How to get your young kids hooked on mathematics
“But I want to color!” my son whined.
“I am sleepy. Can you read this story to me?”, said my daughter while yawning (fake).
Oh! Don’t I know them! It is a regular thing in my house. I first try to teach math to my two kids and this happens. I was at an absolute loss on how to get them interested in mathematics. Coloring and reading stories won’t help them in getting good grades in math. Or will they? I knew the text books were the culprit, and I needed to replace those with something that is interesting for them. And guess what, I just found the right thing.
This is my colourful story of getting my kids hooked on math and enjoy it. It involves vibrant math resources, interesting information, amazing life skills to learn and lots of FUN.
Math Worksheets –
I found an amazing collection of math worksheets that would solve my purpose. Download these worksheets here. How will it help? Well, I have listed that, read on!
A little Logical
How about some worksheets that put math problems into everyday situations, with vibrant illustrations? I wanted some math activities that helps teach my kids logical thinking as well. And ‘Save Water’ Worksheet does just that. It not only teaches my children the fundamentals of subtraction, but also the importance of saving and properly using water.
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A little Challenging
It is important to challenge your children. Oh my kids love that. And this worksheet just did that. It puts together buildings that children immediately recognise and challenges them to find the distance between them. The pictures also help in developing life skills by helping kids identify the buildings. I frequently ask my kids questions like, “So we are going to the Post Office from the City Hall. What do you do in a Post office?”
Yet another fun and colourful worksheet was the balloons one. In this worksheet there are nine balloons, each with two numbers on them. If, after subtracting one number from the other, the answer is zero the balloon will come down, otherwise it will go up. The goal is to find how many balloons go up and how many come down. The interesting aspect here is that kids realise that if there is zero air inside a balloon it will come down. Sounds fun, right?
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Colors are essential
Speaking about colors, a wonderful worksheet was the coloring Zebra Worksheet. In this worksheet, kids are given an uncoloured picture of a zebra which has been divided into different segments. Each segment has a subtraction sum in it. If the answer of the sum is less than fifty, it is coloured sky blue, otherwise it is left white. This gives the kids the chance to do math sums, as well as play with colors, which my son loves to do! I also used this worksheet to teach my kids about the Zebra and get them interested in wildlife. The blend of facts and figures were a hit.
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Tell Them a Story
My daughter loved these worksheets. These come with interesting stories. One was about the strange century plant. Each of its leaves has two numbers on it, whose sum is always one thousand. You could weave a story which revolves around a plant which grew one leaf every hundred years, or every time a child successfully counted from one to hundred. I took this opportunity to teach my kids some life skills related to plants, such as how to water them, taking care of the soil. And the next day I found myself buying plants and pots for them.
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There were two other worksheets around which I could make stories.
In this worksheet called ‘Egg Survival’, you start out with eighty-nine eggs. Then, the eggs are hatched, eaten, stolen or broken. I made stories for my kids for each of these situations. For example, I said that twenty eggs were eaten because that farmer’s daughter was very hungry when she came back from school. This worksheet also shows kids where eggs come from and some of the ways in which they are used.
Also, for ‘Puncture Trouble’, I made a story like how a bus got the flat tyre and what the passengers decided to do. Some called their parents, those whose houses were nearer decided to walk and those who had money went in a taxi. Such short stories also teach kids about the different methods of transportation available.
I found these worksheets to be incredibly fun and useful. Although I just use Grade 1 and Grade 2 worksheets, but there are lots available for kindergartens till grade 5. They are free to download and involve every sort of mathematical functions and problems. Each worksheet also comes with a solved example to make it easier for the child to understand the way the worksheet is to be solved. It’s a brilliant way to teach your kids maths and have a good time with them.
Authors Bio – Sayan Mukherjee is a postgraduate student from The English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad. He is interested in education and has presented papers in conferences. He has recently been published in an issue of the Indian Journal of Applied Research. He is currently working as a freelance content developer for Logic Roots and writes about education and teaching related topics.
Thank you Sayan!