5 Tips for Fast Math

1. Make sure your child understands the concept

  • Use Manipulatives ( beans, blocks, pennies) to help build the problems
  • Use manipulative to solve the problems
  • Solve the problem without manipulative

2. Do a pretest and see what your child already knows.

3. Practice the facts:

  • Create flashcards
    • http://www.aplusmath.com/flashcards/Flashcard_Creator.html
  • Play games with dice:
    • Use a timer and 2 die, roll the dice and answer out loud. See how many problems can be solved in 1 minute or 2 minutes. Keep a chart and track progress.
    • http://www.enasco.com/math/Math+Manipulatives/Dice/
  • Play computer games

4. Create worksheets

  • Math Worksheet creator:
    • http://www.math-worksheets-generator.com/
    • http://www.superkids.com/aweb/tools/math/
  • Practice writing the answer
  • Review errors, demonstrate patterns

5. Practice times facts with pencil and paper

  • Horizontal
  • Vertical
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ZeroSum Ruler

I thought you may be interested in a math manipulative that I invented called the ZeroSum Ruler. it makes working with negative numbers much easier and more concrete. My graduate thesis results showed a 62% decrease in student error on a delayed-retention test one month after the last of three activities with the ruler. Before the ruler, I was getting a lot of “-22 + 5 = -27, etc., where my students were confusing addition with the rules of multiplication. You can check out my site at http://zerosumruler.wordpress.com/

Melissa Mullin, Ph.D.

This a great idea! Concrete tools for working with negative numbers are very helpful. Thank you for sharing your idea.