Math is one of the most important subjects that a child needs to learn. But, the very mention of math will have the kids finding new excuses to get out of math lessons. This is because all the numbers and math operations are confusing and too difficult to understand for the little ones. This can lead to math anxiety and make them hate the subject. But numbers and math operations like addition, multiplication, subtraction and division are extremely important in our daily lives. So, learning math cannot be skipped.
But you might wonder how to teach math to a reluctant child? The best way to help your child learn math is by making it fun and exciting. Math learning becomes dull when children don’t understand the concept being taught. So, use fun activities and math-based games for kids to make learning fun and engaging. Hands-on activities and games help children understand the concept better and make math lessons more interesting.
Your child can get over their fear of math lessons and learn to love math. You just need to come up with creative ways to make math lessons more engaging and easy to understand. Here are 5 fun math-learning activities that’ll help your child learn to love math and look forward to math lessons.
5 Simple Activities to Make Math Lessons More Interesting
Connect it to real-life: Math lessons involve a lot of terms, which can be hard for a child to understand. Connecting math concepts to real-life scenarios helps children understand the concept better. For example, if your child has trouble understanding geometry and shapes, take them on a walk around the neighborhood to spot different shapes. Point out the shape of road signs, a dollar bill, coins, doughnuts etc. Or, if your child needs help understanding addition and subtraction, go grocery shopping with them. Ask your child to count each thing you buy, find the price of each thing and add it to find out how much it costs.
Math games: No child will say no to playing games. So, add a fun element to your math lessons with some math games. Using activities like math games for grade 2 helps you tackle math lessons according to their grade level. You can use card games, trivia games and math puzzles also to make lessons more interactive and easy to understand. Games give kids a hands-on experience, which reinforces their math lessons and helps the children remember the lesson.
Math cooking: Food and cooking are a great way to help children learn important math concepts. Rope in your child for an afternoon of baking cupcakes. Ask the child to measure ingredients, and this helps them learn about fractions and decimals, volumes and measurements. Then ask them to line the cupcake tray with the liners; this improves their counting skills. Then comes choosing the right temperature and time to ensure the cupcakes are properly baked. Once the cupcakes are baked, hand the child some ingredients to decorate the cupcakes. You can ask the child to count, add, subtract and multiply as they use the ingredients to decorate the cupcakes.
Math in other subjects: Learning math doesn’t have to be limited to just math class; you can also sneak in some math learning while the children learn other subjects. Chemistry and physics lessons are a great way to include math learning. You can also add math learning to English lessons by asking the students to solve word problems.
Real-life examples of math: One of the simplest ways to make math interesting is to show children real-life examples of math. Kids learn better when they can see it happening in front of them and when they can touch and feel it. Show your child real-life examples of math like banks, budgeting, shopping, sports performance analysis, music production, construction and interior designing, fashion designing etc. All these activities will help children understand how different math concepts are used in real life.