One of the great things about homeschooling is the ability to applyreal-worldapplicationsto what your student is learning.
I’ve discovered that if I would have known
in school, what I know now, I would have
paid more attention. The concepts I was
learning in school were concepts that I really needed to know. The problem was I
couldn’t see the purpose and therefore had
a difficult time retaining the knowledge.
I never want my children to just go
through the motions (procedural fluency) without understanding the why to
the problem (conceptual understanding).
Teaching math to my oldest son, Josiah,
has never been about memorizing facts,
but understanding the reason so he can
always get the correct answer whether he
has it memorized or not. I have found five
fun ways to teach important math concepts to Josiah. Most of the time he doesn’t
even realize he’s learning math; he thinks
he’s having fun.
1. Use UNO® to teach colors,
number recognition, and matching.
I love to play games, and UNO® is honestly
one of the first card games that children
learn how to play that is also enjoyable for
adults. As a preschooler and Kindergar-
tener, Josiah practiced matching colors and
numbers to win the game. At this stage, it
wasn’t necessarily about understanding the
quantity as much as it was about learning to
recognize the number.
2. Move on to Dominos to teach
the meaning of numbers, basic
counting, and matching.
Playing with Dominos is a great way to
teach children that a number represents a
specific quantity of something. The number
one is more than just a line, it represents a
single object; in Dominos, that object is a
dot. After counting out how many Dominos each person gets, Josiah and I would
take turns observing what Dominos we had
that could be played, and then we counted
the dots on the Dominos to show why they
went together.
Elementary Math
by Erica Sirratt
Fun Ways
to Teach
Elementary Math
5
Most of the time he doesn’t even realize he’s learning math;
he thinks he’s having fun.
