maths homework), so I actually have no clue whether they are learning addition or fractions.
When I ask my daughter what they did in Maths today, I inevitably hear:
- “Um... nothing?”
- “I can’t remember.”
- “What’s for afternoon tea?”
- “Well, Jessica said that I could borrow her pencil but then Katie, that’s Katie S not Katie M, said hers was better than Jessica’s, so we spent the rest of the lesson comparing the pencils...” (!!!!!!!!!!!)
- “We did these squares. You write a number on top. Then you skip a line. Then there are some other numbers already filled in, and then you fill in some other numbers, but I don’t know how.” (?????????)
When I ask the teacher how I can support her in teaching maths to my child, I hear:
- “She’s doing well. You have nothing to worry about.”
And when I insist:
- “Play board games and card games with her. Make maths fun. Make sure she really knows the answers without having to work them out.”
That really bothers me. Why should a child memorise answers to sums? Maths is all about comprehension. What’s the point of being able to recite like a parrot that 15+15=30 and 15+16=31 and 15+17=32? I would prefer my daughter to be able to work out 15+16 in three different ways, taking her sweet time to arrive at the answer.
What do you think?
PS: Some great links for this discussion:
- Math Flash Card Builder
- Check out what other parents say about Math
- Your child’s learning style (my daughter is highly visual and the auditory way of learning maths at school doesn’t suit her natural ability)
Posts
it is indeed a mystery why teachers aren't more forthcoming about how one can help at home. I am not a big fan of rote learning so haven't been too keen on times tables practice that some parents subscribe to. chanting them out in the car while driving... realising there is more than one way to solve a problem seems an important lesson to get across. One I tend to try and push. Might be confusing them though I guess???
ReplyDeleteCertain skills should be automatic. Times tables are a good example. Kids should just know that e.g 4x5 = 20 without working it out. Those skills should be automatic - like checking the mirror or applying the clutch when changing gear. At this stage of development, I would expect the basic skills to be learnt in the first years before the true problem solving skills develop
ReplyDeleteMath is a natural phenomena akin to music (e.g. harmonic overtone series vs. prime numbers in the Reimann conjecture). The human mind identifies with such concepts through both music and abstract number ability (i.e. an ability to recognize natural phenomenon). What is your goal? Do you want your kids to excel at math and have an advantage over others? Or are you trying to create well balanced human beings for the future? Are the two mutually exclusive?
ReplyDeleteThe goal is, of course, to convince my child that maths is fun and easy (in order to prevent stress in maths class).
ReplyDeleteBTW, I found some more educational games: http://www.kidspot.com.au/kids-activities-search/Learning-Games+2.htm