During the lockdown, a ten-year-old boy created a Guinness World Record by solving 196 math problems in under a minute.
However, not all boys and girls have the facility to do mathematical operations, so it is important to teach math in a fun way. In this post, the Go4prep team has explained how you can achieve this.
We have all been boys and girls, and many of us have not liked mathematics. In fact, it is a subject in which many boys and girls have difficulties because they find them boring and do not understand them. This can be a problem if you don’t act on time.
Table of Contents
Why is it important to learn mathematics for children?
Mathematics has always occupied an important place in the teaching plans of schools in all countries. It is a science that helps:
1. Develop analytical thinking
Learning mathematics helps children know how to analyze arguments, see the relationships between them and reach a result. Analytical thinking helps children to investigate reality, reason, apply logic and seek the truth based on evidence.
2. Manage the day-to-day
In the future, they will surely handle a multitude of documents for which they will need mathematics: invoices, purchase receipts, expenses, income, bank loans, etc.
3. Keeping the brain fit
Mathematics is excellent “gymnastics” for the brain of both children and adults.
4. Help understands nature
We usually look only at what we see in nature, but with mathematics, we can see beyond and understand what is happening in our environment.
5. Troubleshooting
With mathematics, it is possible to see problems from another perspective and look for solutions that can be applied in our day-to-day life.
6. Promote Wisdom
Mathematics promotes wisdom since it is related to other fields such as natural sciences, geography, astronomy, physical education, music, and technology, among others.
7. Be less manipulable
With mathematics, you learn to analyze data and not be manipulated by figures that may not be real.
Fun ways to teach math
Now that you know the benefits of learning math, it’s time to see fun ways to teach it. We tell you below:
1. Use games to teach maths
Playing is always fun and necessary for the full development of boys and girls. Games can also be a great way to teach math. For example, board games:
- Bingo can be used to learn numbers, ones, and tens, or to identify numbers.
- Parcheesi also uses numbers a lot. For example, when the data is rolled, when the pieces are moved around the board, etc.
- Monopoly is another traditional game that helps manage money, add, subtract, multiply, pay, etc.
- In almost all card games you have to add, subtract or multiply, so they help to learn to calculate and also develop fine motor skills by having to shuffle the cards, deal with them and count them.
2. Apply them to the real world
As we have seen, mathematics has many applications in the real world, and when boys and girls see it, a greater interest in the subject is generated. In this sense, for example, it helps them understand how numbers are handled and how they are applied in their daily lives.
3. Use technology to teach math fun way
For example, the internet and social networks can be good allies to learn mathematics. With teenagers, on social networks like Facebook or Twitter, you can see statistics that help understand the followers and are an excellent real application of mathematics. Another way to use technology is through videos or virtual or augmented reality or educational video games focused on mathematics.
4. Create learning communities
Through new technologies and the use of social networks, learning communities can be created in which students share their experiences and joint learning occurs. It can be done, for example, through groups on Facebook.
5. Generate challenges
When children are faced with a challenge, they are more likely to be interested. In this sense, mathematical challenges can be created that have application in the real world and that stimulate their desire to learn.
6. Connecting mathematics with other disciplines
As we have seen before, mathematics is related to many subjects. For example, history can be explained through graphs or biology with graphs and calculations. Also in nature, we find many examples of mathematical applications such as symmetry or the PI number.
7. Cook
Cooking is something that often catches the attention of boys and girls, and making a recipe for their favorite sweet can be a fun way for them to learn math. On the one hand, they will learn calculations with cooking times, the weight of food, or the temperature for cooking. They will also learn the importance of geometric shapes such as cones (with a funnel, for example), rectangles (with food boxes), or circles (with pots).
8. Use pictures and stickers to teach maths
Younger children tend to learn better when they use pictures, so you can teach math with pictures and stickers in a way that illustrates a mathematical operation graphically while developing their fine motor skills.
As you have seen, mathematics does not have to be a boring subject for boys and girls, but by applying a little creativity, interest can be aroused and the little ones begin to appreciate from the beginning the importance of the subject and the great number of applications that mathematics has in everyday life.
Teach Maths in a Fun Way Infographic:
Photo by Keira Burton & PxHere
