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tions, then you
are probably encouraging your child to think mathematically.
This book contains some ideas that will help reinforce these
positive attitudes about math.
You Can Do It!
If you feel uncomfortable about math, here are some ideas
to think about.
Math is a very important skill, one which we will all need
for the future in our technological world. It is important for
you to encourage your children to think of themselves as
mathematicians who can reason and solve problems.
Math is a subject for all people. Math is not a subject
that men can do better than women. Males and females have
equally strong potential in math.
People in the fine arts also need math. They need math not
only to survive in the world, but each of their areas of
specialty requires an in-depth understanding of some math, from
something as obvious as the size of a canvas, to the beats in
music, to the number of seats in an audience, to
computer-generated artwork.
Calculators and computers require us to be equally strong
in math. Theft presence does not mean there is less need for
knowing math. Calculators demand that people have strong mental
math skills--that they can do math in their heads. A calculator
is only as accurate as the person putting in the numbers. It
can compute; it cannot think! Therefore, we must be the
thinkers. We must know what answers are reasonable and what
answers are outrageously large or small.
Positive attitudes about math are important for our
country. The United States is the only advanced industrial
nation where people are quick to admit that "I am not good in
math." We need to change this attitude, because mathematicians
are a key to our future.
The workplace is rapidly changing. No longer do people
need only the computational skills they once needed in the
1940s. Now workers need to be able to estimate, to communicate
mathematically, and to reason within a mathematical context.
Because our world is so technologically oriented, employees
need to have quick reasoning and problem-solving skills and the
capability to solve problems together. The work force will need
to be confident in math.
Build Your Self-Confidence!
To be mathematically confident means to realize the
importance of mathematics and feel capable of learning to
* Use mathematics with ease;
* Solve problems and work with others to do so;
* Demonstrate strong reasoning ability;,
* See more than one way to approach a problem;
* Apply mathematical ideas to other situations; and
* Use technology.
The Basics
You may have noticed that we are talking about
"mathematics"--the subject that incorporates numbers, shapes,
patterns, estimation, and measurement, and the concepts that
relate to them. You probably remember studying
"arithmetic"--adding, subtracting, multiplying, and
dividing--when you were in elementary school. Now, children are
starting right away to learn about the broad ideas associated
with math, including problem solving, communicating
mathematically, and reasoning.
Kindergartners are building bar graphs of birthday cakes
to show which month has the most birthdays for the most
children in the class. Second graders are using pizzas to learn
fractions, and measurements are being taken using items other
than rulers (for example, the illustrator of this book used his
thumb to determine how large the pictures of the pizzas should
be in proportion to the size of the words on the activities
pages).
What Does It Mean To
* Be a Problem Solver,
* Communicate Mathematically, and
* Demonstrate Reasoning Ability?
A problem solver is someone who questions, investigates,
and explores solutions to problems; demonstrates the ability to
stick with a problem for days, if necessary, to find a workable
solution; uses different strategies to arrive at an answer;
considers many different answers as possibilities; and applies
math to everyday situations and uses it successfully.
To communicate mathematically means to use words or
mathematical symbols to explain real life; to talk about how
you arrived at an answer; to listen to others' ways of thinking
and perhaps alter their thinking; to use pictures to explain
something; to write about math, not just give an answer.
To demonstrate reasoning ability is to justify and explain
one's thinking about math; to think logically and be able to
explain similarities and differences about things and make
choices based on those differences; and to think about
relationships between things and talk about them.
How Do I Use this Book?
This book is divided into introductory material that
explains the basic principles behind the current approach to
math, sections on activities you can do with your children, and
lists of resources. The activities take place in three
locations: the home, the grocery store, and in transit.
The activities are arranged at increasingly harder levels of
difficulty. Look for the circles, squares, and triangles that
indicate the level of difficulty. The means that a child in
kindergarten through 1st grade could probably play the game,
the is for those in grades 2 and 3, and the signals an
activity for a child in grades 4 through 8.
The activities you choose and the level of difficulty
really depend on your child's ability if your child seems
ready, you might want to go straight to the most difficult
ones.
The shaded box on an activity page contains the answer
or a simple explanation of the mathematical concept behind the
activity so that you can explain when your child asks, "Why are
we doing this?"
With these few signs to follow along the way, your math
journey begins.
Important Things To Know
It is highly likely that when you studi
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