Teach Maths the right way - II (Fractions, decimals and Percentage)

 Past week has been a real nightmare for me. Guess what? I was trying to teach fractions, decimals and percentages to my 5th grade son. Hope it the same with many other parents. 'Maths for Mums and Dads' book came to my rescue again. I just flipped through the pages but devised more ideas of my own and got few from my sister who is a Maths teacher.

Problem lies with parents. We always teach Maths only with the text book in hand and make children work out Maths with a paper and pen. Isn't it boring for children? Be it any word problem, the first thing that springs up in a child's mind is to think of whether the numbers have to be added, subtracted or multiplied without thinking of a logical solution. He does not understand 50% of 120 is just 60 and ends up with a tedious calculation of 50/100 * 120 .

Yesterday, my son added 1290 and 158.56 and gave the result as 171.46. As there was no decimal place in 1290 , he just kept a decimal point after 2 digits and added it up. If he had thought logically as to how could addition yield a smaller result, he would not have given such an answer. Paper and pen cripples the child's thought process.
Unlike other subjects, Maths is part of our daily life. We use Maths while cooking, shopping, dining outside, playing, partying and even when we travel. Then why teach it separately? Let Children learn Maths in a fun way.

Teach fractions through food. When distributing a chocolate bar among family members, ask the child what is his share. For ex. if a chocolate bar has 12 pieces and there are 12 people, the child would be able to tell that each one's share is one twelfth, i.e 1/12. So she understands fraction is nothing but division. If the same chocolate bar has to be distributed to 15 people, then it becomes 1/15. Hence the understanding that 1/15 is less than 1/12 automatically creeps up in his mind, as she gets less share than before.

When walking to a shop, ask the distance of the shop with reference to the bus stop. Suppose, bus stop is 3 kms from your house and the shop is 1 km from your house, then the shop is in 1/3rd distance with reference to the bus stop. So it is 1/3 of 3 kms , which is 1 Km. Understanding concepts will remain in their memory forever rather than practicing more exercise problems. However large numbers have to be worked out but it becomes easier if the underlying concept is clear.

Once the child understands fractions, then decimals is like a cake walk. Decimals is nothing but place value which is 1/10th, 1/100th etc. So, as in the example of adding a whole number with decimal number, a child would not get confused with 10th and 1/10th position. Allowing the child to go for small shopping and to ask him to get the correct change would also help in learning decimals. If an egg costs 3.5 , what is the cost of 8 eggs?

Teaching Percentage is a real challenge. Though in curriculum, a child learns percentage in grade 5, it starts from the stage when the child scores marks for his class test. If he gets 5 on 10, he gets 50%. He also knows 50% is nothing but 1/2. Whenever your daughter comes up with her test results, ask her for her percentage. So it would not be anything new, when she comes across it in her subject. Best way to teach percentage is while buying clothes at a discounted price. A shirt costs Rs.800, there is discount of 20% , what is the shirt cost? You can even promise to buy him the shirt if he tells the correct price :-). He can always relate this example, when he has to do complex problems.

Eating out? A percentage of it gets added to the bill. Ask your son to tell the bill amount with the tax added. By the way, they also get to know that there is something called tax that is added to whatever things we buy or eat.

If you start thinking, you will get lot more real time problems.

My son did his math to tell me the bill price , when we ordered Pizza online. This time he came out with the correct answer, as he enjoyed doing it. If you like your son/daughter to enjoy it the same way, then teach maths the right way !!!