Let’s assume that the math is already in the kid’s elementary school, with a squeak. How hard is the gre? It’s and boring to fold and subtract, not to mention something more complicated. New topics don’t want to fit in. Ksenia Buksha, a writer and mother of three children, tells, based on her own experience, how to help a child master mathematics.

We lay out the difficulties on the shelves.

At the level of 1st-5th grades, there are no children who are unable to do math. But there are children with specific difficulties that can and must be overcome. Let’s think about why it is difficult for a child to do math.

Here are possible options or their combinations.

Bad thinking, no math skills. I’m not very familiar with numbers.
Can’t get into the essence of the task, can barely understand what to do. He tries all the options (“So wrong? Then I’ll try to divide”, “Three times more – do you need a plus or minus here?”).
He learns the template solution, but can’t finalize it. Faced with the slightest change in conditions, he falls into a stupor.
He can’t read complicated texts. As a result, he does not understand either the description of the rules or the text of the problem. If on the fingers to explain what to do, immediately resolves normally.
Concepts do not fit in his head. Hardly understands them and quickly forgets. Such child can hear a hundred times an explanation of what is X (unknown), but never understand.
The skill of visual presentation is not developed. He or she cannot imagine, draw a schematic picture, “see in mind”.
Short attention: he understands everything but makes a lot of mistakes, especially in long complicated examples.
As we can see, mathematics unfolds into a lot of different skills. When we have found out what the problem is, we can solve it. I apologize in advance to teachers and methodologists: I am just a parent and my thoughts on this subject are just private opinions, although I try to justify them.

We wait for the ability to think abstractly…

The brain of a neurotypical child does not ripen to abstraction and generalization right away. Some do it earlier, others later. For example, not all children can correlate the number and quantity. For very many and go math grade 3 there is only “15 apples”, but simply “15” is not.

At the same time, they somehow get used to operating with numbers, and the gap in the basic understanding is not very visible until we talk about a little more complicated things. For example, it is a bit difficult for them to understand why there cannot be “one and a half” in the answer to the question “how many diggers? And even when interest or speed and distance tasks start, it becomes quite difficult.

It’s worth going back to the specifics. Perhaps, to understand the fractions, we should say “in the numerator of watermelon, in the denominator boys; 21 watermelons went to 42 boys – each half of the watermelon”. Even in fifth grade, almost all concepts can still be grounded to perfection.

We’re developing numeracy skills.

Just learning to count is boring. All kinds of number games can help us. For starters – complicated walks with 2-3 dice (when one move maximum – 18 points, not 6), then – a variety of games in the dice, where you need to count points.

The simplest game is known to me as the “unit”: players take turns rolling one die (or two or three) trying to reach a hundred points. The series is interrupted when the player has at least one unit: in this case, the points for the series burn out and you need to be able to stop on time.

I highly recommend dice poker. This game has a number of combinations, each of which must be thrown in three attempts. These tries can be saved. Players take turns making moves, the winner is the one who first performs all combinations. In addition to the simple folding of points, poker gradually develops a fine understanding of chance and probability, calculated risk and chances. Even a six- or seven-year-old can learn how to play poker.

To practice division and multiplication, my daughter and I used to talk about numbers as “relatives”. For example, number 72 has a very big “family”: it has “babies” 24 and 36, it has “grandchildren” 2, 3, 4, 6, 12, 18. But the number 37 did not have any “family”, it is simple. But if you “marry” him with another “single” – 41, they will succeed together 78, now you can “have children and grandchildren. This is a good way to navigate the multiplication table.

Learn to see and visually summarize the task…

To be good at schematizing, you need to be able to highlight exactly what is important for the task condition, and schematically depict it in the picture. First, we learn how to highlight the main thing. These are the famous games “what’s superfluous?”, which may have several answers. Watermelon, stork, apricot, grapes – what’s the extra? It depends on what kind of feature.

In Peterson’s textbook, there are wonderful tasks, cluttered with a bunch of unnecessary data or without the necessary conditions. In the task the author asks to find and highlight only those conditions that are necessary for the solution, and if they are not, to indicate what is missing. Having learned to see the task, one can go to schematization.

Many children do not understand at all why to draw diagrams to tasks and why it is easier. It’s because these diagrams are finished. But what principle are they built on? Why, for example, it doesn’t matter how long the train itself is, if it goes from A to B? How do you draw “3 o’clock”? And “all pears planted by boys”?

You can draw diagrams of different tasks together, and then offer your child to invent similar ones. There are such tasks in textbooks, but there are not many of them. For some people, this difficulty defines all relations with mathematics in general, and with ordering data, abstracting, generalizing, and searching for a solution.

How hard is the gre hone the logic.

Logic is one of the tools that everyone needs. There are no people who are not inclined to logic, there are those who have it “not put”. It’s like being able to use a screwdriver: anyone who has hands can learn. You can see for yourself how ironic your logic is. I really love this wonderful test.

A person with logic is not able to tangle any propaganda or advertising, he will not be confused by an unscrupulous bank, he is much better oriented in the world around him.

With children, you can start with simple syllogisms, which sometimes sound ridiculous, but lead to an understanding of very important things. For example, after hearing someone say “boys don’t cry”, a child can clarify: “some or all?”

If children do not pass the concept of multitude, it is worth at least a little with him to draw “circles” (not necessarily introduce all the concepts at once) and solve the corresponding problems: here are the boys, here are the cats, but those who are called Vasya. Where are the boys, whose name is not Vasya? And where are the girls? And where is the cat Barsik?