babyjewels
Member
Hi all,
Many kids have difficulty in Math more than the other subjects as they move up in primary school. Hence, it is important to start them on the right concepts and methods from P1 or earlier. The concepts and approaches can be taught to younger kids using smaller numbers.
One method which will be a useful tool for them throughout their primary school is model-drawing. The faster they pick that up, and the more practice they have using that, the better they'll be at solving difficult problems. Also, Math now involves the use of other heuristics so that the child is able to understand the problem better and simplify it such that possible solutions can be found.
I'll be giving free on-line lessons every now and then to help parents guide their children. Let me begin with Lesson 1.
Lesson 1
There are 6 chickens and cows in a farm. There are 16 legs altogether. How many cows are there?
How to teach
I always encourage my students to draw. Drawing will help them understand better.
In this case, we'll draw 6 bodies – just draw 6 circles.
Fix 2 legs onto each body.
There'll be 2+2+2+2+2+2 = 12 legs.
How many extra legs have we not fixed on?
16 – 12 = 4 legs.
Each animal can have a maximum of 4 legs.
So, we'll fix on 2 extra legs to one body and the other extra 2 legs to the other body, so as to use up the 4 extra legs.
Hence we have 2 cows as there are 2 bodies with 4 legs.
Hope you find this method useful. Do look out for more postings. Cheers!
Many kids have difficulty in Math more than the other subjects as they move up in primary school. Hence, it is important to start them on the right concepts and methods from P1 or earlier. The concepts and approaches can be taught to younger kids using smaller numbers.
One method which will be a useful tool for them throughout their primary school is model-drawing. The faster they pick that up, and the more practice they have using that, the better they'll be at solving difficult problems. Also, Math now involves the use of other heuristics so that the child is able to understand the problem better and simplify it such that possible solutions can be found.
I'll be giving free on-line lessons every now and then to help parents guide their children. Let me begin with Lesson 1.
Lesson 1
There are 6 chickens and cows in a farm. There are 16 legs altogether. How many cows are there?
How to teach
I always encourage my students to draw. Drawing will help them understand better.
In this case, we'll draw 6 bodies – just draw 6 circles.
Fix 2 legs onto each body.
There'll be 2+2+2+2+2+2 = 12 legs.
How many extra legs have we not fixed on?
16 – 12 = 4 legs.
Each animal can have a maximum of 4 legs.
So, we'll fix on 2 extra legs to one body and the other extra 2 legs to the other body, so as to use up the 4 extra legs.
Hence we have 2 cows as there are 2 bodies with 4 legs.
Hope you find this method useful. Do look out for more postings. Cheers!