Encourage your child to think about mathematics in the world and
then devise questions from these ideas. Some questions include:
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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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| A newspaper opinion poll 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 making
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 4 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 construct and solve the problems.
Your child will be more interested in how to get 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 am a mathematician!”
Problem solving requires determination. Encourage your child to stick
with a problem, to pay attention to how he solved it, and to develop
ways of keeping work organized.
