Early Math

Some students love math. Math comes so naturally to them that they usually don't remember learning it. It almost seems as if they were born knowing it. These students take great delight in solving difficult problems. As adults they still remember how to find the area of an ellipse or how to multiply a number by a repeating decimal.

Some students, on the other hand, struggle with math from the beginning. They dread tasks that involve numbers and escape paying attention to quantities of anything. These students seldom attain top grades in math. They do much better in subjects like English and social studies that depend upon language development. As adults they have difficulty balancing a checking account or figuring out how much RAM they need on their computers.

The $64,000 question, then, is: How can you teach math from the beginning in such a way that all students enjoy learning math? Some answers to that question are beginning to appear.

First of all, it's crucial to make children aware of quantity when they are very young. While I was taking a grandchild to preschool one day I saw a mom who counted the steps up and down each stairway as her toddler went up and down. What a marvelous way to teach awareness of quantity! This little boy was learning to count and to use one-to-one correspondence through language and through a full body experience that involved both touch and movement. When my grandchildren were younger I used to push them on a swing and sing counting songs like "One Little, Two Little, Three Little Indians", "The Ants Go Marching One by One", and "This Old Man". I would also give ten pushes to one child, and then to another one, counting each push out loud. These children are now showing excellent achievement in math.

Another easy math activity that parents can do very effectively at home is to help the child count to a hundred while touching each number on a hundreds chart. Counting while touching the numbers on the chart teaches oral counting, one-to-one correspondence, and number relationships to one hundred. Just a few minutes a day counting with a hundreds chart can result in significant achievement in math.

The next step in providing a basis for learning math is to show the student how to add by counting on. This can be done by using a dri-erase marker to count the numbers on the hundreds chart inside a page protector. Use one color for the first number and another color for the second number. Later on the student can visualize dots on the number to be counted. For the subtraction facts the student learns to take away the number on the left of the number chart and then count the difference between the lower number and the higher number. Then the student can use fingers to keep track of the difference. After the student masters the meaning and methods of discovery for addition and subtraction problems, the student is ready to learn ways of remembering the facts, such as using fact families or learning the doubles, eight, and nine patterns. Daily practice with flash cards is often helpful at this point.

For multiplication facts the student first learns to skip count by 2's, then 5's, then 3's. The student can mark each number counted on the hundreds chart with a dri-erase marker. After mastering the 2's, 3's, and 5's, the student is ready to learn the 9's pattern. The answers to the 9's all begin with a number 1 down from the multiplying number. The two digits of the answer always add up to 9. Then the student is ready to learn the 4's, 6's, 7's, and 8's by using skip counting and the number chart. Finally the student uses selected flash cards to practice the 21 facts that must be memorized. If you omit all the 0's, 1's, 2's, 5's, and related facts (such as 3x7 when 7x3 has already been included), there are only 21 facts that must be memorized. Concentrating practice on these facts is very time efficient.

Modern math textbooks teach a great variety of topics at the early levels, even probability and working with unknowns. This curriculum prepares advanced students for future learning, but fails to offer enough basic practice for many students. Much of the practice suggested above can be done in the car while commuting or at the kitchen table. A few minutes a day counting and skip-counting, adding and subtracting pays off handsomely in the end. It can mean the difference between a student who dreads math and a student who experiences the thrill of understanding it.

Mary Sue Laing, M.Ed.
Resource Teacher, St. Ambrose School
newskill7@msn.com

by Mary Sue Laing, M. Ed., New Skill, Inc. Academic Tutor