Math Starts at Home—Parents can do many simple things to support the development of number sense

• Talk casually about math. Socks and mittens come in pairs, which helps children learn to count by twos; sandwiches can be cut into triangles, squares and rectangles. Cut a sandwich in halves and quarters to help a child learn the concept of fractions; discuss the shapes of road signs while walking to school. Talk about the purpose of calendars, tape measures, clocks and thermometers, point out that houses have odd numbers on one side of the street and even numbers on the other; a soccer ball is made up of hexagons and pentagon shapes.
• One of the best and easiest things to do with children to improve their math skills is to play card games and board games, such as Monopoly and Scrabble, that use math.
• Cook with your children and allow them to do the measuring. Using recipes teaches children about proportions and fractions. Try doubling or halving a recipe to reinforce those skills. Don’t discount the dreaded math worksheets and math drills. Addition, subtraction, multiplication and division are important foundation skills.
• Point out to your child that, like anything else, math takes practice. “An athlete practices, as does a musician. They do boring things at the beginning, drills and scales, over and over again. As they get better, things become more automatic and they learn to love other aspects of the sport or instrument. This is also true for math. Much of elementary school math is like learning the steps. One never gets to put all the steps together in a seamless way until later.
• The message is to keep trying because math is all around us and is every bit as important as literacy.     

 .. Quotes taken the Leader-Post Sept. 17/11