The math portion of any standardized test brings out fear in a large number of the population. The story problem with two trains going in different directions still makes many adults’ hearts race.
Unknowingly, parents often transmit their own fears and feelings of inadequacy about math to their children. Try to look at math as a game and convey that to your child. Don’t worry if your child has more practice with math than you. Just by helping your child feel confident about her/his ability to tackle the problems, you give her/him the momentum needed to jump on the highway to success.
I just looked over the fourth grade practice questions for California’s STAR exam and with simple logic and mental math, a child would perform well. Below is an easy activity to practice mental math skills with your child. Start at a very simple level to keep your child feeling positive about the activity and math then work your way up.
Number Craze
Start by writing down a few easily added numbers on a paper like: 2+3+1+2
Ask your child to mentally add them together without using any pencil or paper. Invite her/him to tell you the answer when ready. Whether the answer is right or not, ask her/him to describe to you how s/he got the answer. If you got the answer by working things in a different order, share that. In the end, check the answer with a calculator.
As your child gets faster and more accurate, make the problems harder by adding more numbers and including different numbers. One mental math trick is finding 10´s. So, include numbers that add up to 10 in your games. A more difficult problem that keeps in mind the 10 trick might look like this:
22+37+68+13
Although there are MANY different strategies to tackle this, here is how my brain solves it:
2+8=10
7+3=10
10+10=20
20+60(from 68) =80
80+20=100
100+30=130
130+10=140
Please don’t start with a problem like that, but it is fun to work up to it. You can have fun doing a couple of these a day. Especially in the beginning, try not to make it too much about a race. The most important parts are getting the answer right and building confidence. As your child practices more, s/he will gain some speed as well.
Also, you can easily change this to multiplication (2×3x1×4) or subtraction. With subtraction, write the larger number at the top with a subtraction sign and a few numbers underneath.
25-
8 2 1
Answer would be 14
You can practice mental math anywhere. You don´t need a paper and pencil. You can ask your daughter/son to help add prices together at the grocery store. You can throw out a few numbers to add or subtract in the car on the way to school. Keep it light and fun and your child will be more efficient on the standardized exams and in many moments in her/his life. Mental math is well worth practicing any time!
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