How do we get our kids excited about math?

Math is considered one of the basic educational materials at school, in addition to being a highly valuable and beneficial skill in life.

But all of us mothers wonder: “How can I get my kid to excel in Math”?

The following practical tips will help instill a love for numbers in our children and motivate them to excel in Mathematics.

Let’s have a positive attitude towards Maths!

Let’s talk positively about Maths and avoid sharing our experiences with the subject in case it was a negative one.
Let’s praise every effort our children make to learn Maths and the correct way of calculation, and let’s share the excitement with them when we join efforts to solve a difficult assignment.
Let’s assure our kids that Maths is too difficult for no one and that all it takes is a lot of insistence, perseverance and hard work. And let’s give them live examples of famous characters or familiar people in their environment who suffered with Maths at first, but didn’t give up and achieved a lot of success.

Let’s make Maths a part of our children’s daily lives!

Let’s talk to our kids about the daily uses of Maths and about our great need for it in our lives, such as for paying the bills, calculating profit, temperature changes, tips at the restaurant and so on.
Let’s join our kids in assembling puzzles and playing board games and other activities that encourage them to strengthen their Math skills. Playing while taking a bath for example, teaches children several concepts such as weight, density and size.
Let’s allow our children to take part in the kitchen chores which can include various ways to teach them fractional measurements such as division and multiplication.
Let’s encourage our little ones to use the computer, the internet, the public library services and educational programs after school to perform different tasks such as drawing tables, charts and maps.

Let’s encourage our children to analyze and explain!

While working with our kids to solve a Math problem, let’s ask them about the strategy they used to reach the solution. The more we motivate the discussion of their way of thinking to find answers, the more they are able to think using Math logic.
Let’s use mistakes and wrong concepts as a way to develop our children’s analytical skills and logical thinking. In other words, if they get a wrong answer for a certain question or even just a part of it, we can say: “I liked the way you organized the information. How about we take a look at the chart again and check the numbers”? And let’s encourage them to change their way of thinking.

In addition to all of the above, it is necessary that we avoid comparing our children to their peers and siblings as this can promote unrealistic standards and have a negative effect on our continuous efforts to motivate them to develop themselves and improve their skills.