“I’m not a math person.” This is a sentence that Angelo Dellomo of Mays Landing has heard countless times. Being a retired math teacher who taught for more than four decades, Angelo Dellomo would meet people who would quickly express their dislike of mathematics. The truth is that we all depend on math from the moment we wake up in the morning to the moment we fall asleep. Developing a love of math learning in children is a terrific way to set them up for success in the future. Today, Angelo Dellomo will discuss different tips parents can use to help cultivate a love of math learning from an early age.
The first step in growing an appreciation for math in a child is to relate math to things that naturally interest them. For instance, students who show an appreciation for Major League Baseball can be taught everything from how to count along with a pitch count to how a player develops their batting average. Learning to appreciate math can start subtly as a child learns that a batter who gets a hit every three times out of ten at-bats will have a .300 batting average.
If a kid is not much of a sports fan, consider baking! In order to bake anything successfully, a precise formula must be followed. Going over measurements and breaking down the fractions associated while measuring out ingredients is a fantastic way to bring math to life. In addition to interests, all children need to develop an understanding of time. Time is another excellent educational math tool. Parents can do their kids an excellent service by teaching their children about the hours of the day, how many minutes are in each hour, and how many days are in a week. All of these lessons revert to basic math skills.
One of the best ways to learn counting skills is to play board games. There are a number of board games designed for kids that allow parents to go over simple counting. Parents can add additional educational elements by counting out how many spaces a child is away from a certain spot on the board. For instance, if a child is eight spots away from the win, a parent can ask them how far away they will be after they roll a six. This problem-solving will help develop an understanding of basic math and help reinforce the fact that math is all around them.
A lot of early math development comes from basic problem-solving. When speaking with a younger child, problem-solving can be as basic as laying out three toys and asking them to put two back in their bin and figure out how many toys remain. The key is to encourage problem-solving and then celebrate every correct answer. This will encourage children to ask for more problems to solve, which allows the educator to build on the fundamentals taught at home.
When people tell Angelo Dellomo they aren’t a math person, they often follow up that statement by saying that they just aren’t good at math. Dellomo is a firm believer that negative thoughts can lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy. It’s why he would always look at mistakes as opportunities to encourage learning. Parents who encourage their kids to fail in order to learn can show them that the work is worth the reward. Approaching errors with encouragement and celebrating even more when a child fails multiple times before finding the correct answer can be a wonderful motivating tool.
Creating a foundational appreciation of learning can have an impact that benefits a student for a lifetime. Showing a student that math is all around them can cut down on the fear or stress of failure. After all, math is all about finding a solution.