Homeschoolers, Make Math Facts Fun!
November 3rd, 2008
Photo by Dicemanic
Learning math facts can be boring and tedious. Here are a few ways that you can make learning them more interesting in your home school. Trying these ideas might motivate your children to memorize those facts instead of counting!
Photo by apesara
- Teach fact family trees. For example, one fact family tree is 2,3,5. 2+3=5, 3+2=5, 5-3=2, 5-2=3. It also works for multiplication and division - 2,3,6. 2×3=6, 3×2=6, 6÷2=3, 6÷3=2. Remembering three numbers is an easy way to memorize the basic facts. Also have your child write the equations on trees with the three numbers written on top.
- Practice addition facts by playing dice games. Create a game board and game pieces. Roll the dice and add the two numbers together. Move that many spaces forward on the board.
- Another way to practice addition facts is to play “Make 10″ with a set of cards numbered 0-9. It is played just like “Go Fish” except you add two numbers whose sum is 10.
- Practice multiplication facts by playing “Circles and Stars”. Roll a die. Draw that many circles. Roll the die again. Draw that many stars in each circle. Write the equation that your picture represents.
Have fun learning basic math facts by making a few simple changes in your homeschool curriculum.
5 Responses to “Homeschoolers, Make Math Facts Fun!”
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We like to play “Math War” with our flash cards. The higher or lower sum takes both cards and the player with the most cards at the end wins the game.
What great ideas. I had forgotten circles and squares. I used to play that with my daughter when she was learning multiplication. We had lots of fun making little booklets of math facts and writing stories to go with them . Circles and Squares was one of our favorites.
Evelyn, I like your idea for making booklets with stories about math facts. That will definitely engage the kids who are drawn to writing rather than math!
Julie, I had forgotten about “Math War”. I loved playing “War” as a kid, and adding math to it makes a winning combination! Thanks for adding your idea!
Thank you so much for Circles & Stars. I think this will be an enormous help with my girls and their multiplication tables.
Thanks for the helpful tips!