How do I get my kids to love math? Try these simple steps parents can take at home to raise kids who love math.
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“Lily, come fold laundry with me and I’ll ask you some math questions!” This is my husband’s weekend ritual with our seven-year-old daughter, but I remain slightly surprised every time she happily takes him up on the offer.
For some kids – my daughter Lily and my son Johnny are great examples – math is naturally fun. Playing with numbers comes easily to them, and they find math relaxing.
Watching their friends and classmates, this love of math is no more the norm now than it was when I was a child. But that doesn’t have to be the case! Math should be fun regardless of how easily mathematical reasoning comes to a child, just as reading is meant to be fun no matter how much of a natural wordsmith a child is. The recent push for early literacy has led to all sorts of efforts to make reading fun, but most people seem to accept math as a necessary chore. Few of us grow up to become writers, but most of us enjoy reading a good book. We can learn to appreciate math in the same way. Our children won’t all grow up to be mathematicians, but we need them to appreciate the wonder of beautiful math. Read this post if you are wondering why everyone needs to appreciate math.
How Do I Get My Kids to Love Math? Simple Steps Parents Can Take at Home
What You'll Find on This Page
How Do I Get My Kids to Love Math? Remember that Math Should Be Fun
There is no reason for math to be boring! I recently collected the best math games and activities that I recommend for families to explore together. Mathematical drills can take place within fun games like Moneyville and Prodigy. My kids like Prodigy so much that they will practice their musical instruments in exchange for 20 minutes of play time in the Prodigy universe. Here are some of the best math games for kids of all ages. Create your own math games, like this simple paper golf game we play.
Young children enjoy playing with geometric shapes. Give this geometric shapes printable a try, and keep pattern block play frustration-free.
How Do I Get My Kids to Love Math? Find fun Books to Read About Math
Fun math books can be especially effective in getting children who are naturally better at the humanities to appreciate and become curious about mathematics. Here are some math books your kids will love. My kids read the Life of Fred series over and over. They read the stories over and over without solving the problems, and that is okay! They are still learning to think like mathematicians, and becoming curious about mathematics.
How Do I Get My Kids to Love Math? Show How Math Relates to Your Child’s Life
Money management requires a lot of math, and it’s a highly effective method of showing children why they need to understand math. Here are some simple ways to teach kids about money. Weights and measures are also ways we use math in everyday life, and learning weights and measures is quite accessible to young as well as older children. Look for math in nature.
How Do I Get My Kids to Love Math? Embrace Your Inner Math Geek
Take a moment to appreciate and enjoy math holidays! Pi Day is the most commonly celebrated math holiday, but there are other fun math geek games you can play. Use sports to teach math, and try this fun and surprising statistics experiment with your kids. Graph M&Ms.
Playful Ways to Teach Early Math Literacy
For parents looking for playful math activities for young children, this ebook is a great resource:
I contributed to the book, along with some of my favorite early education bloggers. The activities provide a tiny bit of structure in a playful environment where children can explore early literacy and numeracy skills.
How do you get your kids to love math? Please share in the comments below, or on my Facebook page. You can also tag me on Instagram. Still looking for ideas? Try reading this post on raising kids who love math.
MaryAnne is a craft loving educator, musician, photographer, and writer who lives in Silicon Valley with her husband Mike and their four children.
Joshua is brilliant at math but is quite bored with it at school. I’m trying to find something that is challenging for him at home so that he keeps his interest in it!
My son likes reading picture books with math concepts.
I feel sorry for kids who are intimidated by math. I am also sad that both adults and kids feel comfortable acknowledging that they “hate math”. Imagine someone saying that they hate books! It says something about out culture that it’s still OK to hate math and pass this attitude down the generations.
Yes! We really need to change this culture.
I remember having a math teacher in 6th grade who changed math from a subject I hated into one I loved. It was an interesting experience.