IF YOU want your children to excel in maths, you must first banish negative attitudes towards it right from the start!
Barbara Eaton, academic development co-ordinator for the Schools Division at ADvTECH, Africa’s largest private education provider, said parents and caregivers should make sure they didn’t pass down their own negative feelings about maths.
“Children should be allowed to start their maths education believing they are competent and capable without being sabotaged by fear.”
Eaton said people regularly hear about Mzansi’s poor performance in international maths and science education.
“Those of us who work at the pre-primary level are well aware the results of the children at prep and college levels will not improve if we do not focus on teaching the correct maths concepts within the three to six-year age group.”
Early learning should be age-suitable and focus on “hands-on, brains-on” activities.
“Early mathematical experiences have to be physical and solid. These lead to semi-abstract activities in grade R. We do not use worksheets for children at this young age.”
She said parents must take a keen and active part in getting their children excited about maths in the early years.
Activities which promote the learning of maths concepts:
- Singing number songs and rhymes.
- Counting everyday items such as plates and cutlery for supper or potatoes for cooking.
- Match how many times you clap with tokens.
- Baking uses counting and measuring of ingredients.
- Drawing attention to numbers on gates, cars and more.
- Sharing out sweets among the family to teach division.
- Dividing fruit, veg and cakes into pieces and talk about halves and quarters, which teaches the concept of fractions.
- Working out how many sweets we need so everyone gets two to teach multiplication.
- Matching, identifying and counting coins, and using coins to buy small items at the shop.
- Comparing the sizes of clothes and shoes the family members wear and arranging them in order of biggest to smallest.
“But parents should not, in any way, attempt to teach their child something difficult now which they will manage more easily later on. Doing so may hamper later education.
“Quite simply, maths should become child’s play.”
