How to teach your children basic math

Many of us who are living overseas as missionaries (and some of us in our own homelands) will choose to home school our children. It can be a difficult task but it's not impossible. It can actually be a lot of fun spent together with your children as you raise them and shape their lives.

I've been teaching my oldest daughter math for this past school year and she has made a TON of progress. Our method is simple and will be easy for you to also do.

First find 20 items for your child to use (we use coins, but you could use buttons, stickers or anything else that is fun for your kids to learn with).

Then what I do is I write down a list of math problems. Start with using small numbers and work your way up.

Next have your child take your counting items and make two piles representing the problem, lets say the problem 8+7, so one pile of 8 and one of 7.

Then teach them to combine the two piles and count them to get the total, writing the answer down for the problem.

To teach subtraction simply have them make their pile and then remove the amount of items in the math problem. The number remaining is their answer.

Daily we have our daughter work through 20 or so of these problems and have seen her math skills improve.

Need more help with home schooling your children? Check out the Home School Resources category.

Anonymous YWAMer