NONthreatening Math

I'm blogging this on the heels of the post about Organic Learning in Math.  This goes hand-in-hand with that post but deserves its own dedicated space.  

Let me just put it out there. Of all the "subjects," math is most often the one that has both a fan club and a haters anonymous.  Right?  Many children develop math phobia.  I was one of those kiddos myself.  I remember being in Mrs. Finn's 2nd grade class, and I asked her this question: "If multiplication yields bigger answers than addition, then why is it that 1 plus 1 equals 2, while 1 x 1 only equals 1?"  Good question, right?  But Mrs. Finn didn't like that question, so she put me in timeout in the "bad kid's desk" and made me face the wall until I could figure out the answer to my dumb question.  Yep.  Good ol' Mrs. Finn (whom I've forgiven, by the way).  I bawled and bawled for what seemed like hours, and I never did figure out my answer.  From that young age, math became threatening to me.  And for one reason or another, math is often threatening to many children.

My opinion on why?  Personally, I think it has a lot to do with the environment in which we approach math.  Is it safe?  Loving?  Patient?  Stress-free?  And those crazy textbooks can be pretty intimidating for the youngest of children.  This is because their minds are still working in concrete terms, not abstract.  Then we place an abstract math problem in front of them: 1+ 4 = ?   And their brains have a difficult time understanding.  Math often gets placed into the "wow...that was hard to understand" category.  And, unfortunately, bad reputations are hard to shed.  Poor math!

So, it's essential that in the younger grades, we give children concrete tools to work with.  There are several curricula out there that do this.  I have enjoyed Shiller Math.  It is a Montessori-based math program with lots and lots of good hands-on materials and activities.  For our youngest children (K- 2nd or 3rd grade), we purchased Kit 1.  You can see all the goodies in the box if you go HERE.  And I  have been very happy with this.  T did this last year until he felt very ready to move onto the abstract math on paper in another curriculum.  Until that point, he was doing all math with manipulatives.  It felt a lot like play time, not math time.  

Here is G after I pulled out the Shiller Math mat yesterday, which she knows means a fun activity is coming up.  

Here is a Shiller Math activity that G really enjoyed last year, so this is the first activity we pulled out this year.  She was comfortable with it and had fond memories of it, so she did a great job identifying every shape.  This doesn't feel like math.  It's simply a fun game to her...find the triangle, find the hexagon, etc.

But let me show you what happened when the lesson in Shiller asked me to show her 2 circles on paper and ask her to point to the bigger circle and then the smaller circle.  This is a FINE activity, and most children can do this easily.  But do you remember the blog post where I talked about how she shuts down and completely freezes when she feels the least bit threatened or under pressure?  Well, I happened to catch one of those moments on camera.  I was hoping to just get a photo of her doing a simple math lesson, but as it turned out, this particular lesson felt threatening to her.  Perhaps it's because it didn't feel like a game or fun but instead just looked like a paper that required her to "perform."  

Here's the paper that I showed her.  We talked about bigger and smaller, and I showed her the bigger circle and the smaller circle.  Then I asked her to point to the bigger circle.

Shut-down mode began...  Hands to her mouth, eyes diverted away from me, withdrawn.

I repeated it, showing her the bigger circle and then the smaller circle and then asking her to show me the bigger circle.  Nope.  Shut-down mode progresses to the next stage...total zone-out...looking away from me and away from the paper...won't say anything, won't move.

She freezes, with her eyes being the only thing moving (darting back and forth...her biggest sign of stress).  This all happened within about 2 minutes...from happy to frozen.  As a momma, I need to be able to see the signs of a threatening environment and do whatever I can to help change it.

I quickly changed the activity back to the shapes so that she could experience some happy before we closed the math box up for the day.  She sat up and got right back into the swing of things once she saw a fun math activity come onto the mat.  I put the book away and made a mental note that I needed to cover the concept of "bigger" and "smaller" in some fun way during our regular days.  I needed to present the same concept but in a very nonthreatening way.  (**Side note: Shiller Math is NOT the problem.  It is a great math curriculum, and we love it.  But for this one child on this one day, that particular math activity just felt threatening.  So, we had to change things.) 

Soooo, the next day, I grabbed 2 Pooh bears.  G saw me carrying them and was thrilled that Mama was playing with Pooh.  I sat them on my bed and talked about BIGGER POOH and smaller Pooh.  This was fun to her.

She grabbed onto Pooh's feet as I talked about him.

Then I asked her to point to the "BIGGER POOH."  Yay.

And which one is the smaller Pooh Bear?  

And let's look at it in another fun way.  Bath cups.  I talked about the bigger cup and the smaller cup.

I asked her to show me the smaller cup.

And which is the bigger cup?

Ahhhh, concept grasped (and will be repeated many other times when we see big/small comparisons in real life).  This time the concept was presented in a fun, familiar, nonthreatening way.  And THIS is how math should be.  Because it really IS fun.  One day, she will probably be able to do the activity in the book without any issue, but for now, I will work with her and make math as fun and safe as I can.   And as she grows, we will continue to do this by way of fun math games, a relaxed approach to math textbooks, and an incorporation of math into everyday life.