5 Ways To Help Your Kids Do Math

Written by Murdo Macleod


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5 Ways To Help Your Kids Do Math

(c) Copyright 2003 by Murdo Macleod

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Uh oh.

Your kids arrive home with their school reports and it's poor marks fromrepparttar math department. Now what do you do?

You may not be a math teacher, but thankfully there are ways you can help your kids improve their grades.

Studies have shown that children are much more likely to perform well in a subject that interests them.

So here are 5 ways to get your kids excited about math and actually looking forward torepparttar 111317 next math class:

1. Inspire them.

Some kids don't enjoy math because they just can't seerepparttar 111318 point of it. Unlike reading or painting, all those mathematical symbols and numbers don't seem to mean anything.

What you need to do is show them how important math is inrepparttar 111319 real world.

Tell them stories aboutrepparttar 111320 great engineering feats throughout history. From buildingrepparttar 111321 great pyramids of Egypt, torepparttar 111322 Hoover dam, torepparttar 111323 latest space missions to Mars, nothing would have been achieved without mathematics, and mathematicians.

2. Get practical.

Involve your kids in some real world math away fromrepparttar 111324 classroom. Find something your child is interested in and relate it to math in some way.

For example, do they like baseball? Terrific. During a game, ask them how many pointsrepparttar 111325 losing team has to score to beatrepparttar 111326 other one. And how many games do they need to win before they have enough points to winrepparttar 111327 league?

If they enjoy helping aroundrepparttar 111328 home then let them dorepparttar 111329 "clever stuff". Ask them to work outrepparttar 111330 sizes for that wood you're going to cut. Or get them to measure outrepparttar 111331 ingredients forrepparttar 111332 cake you're about to bake.

When you're in a store, ask your kids to add uprepparttar 111333 prices and keep a running total while you shop. Then ask them how much change you should expect atrepparttar 111334 checkout.

3. Take life "step-by-step".

Success in math - as in life - is largely about breaking large projects down into manageable, bite-sized pieces.

Speaking on Behalf of Our Children: Stop Blaming the Victims

Written by Dawn Fry


Word Count: 893

Speaking on Behalf of Our Children: Stop Blamingrepparttar Victims by Dawn Fry How many times have you flipped throughrepparttar 111316 pages of a magazine or newspaper and seen images of children with captions like "Brats," "Bullies," or "Mean and Selfish"? Unfortunately, these are common occurrences in today's media. For some child advocates, these images serve as a call to action: We need to do something to help America's so-called "out-of-control" children. The problem is, while these negative images are a wake up call, they are not doing anything to help troubled children. In fact, they only add torepparttar 111317 problem. By labeling children brats, bullies, or mean and selfish, we are imposingrepparttar 111318 very same behaviors on them that we teach as being wrong. In Robert Shaw's book, The Epidemic: The Rot of American Culture, Absentee and Permissive Parenting, andrepparttar 111319 Resultant Plague of Joyless, Selfish Children, he asserts that "Our culture no longer offers what children need to truly thrive." That is, some children are so unruly because society has unknowingly taught them to act this way

Getting Down torepparttar 111320 Root ofrepparttar 111321 Problem The "epidemic" that Shaw discusses is a result of a deeply rooted social system called Authoritarianism, which is a system of behaviors that manipulate and control through pain and humiliation. These behaviors include blaming, shaming, preaching, moralizing, accusing, ridiculing, belittling, evaluating, labeling, threatening, judging, and punishing - all bullying behaviors. These behaviors disrespect, discourage, and devaluerepparttar 111322 person to whom they are directed. When such authoritarian behaviors are imposed on children,repparttar 111323 end result is usually a loss of dignity and self-respect. Instead of helping them overcome their problems, these methods only make children feel worse about themselves, causing them to react by displayingrepparttar 111324 same authoritarian behaviors. Authoritarian behaviors are so deeply rooted that even professional advocates who speak out against bullying resort to usingrepparttar 111325 same tactics. For example, on an episode of his TV. show, Dr. Phil McGraw interviewed a teenage girl who was being verbally and physically abused by other girls at school. Sincerepparttar 111326 accused girls refused to appear onrepparttar 111327 program, Dr. Phil delivered a message to them by looking and speaking directly intorepparttar 111328 camera. When he began to ridiculerepparttar 111329 accused girls and call them names,repparttar 111330 audience immediately applauded and cheered with approval. Both Dr. Phil and his audience were advocatingrepparttar 111331 very same behaviors that he was speaking against. Bullying is so deeply rooted in today's society, that it now seems reasonable. Adding to our trouble, our nation as a whole has a reputation of being a bully because of our authoritarian behaviors. In fact, The San Francisco Chronicle recently ran an article entitled "9/11 Reminds Chinese of America, a Global Bully." Inrepparttar 111332 article a student atrepparttar 111333 Beijing Institute of Science said, "America is a bully, so when someone hits back, it feels good." When bullying is directed at children,repparttar 111334 cycle continues. Many bullied children end up being bullies themselves because "it feels good," causing others to feel like victims for much of their life.

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