Take the Effort to Make Math More Interesting For Kids
When it comes to the academic study of math that all students working their way through their elementary or secondary education must have, it is easy to start to wonder if there is a law somewhere that math lessons have to be boring and dry. While there really is no academic requirement for math to be a subject that kills the soul while educating the mind, in many public and even private school situations, math is one of the topics that becomes an ordeal for students to get through.
It doesn’t have to be this way. Much of how the students feel about math comes from the instructor. Any real math enthusiast would take extreme offense at the very idea that math is boring. If the teacher of the math class is not someone who is passionate about the subject, the teacher is going to be disinterested in the teaching of math and will treat it as though he or she was teaching on variations of the color grey. The instructors lack of interest will be passed to the student which could kill many young peoples love of math entirely.
It is important at the administration of the school to see math as a topic that needs to be taught as a fundamental life skill by an instructor who lives and breathes math ideas. If the instructor is passionate about the topic and considers math to be the most exciting area of study in the world, that passion will be passed to the students. While it may not convert every student into a math fanatic, it will make the kids enjoy their time in math class and the job of learning important math skills will be much easier than if math is tedious and painful to get through.
Parents and educators can work together to make sure math does not become something students come to dread. As parents, its good to look inward to find out if you have “math phobia” because your attitude toward the subject could be passed to your child. If you have a negative attitude about math that you may have picked up on when you were young, it’s a good idea to address that as an adult so your enthusiasm for math is not phony when you are trying to inspire your children on to better performance in this important area of their studies.
Along with giving the math students in your life plenty of encouragement and support, there are lots of ways to make math fun. Math games and puzzles and math based online adventures can take each math idea and turn it into an exciting exploration for each child. Parents can also work with the school administration to hold math fairs where many math based games and social events can change the perception of math and make it one of the “cool things” to do. That effort to make math interesting and valued to your kids will pay off in a big way throughout their academic career and on into their adult lives as well.
