In the introductory article, it was argued that learning mental math skills remains an important element of a child’s education, even in the age of the calculator. So what should you do if you think your son or daughter’s math needs a boost? Rather than rush to solve the problem, it’s important to first establish how your student is doing relative to their peer group, how math is taught in school, and how engaged they are in the subject.
Start by meeting with the classroom teacher to find out how your child is taught mental math in school. Is it by using traditional methods that combine rote learning and quiz type? Does the class use e-learning software to deliver math lessons on a whiteboard or for individual learning? In most cases, teaching will include a combination of all three elements, in which case it is important to find out from your child which approach to learning she enjoys and responds to the most. The final question to ask the teacher is how your son or daughter is doing relative to the class as a whole, when it comes to mental math. If their mental math performance is average or above average for their age, you can take an approach to improving their mental math skills that uses fun math games and activities, allowing the child to progress at a rate that suits them . However, if your child is trailing behind his peer group, a more structured and intensive period of mental math remediation is appropriate, in which you allocate a set amount of time each week to mental math activities and monitor his progress closely. Whichever approach is required, we’ll look at some interesting ways to introduce math into your child’s everyday life so that she realizes that she’s improving her math skills.
Sports and games that involve mental arithmetic
When I was in school, the best mental math student in our class was a kid who didn’t like math at all, but outside of school he spent most of his time playing darts. He went on to study finance and is now a very successful commercial banker, which is a moral story that will appeal to some parents more than others. However, darts are an excellent game to improve a child’s mental math skills. The game engages players in the full range of math: subtraction, addition, multiplication, and division as part of the scoring process. Better still, the complexity of the mental math skills required to score and calculate “finals” increases as a player’s darts skills improve, so your child’s mental math and darts skills will improve hand in hand. . For parents concerned about the safety implications of allowing children to play darts, there are a number of junior darts alternatives for younger children that follow the same format as playing conventional darts, but without the risk of injury.
The other traditional leisure activity that I recommend to improve math skills is board games. There are numerous board games that involve rolling dice to move around a board, but Monopoly is one of the best board games for developing the full range of math skills. When playing Monopoly, each player moves around a board buying, developing, and selling property with the goal of bankrupting all other players in order to win. What makes Monopoly different from many board games is that one of the players is designated a banker, a role that requires them to manage many of the financial aspects of the game, including the processing of mortgages on property, accepting payments, and change. If you put a kid whose math needs a boost in the role of banker (and make sure the other players have the patience of saints) in time, you’ll find their mental math skills flourish while everyone else is having fun. The good thing is that Monopoly gives everyone more than enough time to practice math, since the game has a reputation for never ending. In fact, the longest Monopoly game on record lasted 1,680 hours, which is equivalent to 70 days or 10 weeks. Think how good your young banker’s mental calculations would be after such a monumental game, and how riled everyone else’s spirits might be as a result!
In the final article in the series, we’ll consider the role that online math games can play in improving a child’s mental math skills.
