Equipping parents

Received via Email:
I did not do well in math in school and still have trouble with it as an adult. I would really like to enjoy it and to teach our son to as well. Can you please recommend a book or resource for me - kind of like a relearning of the basics, but the correct way? I think if I had a better foundation early on, I would have developed confidence for the subject as you wrote about in your blog. My whole life I have struggled with math, but I know that it can be fun; something I'd like to get a handle on.

My Response:
Unfortunately, I really don't know of any resources for people in your situation. I'm sure there are books out there because I know there are others struggling with the same thing. Here are some things I would suggest (in this order):
1) Take a deck of cards and remove the King, Queen, and Jack. Let the Ace represent 1. Shuffle the cards and have your son add the values as you flip them over, one-by-one. As he gains confidence, gradually increase the speed. This actually develops several critical skills. The first is pattern recognition. In my experience, most people undervalue its importance, but the ones who excel at higher level math are usually really good at recognizing patterns and arrays. Secondly, it teaches compliments to 10. For example, to add 6 + 8 = 14, you really want your son to do this in his head: 6 + 4 + 4 = 10 + 4 = 14. The ability to regroup numbers like that is vital and directly related to the pattern recognition skill. Lastly, as you are able to increase the speed at which you flip the cards, the quicker your son will be adding stuff up. Speed is an important confidence booster. As he gets older, you can vary it up by including subtraction (e.g. add the first two cards, but subtract the third) and then multiplication.
2) Grab a small handful of loose change and throw it on the table. Let you son figure out how much money there is (someone mentioned to me that they used to do this with their child and if the child got the answer right, he/she got to keep the money - a good extrinsic motivator). In addition to the obvious counting skills, the child will learn the denominations of the coins, which in turn, is a good precursor to understanding decimals.
3) An analog clock is a great tool for teaching time reading skills, fractions, and factors of 60. You could say something like 1:30 is half past 1:00. A half hour is 30 minutes because 30 is half of 60. If you actually have a clock, it's easy to see that the minute hand is halfway around the circle at 1:30.

I hope you find these tips helpful and understand that you don't really need a fancy, expensive curriculum to empower your child with the foundation they need.