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How quickly can you calculate simple mathematic problems? Can you do mental arithmetic easily, for example, could you calculate the interest you pay on your home in your head? Do you love mathematics? If you feel positive about Math does this help your child at home? Children can learn to love mathematics.

You can use all the resources in your home to foster a love of math in your child. You don’t need special teaching materials. Thermometers, scales, tape measures and a host of other devices will help you with home mathematics.

Mathematics is an exciting part of our world. There is barely an hour goes by in our day when we are not calculating or measuring or estimating something. It is a wonderful talent to be able to calculate quickly and accurately.

We rely on math almost every minute of every day. From awakening when our alarm goes off to resetting our clocks for next day. We constantly perform math calculations during the day. Time: 2 minutes to get to the train, 30 minutes to get this job done, an hour before the school bus arrives, birthdays, Valentines Day, Spring Break, Thanksgiving. Money: cash, credit card transactions, bank balances, meals, pocket money for the kids, bills, bills and more bills. Measurement: traveling, exercising, building, cooking, shopping.

Certainly we have calculators and computers to do a lot of the complex calculations but our children still need to know how to reason, calculate, and solve mathematical problems. They need to be able to estimate a reasonable answer. This helps them to decide whether a calculation is correct.

It doesn’t matter how many calculators or computers you have, a child has to be able to think mathematically. They need to have a clear idea of the operation to be used to solve the problem. They need to be able to roughly calculate a reasonable answer. They need to be in control of the mathematical operation not the calculator.

You can help your child understand and love mathematics by doing fun things at home. You can turn numbers into an exciting challenge. You can play guessing games. You can estimate height, weight, temperature, and even thickness of an object. When you start to think about math being fun, you and your children will have a wonderful time together.

It’s not hard to come up with fun ideas for numbers at home. Depending on the age of the child, there are many opportunities. For example, you might like to do paper cut-out graphs of everyone in the family. Get some big paper and have everyone lie down on a piece of paper. Trace around each person. Then cut out the figure and paste it in the family room on the wall. Check every month to see how much people have grown (or shrunk!).

Interesting math travel activities keep the kids occupied when traveling long distances. Try adding the numbers in 10 car and truck license plates and compare which is greater/smaller. Tally the number of red cars that pass your car, continue to subtract distance traveled from total length of journey, and record the cost of gas and food and total at end of trip, estimate the time it will take to complete a trip, even record temperatures every 20 miles. Real life activities such as these help kids to see how math skills are used constantly and this helps them understand the reasons for learning math.

Encourage your children to talk about how they solve math problems. Help them to think about their math thinking. This is called metacognition - thinking about thinking. Think what processes and strategies they used to reason out a solution. Even very young children can do this. Build a positive attitude to math by incorporating math tasks and thinking into everyday activities. You’ll be pleasantly surprised at how quickly your child will develop a love for math.