My son realized a few years ago that he had a knack for math. We had these flash cards someone gave us and I invited him to play a game of math war where the person with the highest answer on their card wins the round. With a little explaining for what the + - and x signs meant, his wheels started spinning.
I had the instinct to not interject with my own toolbox of math tricks I had learned in school, instead just let him figure it out himself. To my surprise he would come up with answers to what I consider pretty complicated problems all in his head. I didn’t believe it at first. I told him, “You can’t just guess, you have to figure it out.” And he responded, “I didn’t guess. I use tricks. That’s how I get the answer faster.”
I checked his answer on the calculator and sure enough, it was right. I still don’t know what these tricks are, but I have a feeling if I had spent my time drilling methods into his head, there wouldn’t have been as much opportunity for him to explore what worked for him.
When I was growing up, math was NOT a creative subject. It was a subject of following instructions. But my son has a totally different experience. He was able to let math reveal itself to him. And I want to let you know that my son is not some math prodigy, he’s just a regular kid who was allowed to explore math in his own time.
And it was so confidence building for him, that my other kids started becoming interested, too. Now when we’re driving in the car, or just doing whatever, I get asked Spontaneous math questions like: "Mom, what’s 7 times 2?"or, "What’s 99 plus 10?" And the wheels start turning and the pieces of the puzzle get put together all on their own.
I’ve seen first hand that there’s not one way to learn math. But the way most of are taught is if you don’t learn a specific method, you fail. To me this is totally backwards. It’s supposed to be about the wonder and the discovery, that’s what holds our interest. I disliked math in school. But I wonder if I would have had a different experience if I didn’t associate it with stress and fear of public failure, but with curiosity. Because through my kids eyes, I see that math can be fascinating.
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