My big kid reached the age when math is no longer easy. His teacher is ambitious and the other parents – even more ambitious. Many of his classmates take private lessons. I’m trying to teach my kid some tricks to help even the score. One of the points I make is that when solving tasks, he should keep the numbers small:
- A large number can be a sum or a product of small numbers
- If his solution is a large number, or somewhere in the process of finding the solution he deals with large numbers, there’s likely an easier way or the solution is incorrect
45*37 + 55*37 could be solved by the sum of two large numbers but you can do 37*(45+55), which only deals with small (or at least smaller) numbers.
Why it works
- Multiplying and dividing large numbers is prone to errors. Each time I check his work and I spot 4-5 digits, one is usually already wrong
- Many math problems require simplification and have one or more simplifications available to be spotted
- Keeping numbers small is also related to some hacks for simpler calculation. 99*99 is difficult but 100*99 – 99 isn’t.
We already know about X, fractions and so on. Wish us luck.
Veselin.blog 
What a great thing you’re doing for him. My suggestion would also be to encourage him to do as much mental math as possible. That helps in learning to simplify the problem. Here, there is a math competition sponsored by a major engineering society for kids ages 12 to 14, and it really encourages the kids to use mental math. My son was involved with it when he waa in school. Now he’s an engineer and helps organize the math competitions.
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We aren’t doing very well in class yet 😦
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‘…math is no longer easy’ – the inference here is that at some point Math is easy 😬
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Some math is easy. Some of the easiness is due to aptitude, while other is due to knowing the right things.
1st-8th grade math was very easy to me due to the bar at school being very low. I was able to solve all tasks immediately after reading the next lesson. My kid doesn’t have the same luck – they have lots of lessons and some of the tasks are not appropriate for children at all. I think they’re for impressing the parents.
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I could have used your help when I was your kid’s age. I had a very hard time with it.
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In sixth grade my math teacher gave us a sheet of algebra problems that reduced first myself and then my gather almost to tears. Together we finished it and I took it back the next day. The teacher explained he’d done it as a prank, just to see how fast we would give up. It’s like speaking another language. Good for you for taking the time.
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I like math problems. I’m one of those people who would see some stupid math problem on Instagram and stop for a minute to solve it (without pen and paper). Solving is one thing but teaching it… no idea how to pass most of what I know to the next generation.
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