These days I’m trying to
teach my daughter to ‘play with numbers’. Right from using building blocks to count
from 1 to 10, playing board games like snakes and ladders in which one has to
count ahead spaces at every step and add numbers together to mastering the
fundamentals of the basic number line through a simple game of hopscotch, we’re
doing it all. And it’s a whole lot of fun.
We also have an abacus at
home now. Earlier I was of the view that it could only be used to do simple
addition and subtraction; but then on reading more about this fun calculating
tool, we’ve started doing more complex operations like multiplication and
division too, albeit of small numbers.
We try and include math
in our everyday activities – in the kitchen learning about volumes, playing online
math games on the computer and the like. Kids (at least mine) tend to develop a
natural aversion to the subject if they are made to sit down with a list of
problems on a worksheet and asked to solve them. The key to making the subject
fun is to involve imaginative play in math, something that is a part of their everyday
routine and yet is enjoyable.
