Tag: confidence

  • Math Basics — The Real Ones!

    Math Basics — The Real Ones!

    I hear often that the “basics of math” are important. What people mean is that kids should memorize their math facts.

    The basics of mathematics that are required for a student to learn and do mathematics aren’t math facts. They are these: Logic, Joy of Failure and Familiarity with Math.

    1. Logic

    Children start learning what an if/then statement is at an early age:

    If you clean your room then you can go to the park and play.

    The more parents have normal conversations with their children, the more children will understand the other subtleties of logic — like negation, contradiction and contrapositive. We all understand these, even if we don’t know the proper math words for them:

    • Negation: “I am not going to listen to you whine!”
    • Contradiction: “That dog is green.” (and K8 says, “Nu-uh! That dog is brown!”)
    • Contrapositive: “Oh, I see you’re not at the park. I guess you didn’t get your room cleaned!”

    Once the basics of logic are understood, a child is able to pick up a calculus book and work through it. At any age!

    2. Joy of Failure

    Teachers often well rehearse their lectures before they present them to the students. The struggle and failure that he or she goes through figuring out how to smoothly demonstrate the problem is kept from the children. Teachers know the job of failure, but they keep it hidden.

    Thus children believe that failure is not an element of mathematical thinking. And nothing could be farther from the truth.

    Parents can support their children in finding the joy of failure by allowing them every opportunity to attempt, reattempt, and fail at everything.

    Promoting failure is tough, but important.

    If your toddler is trying to climb a ladder, resist the urge to jump in and help. The more the child fails a climbing the ladder, the more insight he or she will gain into what else might work. (Like different hand positions, different footing, etc.)

    You helping them climb the ladder might get them to the top faster, but resisting helping them (until they ask at least) will help them get used to learning from failure.

    Mastery may seem a pleasant goal, but it merely means there is no more learning to be done and it’s time to move onto something else. Don’t give them a false sense of mastery — let them learn the joy of failure.

    3. Familiarity with Math

    Children are quite confident and very engaged in learning the craziest things. It may be how to skateboard, how to make funny noises or how to repair their bike. One of the reasons they are competent and engaged in these activities is because they are familiar with them. Everyone is doing it!

    It’s difficult to be fearful of something that you see as a normal everyday part of life.

    Parents can help children gain a familiarity with math by pointing out where they themselves use math every day.

    This can be challenging to some parents, because they truly believe they don’t use math. But finding where the math is — and saying it out loud — will help your children a great deal.

    How are you doing?

    Do you talk to your children and let them read users’ manuals? (This promotes logic.)

    Do you let your kids mess up? (Helping them find a joy of failure.)

    Do you talk math to your kids? (Showing them how math is everywhere.)

    Will you start?

    Share your thoughts in the comments or on twitter/x.

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  • 12 Most Simple Ways to Have Math Confident Kids

    12 Most Simple Ways to Have Math Confident Kids

    This post originally appeared on 12most.com on September 17, 2012.

    Do you remember your parents saying, “Do as I say not as I do?” Do you remember what you thought of that nonsense?

    We learned more from our parents’ social modeling than we ever did through their words. And our kids will do the same.

    If you (as a grownup) scream when you see a roach, your kids’ll learn to fear roaches. Head to the gym three times a week and they’ll learn a healthy body is part of life. Read to your kids on a daily basis and they’ll think that reading is part of normal life.

    And you can use that same social modeling to turn your household into a hub of math confidence! Here’s how:

    1. Say the word “math” as much as you can

    The more you hear or see something, the more familiar with it you are. That holds for kiddos too. So mention math as much as you can.

    If you see a graph on CNN or Fox News, say, “Hey, that’s math.” If you’re looking for a cheaper alternative in the grocery store, use the M-word: “I’m using math to compare prices.”

    2. Point out where you do basic arithmetic

    When you set your alarm clock, point out that you’re doing subtraction to figure out what time to wake up. If you have to grab for the half-cup because the 1-cup is in the dishwasher, mention you’re doing some fractions.

    3. Let them read the users manual

    Sometimes math is about getting the job done by going through the right steps. When you set up the entertainment system, hand over a users’ manual to your child. Following those instructions reinforces logical instruction following — i.e. “plug and chug” math.

    And when they’ve set up the new big screen TV and hooked it up to the 7 other boxes of electronics, tell them they just used logic — a part of math!

    4. Play games

    Board games and card games are full of if-then statements. If you roll doubles, then you get another turn. If you draw a blank card, then you get to advance four more spaces.

    If-then statements are the foundation of math. Even the simple 1 + 2 = 3 is an if-then statement:

    If 1 and 2 represent the values we’re used to, then their sum is the value 3.

    The best part is that when they win a game, you can point out all the math they did to accomplish it.

    5. Play Calvin-Ball

    Calvin & Hobbes often engage in a sport in which they make up rules as they go along. Try doing this with your kids — play a game (of any type) and let each person make up one rule.

    Those rules will show up in the form of if-then statements, just like “normal” rules.

    Watch closely for the compound rules, too. “If your name starts with a B and you’re more than 10 years old, then you get two turns.” That “and” is part of set theory — a subject of math!

    6. Bite your tongue

    If you ever find yourself saying, “I’ve never been good at math,” stop yourself before it comes out. In fact…

    7. Fake it

    Fake it until you make it. Tell yourself you do math everyday (you actually do) and then tell your kids you do math everyday. Even if you don’t see it.

    The more you say it, the more you’ll believe it. And when you finally believe it, saying it will be effortless.

    8. Look at people like they’re nuts when they say they’re bad at math

    Remember, it’s all about social modeling. If you respond with, “Yeah, a lot of people aren’t so good at math,” you’re sending the message that it’s okay to be bad at math.

    Ever hear someone say they’re bad at reading? Heck no! Because it’s not socially acceptable.

    If you want math confident kids, make it just as nuts to say you’re bad at math as it it to say you’re bad at reading.

    9. Treat their math grades like they were PE or drama class grades

    If you pressure your kids to get good grades, then their motivation to be creative problem solvers goes down. (This is from Dan Pink’s Drive, by the way.)

    Since creativity is the source of great math learning, take off the pressure and let them learn math at their own pace. If they pass, that’s good enough.

    10. Discuss the Common Core Standards with them

    Talk to your kids about the requirements your school follows (or the ones you follow, if you homeschool). Discuss what each requirement or objective means. Talk about where they might have seen it in action.

    Point out where they already do it or make plans together on how they can do it in real life.

    11. Read popular math books

    There’s a whole slew of non-fiction books written about math for the non-mathematician. Let your child catch you reading one of those.

    My favorite is The Man Who Counted by Malba Tahan.

    12. Burn the calculator and banish the back of the book

    Having an external device to check their work is clear confirmation to a kid that he’s not smart enough to check it himself.

    If your child (or you) follows the rules of logic and the agreed on methods of applying them (like the order of operations), the answer they get will be right. Guaranteed.

    Furthermore, there are an infinite number of ways to do every problem. So checking your work is a matter of doing the problem a different way and seeing if you arrive at the same thing. Or working it backwards to see if you come up with the original question.

    Tear out the back of the book or staple the pages together. And refuse to fall for the “check your work” calculator usage scam. Your children will be better off for it.

    Are you ready for math confident kids? Which of these will you try?

    Featured image courtesy of Inkyhack licensed via Creative Commons.