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Not interested in learning Math
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My 7 and 5 ds and dd seem don’t appreciate Math. I tried to explain to them how math apply to our daily lives but they still don’t have interested in learning or doing math problems. What shoud I do? Thanks!
What are you using?
Just a thought…. there is a site called “bedtime math” that has a problem to solve each day (3 levels….) – that is generally based on something in the news…. (yesterday’s was about exploding bottles of ketchup!) – it might give them a bit of interest…
Carmen, this is just a thought but they say that “seeing is believing.” Rather than explaining how it applies, Charlotte suggests that our children have to see for themselves in problems that relate to their lives, being allowed to make their own connections. Just a few days ago my eight-year-old was doing money problems using a coin purse and I had to bite my tongue as I so badly wanted to ask him if he “saw the pattern.”
Perhaps I am in the minority here, but I can’t say that I’ve ever honestly seen one child who does appreciate math. Especially at the ages of 7 and 5. Now, my kids don’t complain about math and don’t have trouble with math, but I definitely can’t say that they “appreciate” math. My oldest, who is now 22, is just beginning to be interested in math. She did it all throughout her school years and did fine with it, but she certainly didn’t appreciate it. I’m just wondering if I’m the only one with this experience.
@pslively, there are so many things I’m only now beginning to appreciate, including math. I don’t think I even appreciated a sunset until my 20’s. I do think our appreciation can be stirred sooner though using CM’s methods. I know my husband said he would have loved geometry and algebra had he known he could use it to build a wood shed.
For that young of age, have you looked at http://www.livingmath.net ? There are lots of great ideas to spark interest and ways to show them how math applies to our daily life- as well as living math book titles. I also hear that SCM’s “Mathematics: An Instrument for Living Teaching” is an excellent resource
.I’m not sure about “appreciating” math – but my kids love math…. they generally want to do it first….
Carmen, my DD and DS, both 7, don’t really appreciate math I don’t think except coins and when cooking.
I second the nod for living math. I use a curriculum called Math on the Level and at age 7, they suggest a very gentle and very living approach. They suggest the use of real-life examples such as cooking, grocery store math (which can happen at the store and in a recreated grocery store at home {think recycled food boxes, cans, etc. and stick-on price tags along with coins and dollar bills}). My two 7YOs love grocery store math!
I also use a system I created for going over the numbers 0-100, one-digit addition, one-digit subtraction using numbers up to 9, shapes, clock faces, and number names. It is working very well. I am planning to create more sets with fractions, measurement names, and simple math vocabulary. If I can ever find the time LOL!
I am giving away a set of my resources I created at the end of this month. I’d love for you to sign up for a chance to win, just leave me a comment at my blog: http://roomforatleastonemore.com/2012/09/30/giveaway-time/
If you have a blog, please post about it but if not, I’ll still enter you for a chance to win! I just want to share with others this resource that has really helped our DC.
Most of what I do with them is very hands-on, very little worksheets, oh and they both have abacuses that they use for addition and subtraction. But just recently, they are adding in their heads up to 20!!! I’m so excited for them accomplishing this.
I also use every book I can find at our local library for reading about math and then we apply it. I find this series to be well done and the books are short and simple yet allow for application.
Here is one we used last week: http://www.amazon.com/Graphs-Mathbooks-Sara-Pistoia/dp/159296687X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1351045991&sr=8-1&keywords=mathbooks+graphs
I also love the Greg Tang books {http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=greg+tang} as well as the Sir Cumference series {http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_7?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=sir+cumference+series&sprefix=sir+cum%2Cstripbooks%2C0&rh=n%3A283155%2Ck%3Asir+cumference+series}.
One other thing is I have a few sites linked on my blog that have great ideas. You might find some of these helpful for the ages of your DC:
http://www.livingmath.net/Home/tabid/250/language/en-US/Default.aspx
http://love2learn2day.blogspot.com/
http://livingmathbooklist.blogspot.com/
HTH!
Oh, one other comment on kids never appreciating math….. I know I was an exception, but I totally appreciated math when I was 7 and younger. I was given a calculator when I was about 6 (they were VERY new… a calculator cost over $100 back then… and $100 was worth more…. so it would maybe be similar to buying a child a very powerful laptop?)…. at 7 I was inventing a way to subtract without having to borrow (it involved negative numbers), and I also understood the concept of squares and cubes (as in 10^2 is 100 and 10^3 is 1000). When I went shopping at age 9 (at the corner store) I would buy the various items, and as the cashier entered in the items in the cash register I would add it up in my head and give him the number before the cash register did – and tell him how much change. I knew the binary number system, concepts like infinity, and many math tricks. I had read the entire childcraft volume called “mathemagic”. My dad was a high school math teacher, and I would help him correct his papers…
So they may be few – but there are children out there that appreciate math.
In fact, it is my love of math that helped me with the decision to homeschool. See, I was always ahead in math… In grade 6 I was taught some grade 7 math to help alleviate my bordom with school. (hm – me skipping over 6 weeks, and not really being behind any any subject……) In grade 7 (still skipping occasionally) they said they would allow me to do math from the higher grades if it was a Jr High / High School combination school – but they didn’t want to cause problems for me in grade 9. In grade 8, during a bus strike where I had to sit for about an hour after school waiting for my ride (and usually no homework), I grabbed a grade 9 math book and completed it during that time (in a couple of months…)…. mind you, I still had to do it again the next year….. and nobody even considered the fact that we lived in a province with a correspondance school – so I could have done it all on my own, during math period even, at my own speed – using correspondance!?! And for that matter, that province has an accredited Distance Learning University – so I could have even done some University Math that way???? Oh the bordom that could have been avoided!
Wow, thanks everyone for all your good suggestions and reminders. I think I need to clearify something. Yes, asking 5 & 7 yr-old kids to appreciate Math may be tough, I meant I just don’t know how to explain to my kids “Why must we learn Math?” Sometimes, they would say, I jsut don’t know why we need to learn Math!
Carmen, I understand! While DD, 7, loves learning math, my DS, 7, often asks “but why?” He loves practical things like fixing stuff and making stuff and all of that. So as much as possible, I show him math in those situations.
And yes, livingmath.net is very helpful! I love it too!
@LDImom, is there a website for Math on the Level?
I didn’t read all of the posts, so please forgive me if this is a repeated idea:
I think we have to remember that we can motivate, encourage, use CM methods, all until we are blue in the face, and the fact is that part of education is learning to do things we don’t love or appreciate. What we learn to appreciate is working hard, despite how we feel. As we grow and conquer those things, we develop, mature and, hopefully, form a sort of appreciation for these things which we formerly despised.
Just some food for thought…
@bethana,
Yes, here is the website: https://www.mathonthelevel.com/
And they have a yahoo group with lots of info. that is open to anyone using or considering MOTL: http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/mathonthelevel/
@Tia, excellent points! I totally agree. Need to remember that for myself sometimes too!
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