Day 3.....25 Sept 2013.....Addition, Enrichment and Acceleration

In our experience as teachers, we will undoubtedly encounter children with difficulty in counting from 1 to 10. As teachers or for that matter, as parents, we should not be unduly worried for children not able to count because counting is not a cognitive process. It is a rote learning process and it comes with practice coupled with memory work in a sense. With exposure and practice, any child will be able to count after sometime.

Learning a different way to add digits was a fun way. Unlike the method learned in my school days where digits are added the vertical way the lateral way seems easier as it involves breaking the digits into tens and one. Conceptually, addition by this way seems easier as one count the number of tens and the number of ones. Take a look at the picture above and see how easy it was to count! Today parents send their children to many enrichment programs for mathematics. This is a indeed in the right direction for little minds to acquire mathematical skills, However, parents are at times guilty of exposing these little minds to acceleration program in mathematics which may not be conducive to young children acquiring greater skills but may deter them from liking the subject of mathematics as they find great difficulties in managing the problems far above their level. The learning of mathematical subjects should be one of scaffolding past experiences to the new ones.