Momentum - Business to Business Online Magazine MOMENTUM November 2019 | Page 28
EDUCATION
DALANA SOWELLS
832.895.1233
[email protected]
www.facebook.com/KumonOfLeagueCitySouth • www.kumon.com/league-city-south
4 Fun Ways to Perfect your
Child’s Mental Math Skills
U
nderstanding
simple math
facts can offer
students a
tremendous
advantage in school. By
conducting basic addition
and subtraction problems
mentally, a child’s math
fluency can improve,
allowing him to advance
more easily to higher level
mathematics.
Playing simple, but fun,
math games is a fantastic
way to not only stimulate
your child’s mental math
abilities, but also an ideal
way of improving number
facts. Here are a few of our
favorite activities.
Multiplication War
With this fun card game,
your child will master his
multiplication facts in no
time! Shuffle a deck of
cards and deal them face down, giving each player an
equal number. Assign the picture cards a value of 10
and the aces a value of 11. Each player turns two cards
face up, reads the number sentence and supplies the
answer. For example, if your child draws a 7 and an 8, he
says 7×8=56. If you draw a 6 and a 4, you say 6×4=24.
Because his product is larger, he wins the four cards and
puts them at the bottom of his pile. Continue the game
until one player runs out of cards.
Mental Mystery
Have your child count out five small objects such as
pennies, marbles, or candy and have him close his eyes.
Then hide some of the five objects, while leaving the
rest uncovered. Ask your child to calculate how many
objects he sees and how many objects are covered.
Practice this activity until your child can quickly solve
these simple equations. Add one additional object once
your child has mastered that level to increase difficulty.
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For older children, start with 10-20 objects.
101 and Out
To play, you’ll need a sheet of paper, a pencil and one
dice. The object of the game is to score as close to 101
without going over. Players take turns rolling the dice.
As you roll, you can either take the number as a one or
a ten. For example, if you roll a 5, it can be used as 5 or
50. Players keep a running record of their total as they
play. This game is a great way to build mental math
strategies as children often think critically in regards to
what number they need to roll next.
Math Jeopardy
Give your child a piece of paper and then say a
number. Give them one minute to find as many ways
as they can to make the number using addition,
subtraction, multiplication and division.
Learning some basic, but useful mental math
strategies, can work to greatly improve your child’s self-
confidence.