Regular Practice Is A Simple Way Parents Can Help Their Children Learn Mathematics

Arithmetic is one of the starting points for learning mathematics. But children start to learn about numbers, the foundations of Arithmetic, once they are a few months old and certainly once they begin to speak.

One, Two and Three are words and concepts which are common to English and Arithmetic.

Almost all children know the difference between one or two chocolates, especially if they are only given one and a friend two. It is often said that children don't know the concept of zero or none, I suspect this is untrue "If you don't eat your tea you'll get no afters" is something that any child can understand - even worse "There's none left your brother ate it all.

" So your children will build up an understanding of numbers and counting from everyday life before they even go to school.

You can improve their learning by talking about numbers and asking simple questions.

How many bags of chocolates will I need to buy if you have three friends round and you have one each? This may be simple stuff but it's the repetition of simple questions that builds knowledge and makes it second nature.

Arithmetic and mathematics is about using symbols to come up with answers without counting physical objects.
To be any use maths has to give us the same answers as we would get from actually counting real objects (cups, ice creams or bars of chocolate).
This suggests a simple strategy: Start just counting physical objects Then write corresponding arithmetic down whilst counting physical objects Finally just write down arithmetic.

If your children get stuck with just the arithmetic: either go back to physical objects or encourage them to use their imagination to "see" physical objects How many years does it take to be able to speak and read? Maybe only one or two years to say "mama, dada and cat" but probably at least 15 to be able to read and recite Shakespeare.
How many years does it take to learn to play the piano or be great at sports? Again probably 10 or 15 years.

This isn't to say that progress can't be made after a year or even a week, but success takes time and practice.
Practice to learn the skills in the first place and then continued practice to maintain them.
Even world class musicians continue to practice and practice the basics such as scales, for without regular practice skills and knowledge tends to fade away.

Many people expect success to come quickly and easily, only to get disappointed and give up when they find this doesn't happen. In many ways the key to success is to be able to continue to practice without undue expectation, over time success will come.

At school learning times tables is seen as a key milestone. When people talk about learning times tables they really mean being able to recall times tables facts quickly and accurately. This requires: practice to learn and understand in the first place regular revision or practice to keep skills up and knowledge fresh "Little and Often" is a great technique for learning,a few minutes every day means that sessions are not so long as to be boring and not so far apart that what has been learned gets completely forgotten by the next session.

So what does this actually mean? Just spend a few minutes every day asking times table questions. Five minutes should be ample. How about on the way to school? Does it have to be every day? No, but it does have to be regular and once you start missing days you don't have to miss too many before your sessions aren't regular anymore. Five minutes may not seem a lot, but in UK the school day is about 6 hours long with about 1 hour taken for lunch and breaks.
That leaves 5 hours or 300 minutes.

If there are 20 pupils in the class and the teacher shares their time equally between the pupils that is only 15 minutes of undivided attention each.
I'm sure parents wouldn't think it strange to teach their children how to count why do they think it is strange to help them learn their times tables? Rather than be a teacher why not be a practice buddy?