Helping your Child Learn Math

The Basics

You may have noticed that we are talking about "mathematics"--the subject that incorporates numbers, shapes, patterns, estimation, and measurement, and the concepts that relate to them. You probably remember studying "arithmetic"--adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing--when you were in elementary school. Now, children are starting right away to learn about the broad ideas associated with math, including problem solving, communicating mathematically, and reasoning.

Kindergartners are building bar graphs of birthday cakes to show which month has the most birthdays for the most children in the class. Second graders are using pizzas to learn fractions, and measurements are being taken using items other than rulers (for example, the illustrator of this report used his thumb to determine how large the pictures of the pizzas should be in proportion to the size of the words on the activities pages).

What Does It Mean To

• Be a Problem Solver,
• Communicate Mathematically, and
• Demonstrate Reasoning Ability?

A problem solver is someone who questions, investigates, and explores solutions to problems; demonstrates the ability to stick with a problem for days, if necessary, to find a workable solution; uses different strategies to arrive at an answer; considers many different answers as possibilities; and applies math to everyday situations and uses it successfully.

To communicate mathematically means to use words or mathematical symbols to explain real life; to talk about how you arrived at an answer; to listen to others' ways of thinking and perhaps alter their thinking; to use pictures to explain something; to write about math, not just give an answer.

To demonstrate reasoning ability is to justify and explain one's thinking about math; to think logically and be able to explain similarities and differences about things and make choices based on those differences; and to think about relationships between things and talk about them.

How Do I Use this Report?

This report is divided into introductory material that explains the basic principles behind the current approach to math, sections on activities you can do with your children, and lists of resources. The activities take place in three locations: the home, the grocery store, and in transit.

The activities are arranged at increasingly harder levels of difficulty. Look for the circles, squares, and triangles that indicate the level of difficulty. The means that a child in kindergarten through 1st grade could probably play the game, the is for those in grades 2 and 3, and the signals an activity for a child in grades 4 through 8.

The activities you choose and the level of difficulty really depend on your child's ability if your child seems ready, you might want to go straight to the most difficult ones.

The shaded box on an activity page contains the answer or a simple explanation of the mathematical concept behind the activity so that you can explain when your child asks, "Why are we doing this?"

With these few signs to follow along the way, your math journey begins.