Raise confident daughters with strong math skills!
Posted on: Sunday, May 14th, 2006Comments: 0
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Confidence can be a lot about knowing the answers. The answers to questions posed by teachers during class. The answers to questions posed by classmates during recess. The answers to life’s little questions that pop up throughout the day. These questions are typically public, and the one who knows the answer is always subtly propped up. As I’ve said in previous postings, little victories mean a lot to children. If they get propped up with little victories every day, over time, they could become very confident kids…and adults.
In grade school, reading and math are very important. Most of the things kids learn relate to one or the other. They even relate to each other. So, while it’s important to be a strong reader, confidence can just as easily be made or broken as a result of math skills. And while we probably won’t create a math genius out of the regular DNA we have given our children, we can facilitate strong math skills.
I do a few things to help my daughters to excel in math. One thing I do is worksheets…almost every night. Not many problems each night. Even 5-10 problems per night are meaningful. For my Kindergarteners, I do pluses and minuses. Throughout the year they grow in difficulty…as the girls are ready for it. For my first grader I do the same kind of thing, but with harder problems. The more I push the limits, the more they exceed them. What I’ve learned is that a little bit goes a long way if it’s every day.
Another thing I do is practice counting while we’re in the car. I get the girls to count by 2s or 3s or 4s, etc. This is a key building block for not only addition but multiplication as well. While we practice simple multiplication, I can see my daughter counting by 2s or 3s or 4s or whatever to get the answer.
One day as my daughters were getting out of the car, I said, “You girls are becoming really good counters.” One of them smiled and innocently responded, “We’re good at lots of things, aren’t we, dad.”
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