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Parents often get a jump on formal instruction when it comes to language and literacy by reading to their toddlers and teaching the alphabet before their kids ever set foot in a classroom. But getting a head start on mathematics is often restricted to teaching children to count, says Lynn McGarvey, a professor of elementary education at the University of Alberta whose research looks at teaching and learning math in early childhood.
McGarvey says her research focus on instilling mathematical concepts in young learners aims to promote numeracy the way literacy has been emphasized as a foundational educational experience.
"When educators and parents create opportunities for mathematical engagement in day-to-day activities, then children will experience mathematics not just as a skill or a tool, but a way of thinking and being in the world," she says.
McGarvey says there are a few things math-minded parents and early childhood educators can think about when interacting with young learners.
I've tried lots of things to get my kids interested in math. So far, the most effective has been demonstrating the power of purposeful laziness. What are your experiences?
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Vanderhoth on Tuesday March 22 2016, @02:34PM
I've had a lot of success using lego and measuring cups to teach my 4 year old some addition and about fractions. She likes playing in the sink so we use measuring cups and I've taught her there are four 1/4 cups in one full cup, helping her to fill the cup and counting. Then I go, "So now we have a one over two, we call this a half cup. How many do you think it'll take to fill the full cup?", which she knew was two.
Similar with lego, when I'm building things with her. We let one "eight piece" represent ONE. After playing with the measuring cups for six months or so she's gotten to the point that I can say, "So if this 'eight' piece is one, what's a half?", and she gives me the 'four' piece. Not because she's doing the math, but she recognizes the 'four' piece is physically half the size of the eight piece and you need two of them to make one 'eight' piece, but now she knows half of eight is four, 1/4 of eight is two and 1/8 of eight is one. She doesn't understand why, but she knows. She can do the simple fractions, but if you ask for a 3/4 piece, she gets confused... It's a process.
Another exercise I like to do is when we have tea parties she'll set a place for two of her toys. Then I'll say there are three more coming, how many more places does she have to set? or that X number of guests can't make it, so how many are coming? It's funny actually because if you say it as "What's two plus three?", she thinks about it really hard and takes a lot of time to figure it out, but she gets it instantly without even thinking about it when we're talking about guest coming to her tea party. So I know the skills are there, I just don't know how to get her to do 'plain' math without it having to be some odd word problem. Although that might help her when Jonny has 15 bags of popcorn and Sally has 6 how much does Jonny have if Sally takes 11.
The most important thing you can do is just play with them and work math into things they like doing, even if ... especially if, it's making a mess.
"Now we know", "And knowing is half the battle". -G.I. Joooooe
(Score: 2) by linkdude64 on Tuesday March 22 2016, @07:26PM
" but if you ask for a 3/4 piece, she gets confused... It's a process."
If only we lived in a world without the Imperial system of units. Instead of spending time wrestling with that nonsense she could be understanding and gaining more and more insights. It might seem small, but to me, it's a tragedy, and for some reason this particular example of a very bright and curious girl needing to take one step backward for every two she takes forward - being forced to re-interpret what she already knows - makes me despise the imperial system more than anything else has.
I think it's because unit conversions in imperial are the equivalent of mindless "busy work." Imagine if, when using the metric system, every time you wanted to go from a 10mm socket to a 20mm socket, you had to stand up and do 3 jumping jacks, and the only reason was governmental incompetence? Step down from an 18mm to a 17mm? For that you have to spin in place twice then do a handstand. It's just lunacy.
Sorry to go off on the rant. You seem like a caring parent.
(Score: 2) by kazzie on Tuesday March 22 2016, @08:16PM
I don't quite follow your thoughts here. In the UK, we're largely metric, with the exceptions of distances/speeds on road signs, and some customary use of units for height, beer, etc. We still teach our children about fractions, even though we don't work in sixteenths of an inch any more.
Three quarters is a more complex concept than a quarter or a half, as it isn't a unit fraction. There's some ambiguity in the language too: is that three one-quarter pieces, or a single piece with a new name? It sounds to me like the young girl is still on the first steps to learning about fractions. Let's not rush her, but congratulate the good work done so far instead.
(Score: 2) by linkdude64 on Tuesday March 22 2016, @09:38PM
My mistake, I had assumed that she was in America. Fractions are definitely still applicable concepts. I work in 16ths and sometimes 32nds (nothing compared to machinists, but then, they work in mils) and it was such a pain having to get accustomed to it after cutting my teeth with hand tools working on metric motorcycles.
Without a doubt, that little girl will do great things whether or not a unit system makes it easier or more difficult for her.
(Score: 2) by Vanderhoth on Wednesday March 23 2016, @11:13AM
Yeah, I was talking about a 3/4 piece. That is 3/4 of an "eight" piece, which would either be a six piece or a 1/2 piece (four) + 1/4 piece (two), but maybe I'm approaching that wrong now that I think about it. I could try explaining it as 3/4 is three 1/4 pieces so 1/4 + 1/4 + 1/4, might be easier than trying to get her to understand 1/2 == 2/4.
It's hard to explain, but get some lego and play with them, it's really intuitive when you're looking at the physical pieces because you can see a block that has four nibs, is half the size of a block with eight nibs so it's easy to explain 4 is 1/2 of 8. We both like playing with lego so it's easy to sit down with her and just do this little exercise a couple times a week as we build something.
Her reading is coming along pretty good to given she hasn't even started elementary school yet. I'm proud of her, but what parent wouldn't say that. Although she still locks herself in the closet then screams her head off at least once a week. Kids are all kinds of contradictions, funny, horrifying, smart, dumb. Every time you're about to throw your hands up and give in on something they'll surprise you or they'll out of the blue do something that inspires you to take them to the next level. You never quite know what they know or will understand or what they're thinking.
"Now we know", "And knowing is half the battle". -G.I. Joooooe
(Score: 2) by Vanderhoth on Wednesday March 23 2016, @10:27AM
... Fractions aren't imperial. I mean I get what you're saying about the unit conversion, but you'll likely still need to know that 1/2 of a metre is 50 cm, or 3/4 of a metre is 75 cm. One of the strengths of the imperial system is that inches are pretty intuitive for doing things like woodworking. Metric is great for precision, but for small, approximate, measurements inches work best because you're not working in decimals or converting between smaller units.
For imperil an inch is all you need for smaller measurements. 1 inch, 1/2 inch, 1/4 inch, 1/8 inch, 1/16 inch, which is just halves of halves. If you can work with these it makes measuring and cutting really easy. Not so much when you're working with decimals or moving from 1/2 cm to 50 mm. Worst you get with imperial, for smaller measurements, is needing to know there's 12 inches in a foot.
I'm Canadian BTW, I tend to use both systems interchangeably for various things. I buy my food by the gram and litre, but do my baking by the cup, pound and ounce. I measure distance by kilometers by calculate my car's efficiency in miles per gallon. We've been in this sort of limbo between systems for a long time.
"Now we know", "And knowing is half the battle". -G.I. Joooooe
(Score: 3, Informative) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday March 22 2016, @07:35PM
I think that's it. The power of math is its abstraction, but that's also its weakness for learners. I took a writing course in grad school called "Little Red Schoolhouse" that taught great writing uses concrete concepts coupled with actions, because that's how humans are hard-wired to understand the world. I think the same dynamic is at work in math education, and your anecdote sounds similar to successes I've seen with my kids.
To expand a bit on "the power of purposeful laziness," I've done exercises with my kids to teach them the power of math. One was dumping a pile of M&M's on the table with the promise that they could have 10 if they counted them all correctly. It was a big pile and it took forever for them to count them one by one. Then I taught them sets and they thought that was the greatest thing since sliced bread--more candy, faster!
I would like to think that when the day arrives when they're asked to write proofs I'll be able to help them there, too, but I always sucked at that.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by Vanderhoth on Wednesday March 23 2016, @10:11AM
I'm stealing this idea.
"Now we know", "And knowing is half the battle". -G.I. Joooooe