Comments on: How To Help Your Baby Become A Math Genius (Or Not)

By: Victoria

Victoria — Sat, 13 Nov 2021 21:46:08 +0000

Hi Janet,
At the same age, my younger sister did EXACTLY the same thing as your daughter, except the context was filling the bun tin with cake cases when baking. I don’t remember precisely what she said, but it was to the effect that she didn’t need to count them in 1s because they were arranged in rows of equal numbers. My parents and I were amazed! Is this more common than you’d think? As it happens, she did turn out to be a natural with pattern spotting and maths.

By: Felicity

Felicity — Sat, 11 Jul 2020 21:15:11 +0000

In reply to Barbara. This is so true. I’m a primary school teacher and see many children who don’t seem to have the basic conceptual understandings which are the foundations of mathematical learning. My own children are in their 20s and found maths very easy at primary school and I’ve often reflected on their experiences in an effort to work out why some children find it so hard. I’ve also read a bit of the research into this and think it’s absolutely to do with these very early child-led observational and tactile experiences. To what you’ve written I’d like to add that I think screens are interfering in the experiences children need to have. For example, some parents set their children up with maths apps which are designed to teach sorting activities but we know that the motor and sensory activity which happens when little ones sort physical objects is important and doesn’t happen with an app on an iPad.

By: Sara

Sara — Wed, 15 Nov 2017 12:06:38 +0000

Hi Janet –
My son is 17 months old. We have a mat in his playroom with the alphabet on it. When he was about 9 months old, he would remove letters and bring them to us one by one. We would tell him what the letter was, and he seemed to enjoy playing that way. A short while after that, we realized that he was remembering the letters and we could say a specific letter and he would bring it. Essentially, it was like using flash cards. Now he can identify some letters, and also say the letter name. He also does the same with a couple numbers during his reading.

It is a big part of how he plays and interacts with others – wanting to know what things are called and being excited when he gets things right.

What is your opinion on this and encouraging this? We give him plenty of opportunities to play in other ways and he definitely has other interests – but I see him wanting to get the right answer and get praised for it now. My thinking is that I don’t want to focus so much on “right answers” when it comes to learning, have him be afraid of being wrong and give up easily, or decrease his attention span.

Any input? Thanks.

By: Marea Smith

Marea Smith — Mon, 13 Jun 2016 00:00:04 +0000

Both my son’s started school with maths ages of 7 – We never taught them anything except by using numbers in everyday language. Most of their advances in maths were made playing backyard games and keeping score. Rugby is fantastic. There are 5 points for a try, 2 points for a “convergin” and 3 points for a penalty. My eldest son’s party trick was to tell us possible scoring combinations given the final score. They loove maths.

By: Rhiannon

Rhiannon — Sun, 12 Jun 2016 22:04:45 +0000

In reply to Tara. I think the key idea behind home schooling is for it NOT to be like a school. I know there are some folks who home school for cultural reasons rather than academic ones, but from what i understand the benefits of homeschooling are that you are able to let the child go at their own pace, choose their interests and be there to provide them with a means to discover more about their interests, rather than to be a traditional "teacher" that sits them down and instructs them in what YOU want them to learn. So i think in answer to your question, you can home school without making your child feel as though just them being who they are is not enough. You avoid pushing your own agenda and simply answer every question they ask and provide them with lots of opportunities to find out more about the world and all the things it contains, including maths. If they are the ones requesting information, then your interaction with them is not requiring "performance" from them. This is the way i would home school. Perhaps if a parent couldnt manage to do it that way, they could limit the "teacher" part to just some of the day, and then make a big effort to switch teacher mode off for the rest of the time so that the child doesnt feel that pressure all day, and understands that its part of their education and not the bigger part of how their parent feels for them.

By: Sian

Sian — Sun, 12 Jun 2016 07:41:02 +0000

As a former pre-school teacher I am very interested in the debate about the use of flashcards, maths programmes etc. When my own children started school I was asked by the teacher which preschool they had gone to. I asked “why” and was told that in a certain preschool, children were being introduced to formal reading and maths far too early before they were developmentally ready. As a consequence, when they started on them at school the children were “seen this before, couldn’t do it, don’t want to know” Through being introduced to it at too early and age and developmental stage, they had been set up to fail. When as a teacher parents asked me about these programmes I used to ask them to think hard about their use and to consider if they were appropriate and to think if the parent on their first ever driving lesson had been taken to a city centre at the busiest time of day, how keen would they be to get back in to drive a car!! Let a 2 yr old be 2 and discover the world around them at their own pace. They’ve got the rest of their lives to write their name but not to splash in the mud or paint with their fingers.

By: janet

janet — Wed, 11 Jun 2014 22:13:10 +0000

In reply to Sadie. That's correct, Sadie! My daughter actually discovered multiplication all by herself in a poster depicting rows of bulls. I was completely blown away!

By: Sadie

Sadie — Wed, 11 Jun 2014 18:50:44 +0000

I enjoyed the post and of your thoughtful posts. The last few paragraphs from your article had me a little confused. You said your 4 y/o just threw out multiplication one day and yet the article seemed to imply you didn’t teach her this and she just figured it out all by her-self? Please explain! We all want children to be brilliant and get perfect SAT scores! ; )

By: Emily Green-Cain

Emily Green-Cain — Fri, 14 Feb 2014 18:08:56 +0000

For what it’s worth, the American Library Association promotes parents helping children develop as PRE-readers by doing the following activities: talking, singing, reading, writing and playing. When they say “reading” they mean sharing good literature with children, not flashcards. The research that is behind their program Every Child Ready to Read supports many of the ideas that you have discussed here. I have a favorite quote from children’s author Mem Fox: “Children need to hear 1000 stories before they begin to read.” Find some good books from your local library and share them with your child. That’s the very best way to build a reader. My own son did not read until he was in first grade, but once he learned…he took off like a rocket, because he was prepared and ready. (And his general knowledge base was so deep)

By: Tara

Tara — Tue, 28 Jan 2014 08:38:04 +0000

In reply to janet. What are your thoughts on homeschooling? If parents want to communicate that their child alone is enough, wouldn't the parent as a teacher in a homeschooling scenario create a different dynamic?