"Dyscalculia No More"

When it comes to looking for ways to help the second grader who lives in your house do better in school, there are two concepts that you can count on being true and within those two concepts may lie the answer to your child’s math problems. Those concepts are (1) your second grader may hate math but (2) they love being on the internet and playing with the computer. In actual fact, your child doesn’t really hate math itself. But the academic teaching of math at a second grade level often puts children off simply because math concepts are new to them and the methods to teach them are sometimes dry and abstract.

That second basic principle is one you no doubt had a loud amen to share because you know your youngster loves to play on the home computer and be on the internet. The reason that rule can be stated so confidently is that virtually all young people love computers and the fun they can have using online games and other resources modern technology has made available to us all. As parents, we have to be wary so our kids are safe online and the amount the kids love to be online can be a real frustration. But that same love of computers can be a salvation of your second graders math success in school if we use the internet intelligently and guide the kids to the right kind of web sites.

There are ample web sites that take the basic math principles that second graders must deal with and integrates games, quizzes, puzzles and other fun activities to make the learning process far more enjoyable than the kids experience in the academic situation at school. Some of these sites still utilize standard math quizzes and teaching styles but they do so on a colorful and interactive screen. It really is amazing how much children at this age respond to even something as basic as an online quiz when they can give the right answer and see a visual celebration or hear a happy tune when they get it right.

Other math software products or online educational sites use more creative math games that create interactive story problems that a math principle must be utilized to solve the puzzle and win the game. The depth and quantity of games, puzzles and story problems that sites like this will provide to your young mathematician is just the thing to keep them coming back week after week.

In most cases there will be a menu of dozens of games and fun activities built around each basic math concept. Don’t be surprised if you leave your child to explore that math idea only to find that they played every game on the site and were eager to move on to next week’s lesson to have new toys to play with on their math gaming software or web sites. Also don’t be surprised that when your second grader gets that kind of excitement about math because he or she is enjoying these web sites that you see their math grades shoot to the top and their enjoyment and confidence in math become rock solid just like you always want it to be for them. That, to say the least, is an outstanding use of the internet.