Encourage your child to think about mathematics in the world and then make up questions
from these ideas. Some questions could be:
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| Which size of cereal box is the best deal? |
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| How many people live in all the buildings on your block? |
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| In this opinion poll in the newspaper, it says that 18% answered “no preference.”
How many people is that? |
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| The ice cream shop has 10 different flavors and 3 different sundae toppings. How
many different kinds of sundaes can be made? |
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| How can we change this muffin recipe to make enough muffins for 4 bakeries? |
When children create problems, they frequently need help filling in holes to make them
solvable. For example, the last question above is about multiplying a recipe a certain number
of times. In order to find out how many times, we first need to figure
out how many muffins the four bakeries need. Then, the number of muffins that need to be baked
must be divided by the number of muffins each recipe makes. Only then can we determine what
the new version of the muffin recipe should be.
Help your child figure out how to both construct and solve the problems. Your child will
be more interested in how to find the answers if he asked the questions in the first place.
Creating problems can make math exciting. It can also build confidence as children begin
to think, “I'm a mathematician!” Being determined is also important for problem
solving. Encourage your child to stick with a problem, to pay attention to how he solved it,
and to develop ways of keeping work organized.
