How to Teach Math to Kids

Math is not an easy subject for me so I won’t consider myself as an expert. I also have a love-and-hate relationship with math but I can definitely say that math is not my weakness. So when my son was still a kid, I did not enroll him in a professional tutor or math class because I know I can teach my son the basics and I want to save money. If there are trial classes, I will take advantage of them.

Just like other kids, math is a challenging subject for my son but I always tell him that math is very important because we use it every day. We use it in school, work, at home, and even when we play so he should learn to love math. 

My son is now a teenager and fortunately, he can study on his own so I no longer need to print practice worksheets and make mock tests or reviewers. I am also thankful that math is one of the highest grades in his school card. So I am sharing the different strategies that I applied when I was still teaching math.

1. Use pictures or visuals 

The majority of the kids are visual learners so if you want to teach math, use pictures and images. I purchased picture books and flashcards when my son was still in his toddler years. 

2. Make math a daily activity 

As I mentioned before, we use math every day so we can teach math to our kids while cooking, baking, shopping, playing, and many more. 

3. Play Games 

Kids love to play games and playing games enhance their analytical thinking and curiosity. We used to play puzzles, tangrams, monopoly, and others. 

4. Answer worksheets 

I bought a printer and I searched for free math worksheets online. This makes my life easier because I don’t need to make a lot of exercises because there are free printables online. I just print the worksheets so my son can practice his math skills. 

Whenever the school year ends, I instructed my son to answer the exercises in his math book. It is one of his activities every summer. He will answer a few pages so he has something to do every summer. Practice makes perfect.

5. Online games 

We can’t deny that we live in a digital age so nowadays, kids love playing online games. My son used to play educational games too when he was young. I just can’t remember the names of the games because it’s been a decade already and he no longer uses his old iPad. 

But I recently discovered that there are free online games that will help you in teaching math. I tried some online games and here are the 3 games that I like, these games involve addition and subtraction.

1. Cashback - the goal is to calculate how much change you should give back to the customer before the time is up. 

2. Grocery Cashier - it is a game where you can practice addition and subtraction along with monetary familiarity. What I like in this game, there is a virtual cash register so you can feel that you are really a grocery cashier. 

3. Supermarket Numbers - this is an arithmetic practice game. 

Care to share your strategies?