Thinking back to when my children were small, I was wondering when to start teaching them math's.
As this is the subject I taught and realised the sooner the better.
Then my wife said why do you want to teach them maths so early, I do it every day.
How I asked her and she said, they have been doing it since birth.
Do you notice they wake up every four hours for a bottle? They then drink one bottle and they are happy. So without them realising it their tummies are telling them when four hours are up.
Oh you are so funny that is not the maths I am talking about I mean real maths.
She laughed and said they must start learning to count up to five until they are about 4 years old I think and then we can go further.
You started the oldest one by making her count peas and beans in her plate. So I know that you are teaching them to count.
OK now I will tell them to put two together until they have them all in groups of two.
My wife said and if it is an odd number they can just eat that one she laughed.
She thought this was funny, but I realised that they could really learn mathematical tables like that and not even know it.
I then started thinking of other ways to teach them. When I went into a shop, I always asked the person giving me change to say give me 5, ten cent pieces and one 50 c.
I would then hold the five ten cent pieces and ask them to count them.
Then I would show them the fifty cent piece and say these are equal amounts. Because: 5 ten cent pieces make 50c.
They look different yet they are the same amount.
I then started looking at other ways to try and teach them how to do maths without them realising it.
Then I realised we are doing maths with them every day we tell them to dress. They don’t put more than one shirt or pair of pants on, because they know it should be one. They also know they need 2 shoes.
This might sound silly but we really teach children maths from birth we just start making it more difficult the minute they realise they are now doing maths.
If everyone just stops and says maths is easy, and does what they are taught, there will never be a problem but we as a world have decided that maths must be difficult.
We must get it into our children’s heads that maths is easy. All you have to know is the basics and carry on from there.
When they start school they are taught how to do everything from adding subtracting dividing and multiplication.
If we explain to them that it is something we all use every day like eating a pizza it is divided into say 12 pieces. Please explain that it is maths. They are eating 1/12 of a pizza when they eat one. If they eat 4 they have eaten a ¼ of the pizza and there is still 3/4 left.
We can do this so many things in their life and let them realise that maths is something that they need every day until they die.
This is a way of making children aware of how easy maths can be.
Then we get to the fact that they should know their tables like they know their name.
Children should look for things to explain to you why it is maths and as for tables they must be able to be woken asked a multiplication and answer it before thinking. It should just be there.
Children do not all learn very fast some do, but those who don’t have to keep going until they know there multiplication tables as well as the ones who learned a bit faster.
I think we as people start teaching children that maths is difficult why, I really do not know. As these are facts: that do not change and will stay the same forever.
Later in life they have to learn more than multiplication tables, but if they tackle it the way they were taught when they started off it will be just as easy as in the days when they started learning that maths is easy and just learn the basic fact to remember forever.
If we can get children to know this we will never have problems with children being scared of maths.
So let us try and let all the young children lose their fear of maths and all will be well.
Have a wonderful day from me here at the Wild Coast.
