Math and Children

      Math is a hard subject for kids. I believe one way to avoid mathophobia is to help young kids build their basic skills to the fullest. Once you have a base of your basic skills it is easy to build onto them. But if you fall behind at such a young age it will be hard to catch up. You will always fill like you are struggling and not be able to learn new material. I believe this is where mathophobia comes from. There are many ways we can help children learn their basic math skills. Math games, repetition, extra help, math flashcards, homework and math websites are ways to help kids. One math trick that I never learned as a child is a technique called touch points, this helps children with addition and subtraction. Touch points are points placed on the numbers in strategic places. A 2 would have a point at the top of the two and the bottom of the two. If a child was adding 8+2 he would start with eight and count each point on the number 2 to get the answer 10. These touch points are to help the children to avoid counting on their fingers. It makes them look at the numbers and actually count to get their answer. With subtraction the technique is the same. The children count backwards using their touchpoints. If the problem is 11-6, the 6 would have its strategically placed touch points on it. The children would start at 11 and point to each touchpoint and say 10,9,8 and so on. Finally arriving at their answer of 11-6=5. I really like this technique, I learned it in my field work that I am currently doing at Sheaffe Road Elementary. The children really seem to be benefitting from this technique. Every morning the Children in my class do a full worksheet of touch point problems. This backs up my theory of repetition helping build math skills. I am seeing a improvement in these kids math skills day by day.
          Math games also help children with math in many ways. It helps them not be as scared of math because it makes math fun. It also helps them learn as they are having fun. One game you could play is called block sharing. You give each child a sheet with blank math problems on it. Every child also has a certain number of blocks. The children must go around the classroom until they fill their page with every combination of addition and subtraction problems with the numbers 1-10 by trading blocks. The kids get to walk around, talk to one another, and work together. The teacher should encourage the kids to help each other, if someone finishes they should be walking around giving other kids positive help and encouragment. The children should be fully supervised during this process because a bunch of young kids walking around a classroom can easily get distracted.
         Math websites are very helpful to children. They are interactive and can work out the problem for the child if he or she gets it wrong. It can repeat problems that the child gets wrong and help them implement the techniques. This gives the child multiple times to work on the same problem and perfect their skills. There are many websites and you can find them by simply googling them. Parents can use them with their kids or teachers can use them with their whole classroom. All of these math tools can help children with their math skills.