Looking for the best deal is in my blood. We grew up without abundance, so getting everything on sale and finding the best deal was paramount. I still have that mentality today. It’s hard for me to spend, except for products of necessity like food.
Yesterday, I took my daughter for ice cream. As we stood there reading the menu, I’m doing calculations in my head of the best deal and comparing prices of 3 scoops vs. a full blown banana split, while she’s trying to carefully read the menu. This is a habit of which I’m accustomed to and an opportunity to teach math skills for life. We talked about value, best deals, and which one to get. After all that, it didn’t matter. She still got two scoops, not the better value. But it was her birthday, so she could get anything off the menu.
Brings me to the point. What math skills do children need to be successful in life?
In my opinion, kids need to have number sense and understand the basic concept of operations (add, subtract, divide, multiply) and what’s really happening, estimation, conversions, measurements, fractions, place value (so they can read large numbers), time, money – things they come across to function in life (like cooking, shopping, and getting places). There’s more, but you get the picture.
Most of the kids I work with for math, lack number sense and don’t understand these concepts. Yes, technology will serve them well as a calculator when they’re shopping, but they need to know what numbers and operations to punch in.
This is the kind of teaching that parents can do. Bringing in life experiences makes it so much more relevant, and can be fun. Developing number sense early on, I imagine will prevent problems later on. We don’t want our children going thru school hating math, feeling bad about themselves as learners. We don’t want the struggles of math to get in the way of pursuing their dreams of a STEM career.