Today your mission is...
Before starting something today, ask yourself “What is it really all about?”
Ready, Set, Go
This question helps you make or recall the list of things that matter the most to you. It is a value affirmation question. Affirming your values before an activity gives you emotional support. It reduces anxiety and increases the will to persevere. But did you know that value affirmation also helps with problem-solving and with computational accuracy? Learn more at the Brilliant Report.
With kids, value affirmation can be as simple as recalling their favorite things before or during math activities: puppies, snowflakes, superheroes… Listen to the song from The Sound of Music for more ideas.
When working with grown-ups, we usually ask them to share their dreams. We’ve found that adults often share dreams together with worries. Not wanting to repeat past negative experience can be a powerful value affirmation.
As we plan activities for kids, it helps to keep dreams in mind. So here are two questions to get you started:
1. When it comes to your children and learning mathematics, what are your dreams? What is it really all about?
2. Imagine that your math dreams for your children came true. How do you see your children learn multiplication, and use multiplication?
Respond below!
Answer by Janitar · Apr 07, 2014 at 02:31 PM
I would like my daughter to understand, enjoy and make math and exploring math a part of her every day life. Maths shouldn't have to be a chore. I want it to be a natural part of life and learning. I think of all the math, multiplication is the one used almost daily. Just doing your shopping is much easier if you can quickly and easily compare prices - and it is so easy to do if you understand it. The right teacher and right way of being taught can make so much difference.
Answer by Eogruen · Apr 07, 2014 at 02:31 PM
I want to support my 7 year olds love of math as much as possible, which can be a challenge given my lack of experience with higher and conceptual math. I want to introduce my 4 year old to math in a fun way alongside her sister. I want my baby to not eat the math manipulatives, lol. For all three I want a strong foundation in practical, everyday mathematics and to help them go on to higher Mathis as far as they want. My 7 year old is consolidating her grasp of addition and subtraction facts and learning to add and subtract with borrowing and carrying. She is starting to make comments and ask questions that tell me she is starting to think about multiplication, so this course comes at a great time. I want her to get multiplication conceptually first, as she did with adding and subtracting. Memorizing facts can come later.
,I want my seven year old to continue to enjoy playing with math and for me to be able to help her do so, since I am not myself particularly tuned in to it. I want my four year olds introduction to math to be positive as she learns along side her sister. The baby I mostly want to keep from eating the math manipulatives since she is 9 months old, lol. Overall, I want all three of my daughters to be competent at basic math and to pursue higher math as far as they want. Interestingly, as my older daughter is learning to add and subtract with borrowing and carrying, she is also starting to ask questions and make comments that tell me she is starting to think about the concept of multiplication. So this course comes at the right time, I think. I want her to get it conceptually first, the way we learned adding and subtracting. Then later we can consolidate her memorization of the facts the way we are working on consolidating her addition and subtraction facts.
Answer by Reenie · Apr 07, 2014 at 02:31 PM
My dream for my son is that learning mathematics will be a voyage of discovery about how things work and a chance for me to watch how his thought processes grow and deepen over time. I was very lucky this morning to get a little glimpse into his mind when he said, "Mom, did you know that three fours make twelve?" He's in a Montessori preschool where he has been learning about multiplication as adding in groups. I find it hard to believe he really understands the concept of multiplication yet and was skeptical he was doing anything but a combination of lucky guesses and maybe the beginnings of pattern recognition. But his question suggested to me that he is really getting it and it was exciting to see it. I replied, "Yes, and did you know that three fours make twelve?" But he was off to the next thing and didn't answer me. So we will see what both of us learn as I start to look for ways to include multiplication in our day-to-day life.
Answer by MerrilySpinning · Apr 07, 2014 at 03:55 PM
I want my children's experience of math to be similar to our experience with poetry. We read some every day, whether it's fun and sweet things by AA Milne or Lewis Carroll or Robert Louis Stevenson, or rich, meaty stuff, like Spencer's Fairy Queen and GK Chesterton's Ballad of the White Horse. Through the course of the day, favorite lines from poetry might come up, or someone might invent a rhyming game on the spur of the moment, or one of us might use the words of a poem to express a feeling or idea or just to make everyone laugh. In any case, we live in a sea of beautiful words that lead us into imginary worlds, and help us understand the world we live in.
From what I've been reading about math lately, it seems that it's like that -- that it's a language, it's a doorway into a world of ideas, and a way of understanding and relating to the world we live in. I want my children to be as much at home in that world as they are in the worlds of poetry and music.
Answer by mistermarty · Apr 07, 2014 at 03:55 PM
Answer by mboogy30 · Apr 07, 2014 at 03:55 PM
1. My dream for my son is that he will have a strong foundation in math.
2. He will understand the concept and be able to use it daily and teach it if necessary.
Answer by cleabz · Apr 07, 2014 at 03:55 PM
1) My dreams include that my children would be excited by math, both the wonder of the universe like the Fibbonacci sequence and also just the fin of computation. That they would feel confident in relating to math. That they would feel safe enough to fail and try again.
2) They would easily use multiplication and division a the store, in the garden, in cooking, etc. They might find a way to practice or play with computation in the way that fits their learning style best (computer game, worksheet, whatever) and choose to do that themselves. We learned the facts of multiplication through word stories, but I would like to see the fun of that journey spreading into other uses of multipilcation and math in general.
Answer by erinscannon · Apr 07, 2014 at 03:55 PM
1. I want them to have math confidence and never fear "getting the wrong answer." I want them to see math as fascinating and something they can understand and use. I want their first reaction to a difficult problem to be "let me see what I can do with this" rather than "I don't know how to do this." I want them to see math very broadly and its uses in the world around them. I don't think all of my children will necessarily want or need to take advanced levels of college math (e.g., math for engineers or math majors) but I want them to have the solid foundation necessary in case they want to.
2. I'm not sure I understand the connection you are making between imagining my math dreams for them coming true and how I see them learning multiplication and using it. Currently, I see them learn it as rote memory at times, but I also see them understanding certain multiplication "facts" in relation to other facts. I think their experience with multiplication does, in many ways, reflect my current dreams -- they don't have anxiety about it. (Actually, I have a bit of anxiety whenever my kids over 3rd grade still get some of the facts wrong now and then -- and I wonder if I should have taken the "drill and kill" route -- but I usually get over it fairly quickly.)
Answer by Brianna · Apr 07, 2014 at 03:55 PM
1. I want my boys to have fun with math. I want them to enjoy challenging problems (and not be scared off by them). I want them to feel confident with math.
2. I see them learning multiplication in fun- engaging and natural ways. I want them to connect multiplication to its real life applications. For my older son- I would love to deepen his current understanding of multiplication. I would love for both my boys to use multiplication in everyday life.
Answer by LeistCatalano · Apr 07, 2014 at 03:55 PM
My sons have a natural aptitude and interest in math. I hope that I am able to provide new ways to challenge them and support their learning.
Answer by Hascoorats · Apr 07, 2014 at 05:34 PM
1. What is this really about? It's about learning to love learning about the world. That learning is a fun and enjoyable experience. That there's room for both challenge and ease :)
2. My hope is that our kids come away from the experience with a good grasp of how multiples and math coincide. That they see practical ways to use their knowledge in the *real* world.
Answer by MollyGrue · Apr 07, 2014 at 06:23 PM
I want my children's experience to math to help bring them not just to the ability to repeat what they have been shown but to have a deep understanding of the concepts. I hope that the way in which they learn math will bring them joy and lead them to apply the math concepts to real life issues. I am not sure what this means for learning multiplication because my experience with learning multiplication was simply to memorize the facts. For using it in life though I see them using it every day in many ways, cooking, gardening, shopping and more.
Answer by Marissa · Apr 07, 2014 at 06:23 PM
1. I want my children to have the deeper math understanding and skills to allow them to do well in math at any level. I do not want them to be held back from any career choices because of difficulty with math. 2. I imagine my children learning multiplication by understanding it, not through memorization, and being able to use it any time it may be usefull.
Answer by oxanavashina · Apr 07, 2014 at 06:23 PM
1. I want my kids to learn and use math as they would learn a language. I want them to understand the concepts and use them as they would use the words and expressions to build their own 'sentences'. I want them to enjoy the road that leads (eventually) to a solution, to see the beauty of reasoning. I want them not to be looking for the 'right' answer, but be free and constructive.
2. I see them looking for multiplication in daily life, looking for patterns, making what they have discovered their own and using it in their games.
Answer by rachelsnowden · Apr 07, 2014 at 06:23 PM
I hope my children will be curious and delight in learning and engage eagerly and competently at problem-solving. I want them to be able to use math competently for practical and real-life applications, but I would really love for them to just enjoy mathematical problems and concepts just for the fun of them, even if they don't have a direct application. I do hope that it will develop in them a framework for problem-solving that will help them to maybe one day analyze and solve everyday problems but also bigger problems in the world around them.
This is spot on. My parents left me be very independent in learning. Subjects that posed difficult unfortunately I never master. I want my children to find the mathematics around them and how things are made. Great comment.
Answer by Charasdoodle · Apr 07, 2014 at 06:23 PM
I have a dream that all children will walk hand in hand while doing challenging problem solving in confident, fun and creative ways.
If this was to come true... So many doors would open for them.
Answer by Madhuri_k · Apr 07, 2014 at 06:23 PM
1) I want my children to enjoy learning and using this very valuable skill. They should have the desire to learn and enjoy math and not think it as one more subject to get a good score in. They should feel confident instead of getting scared.
2) Knowingly or unknowingly we use multiplication a lot on a daily basis. I would love my kids to be able to use his skills everywhere from a grocery store to sharing while playing with friends. It should be a part in them and not have to think that now since I have to find this, i have to multiply...
Answer by mangolassi · Apr 07, 2014 at 06:23 PM
I want to make sure that my children are comfortable with mathematical concepts beyond the extreme rote learning they get at school. To be able to know how comfortable they are, it's important that we have a common language around maths and that it's part of our daily life, without adding to the educational burden they feel (already I can't help with their homework or be very involved with their school life as I don't speak the language they are learning in). My eldest is starting to learn multiplication at school, so these are concepts I want to know she's comfortable with right now.
Answer by Elizabeth02 · Apr 07, 2014 at 06:23 PM
1. My dream for my sons is that they will be able to see connection across mathematical applications, not just isolate techniques. I want them to see math in life and all around them.
2. My son can already multiply (he has not memorized the tables however, he just does it all in his head), but I don't know that he sees the applications of it, and I'm not certain how well he applies it. I want him to play with it and use it, not simply know how to do it. I also want him to see the application of the process to more than just the 2 through 12 tables.
Answer by scpnorman · Apr 07, 2014 at 06:23 PM
1) My son is 19 months old (a little young for this project!), but he just loves numbers. He started pointing out numbers on license plates, so we started telling him what they were, and over the course of 3 days, he learned his numbers from 1-10. He can now count and recognize from 0-12, though he doesn't fully understand the concept of how much 8 things versus 5 things is (for example). Sometimes when he first wakes up in the morning, I hear him counting while playing with the stuffed animals in his crib. I think one of my dreams for him would be that he continue to find the joy and curiosity and excitement in numbers and math that he sees in them now. I dream that learning more will inspire him more and not at some point turn into a drudgery imposed by someone else. I also hope he is able to see real-world applications for the concepts and tools he learns. I always did best with math when I could use logic to understand it or could apply it to a problem I might actually want to solve someday. I don't know what kind of approach will work best for him as he gets older, but I do hope that I (and eventually his teachers) can find one that keeps him engaged.
2) For now, I know any sense of multiplication would be very basic for him. Looking into the future, I would like to see him use it during everyday play and tasks (maybe figuring out how many Legos he needs for his tower?). It would be wonderful to see it become just another way he looks at the world, not a separate exercise. In more practical terms, multiplication is an important building block for further math, so I want him to master it well enough to pursue whatever academic and career goals he might eventually have.