Fractions began making sense to me the day we each brought a chocolate bar to class and completed a “Candy Bar Math” worksheet using the squares. Sadly, other than that, my math education was lacking in the use of manipulatives and other concrete methods of teaching. As a result, I struggled. When I began to teach my own children, I determined to give them the opportunity to learn using lots of manipulatives that would make understanding the concepts easier than verbal explanations and worksheet practice.
Moving Beyond Math Manipulatives
This worked beautifully with my older daughter, but my younger daughter struggled despite the use of manipulatives. I made reference cards, created games, and invested in different curriculum. She still had trouble. After a lot of frustration for both of us, I finally admitted that my methods of teaching math to her weren’t working. I had to come up with a different plan, because manipulatives just weren’t enough.
I identified my daughter’s strengths and realized that she loved telling and listening to stories. She learned easily when learning was hands-on and she was required to apply concepts to real-life situations. It was time for me to think outside the box when it came to her math lessons.
Cooking
I started by leaving the books behind on the days when we were both on the verge of tears. We would go into the kitchen together and bake: cookies or muffins were our favorite projects. While we were baking, I would gently help her explore measurement, volume, capacity, and fractions. Sometimes we halved or doubled a recipe, just for the experience of changing the required amount of each ingredient. Cooking was a time for repairing our rocky relationship with math, talking and laughing together, and having a tasty snack at the end of the lesson. We practiced addition, subtraction, and budgeting when my daughter got Christmas or birthday money and was deciding what she wanted to buy. We got more practice when she helped me grocery shop and stay within budget.
Children’s Books
But we needed something to help us explore more concepts and broaden her understanding of math beyond consumer math and cooking. I started looking at books again, and I found some children’s books that explored math concepts in story form, like A Remainder of One and One Hundred Angry Ants by Elinor J. Pinczes. Then I looked for curriculum made of stories or in living book form and found the Life of Fred math series. We’ve been using Fred ever since. The stories that accompany the concepts help her remember math facts that she has been unable to memorize.
My daughter and I don’t dread math lessons anymore. In fact, she often asks to do math first because she enjoys it so much! If manipulatives and traditional curriculum aren’t serving your struggling learner well, take a good look at his strengths and find ways to teach math using those strengths. There are math resources available for all types of learners. You just need to find what works for your child!
What are your family’s favorite math resources?
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