Strategy to Improve Your Kid’s Mental Math Skills

Mental math skills are something very crucial in the developing years of a child. People usually associate mental math with “times tables”. However, these are much more than the ability to make calculations in the mind. Parents push their children to rote learn the times tables so that they can answer the quickest. On the contrary, memorizing times tables is not what determines how smart the child is. Mathematical ability in children develops with constant practice coupled with a strong strategy. Through this article, we will try to elucidate what mental math skills are. Apart from that, you will also understand why these skills are vital for your children.

1. What Exactly Is Mental Math?

Mental math is when children develop the ability to make calculations in their mind. Another key point is that they are able to make these calculations without any aid. That means, by simply using their brains. They do not use any pen, paper or even a calculating tool. They are also known as mental math skills. It’s equally important to understand that mental math is just not about memorizing mathematical facts.

Doing mathematics mentally requires utilizing facts and manipulating numbers. Furthermore, problems can be much more complex than the simple number facts. Mental math is indeed a combination of cognitive strategies. It is what enhances flexible thinking and number sense. Hence, when the mental math abilities develop and calculations become simpler. Eventually children are able to make complex calculations without the help of any external memory aid.

2. Benefits of Mental Math

Everyone uses mental math in their daily lives. For example, in the grocery store or while handling various types of bills. Besides that, mental math helps us in our overall life as well. They help us in performing myriad ordinary tasks. With this in mind, we should help kids to strengthen their mental math skills. Mental math for kids allows them to bolster their budding math skills at a tender age. Consequently, this is conducive to the overall development of their brains. Additionally, this also helps children to understand the concept of math quite well. Practicing daily helps them to considerably improve their number sense.

The results are promising for these children and they gain a deeper understanding of math. As a result, logical thinking and reasoning skills are enhanced as well. Finally, they master these skills and carry them for the rest of their lives. Having clarity about all the simple math facts provides a great advantage for these kids in school. Facing no issues in calculating the basic addition and subtraction problems, math becomes easy. Children’s math fluency improves that allows them to advance more easily to the higher level of mathematics.

3. Strategies for Making Your Child Better At Mental Math

There are numerous ways to make your children better at mental math. In particular, double a recipe, double checking till receipts, counting change and scrabble are a few fine examples. Knowledge of some basic math operations is necessary for finding answers to them. The following math strategies are infamous for teaching mental math to children,

• Skip Counting

It is the very first step to teach mental math to kids. The skill is based on the simple fact that multiplication is a repeated addition of the same number. Hence, all children need to do is just skip the right numbers to get the answer. Moreover, if a child knows the simple multiples it becomes even easier for them. We can also say that they can use their fingers initially to skip counting the numbers.

• Making Friends with Friendly Numbers

The numbers that are easy to work with and are simple to work in pairs are friendly numbers. For instance, 75+25 =100, this is something kids can get very easily. Although, not all problems are as simple as we mentioned, still this strategy works well. Thus we can combine this strategy with other mental math strategies.

• Balancing Strategy

Balancing the numbers while adding them up is a strategy that involves variation. It involves borrowing one or even more than that from a single number. In the meantime, it’s traded to the other number that creates a friendly number. Instantly this makes the problem a lot easier to solve mentally.

• Mental Visualization of Number Line

The empty number line is a very effective model for children. They may need to see the numbers logically arranged. If a child is able to visualize a number line from time to time, this becomes really helpful. Moreover, the best way is to visualize a number line posted at your home. Children can visualize and see it at the time they make any mathematical calculations. Since they can see the number line, they can also use it to do mental math.

• Rearranging Numbers and Operations

When solving a math problem we usually calculate in the order the numbers are given. Instead of that, we can shuffle the numbers and perform the calculations. While doing this the calculations are easy to perform. All that is needed is rearranging the numbers properly. Henceforth, children must first learn to rearrange the numbers accordingly.

• Using Multiplication Hacks

Memorizing tables is like a math hurdle for most of the kids. Albeit, using simple multiplication hacks can make things a lot easier. These hacks further provide so many multiplication tricks and tips for kids. These are indeed the facts that can be calculated automatically. Finally, you will see no memorization skills are required with this strategy.

• Allowing Your Child to Make Guesses

Well, mental math rarely needs to be always accurate. This is something known as “guesstimating”. Children can make such formulations in their minds to imagine an answer. However, this is done by assuming a number that may potentially be very close to the correct answer. Eventually, it can be checked by working out the calculations.

Choosing UCMAS for Mental Math

The aforementioned strategies can be fun for most of the children. Moreover, they can help them feel a lot more comfortable with math. On the other hand, there may be other circumstances as well. For instance, some children may initially not like the whole process. Though, with time they will get accustomed to the program and even enjoy it all together. It’s imperative for us to not make it tedious for our little ones. Learning math should be fun for children. In case it’s not like that, it’s better to shelve the plan for a little while. UCMAS New Zealand offers various child development programs for children.

With the help of our experienced and erudite professionals we bring a great opportunity for kids. We know mental math skills matter a lot in our lives. Hence, it becomes our prime responsibility to make sure our children are proficient with them. For this reason, consistent practice is indispensable. Apart from that, it will be easy to comprehend the other important concepts. Ultimately, you will see that there is a boost in your kid’s calculation skills. For more information, you can directly get in touch with us for all necessary details. We assure you that we will do our best to unravel the genius of your child.