Maintaining a daily calendar teaches, in an almost incidental way, adding by seven and multiplying by seven. Children can make their own calendars, with assistance, and then keep track of the passage of tune by crossing out each day after it has passed.

There are many ways of using division around the house if opportunities are used when they are available. In fact, creating them helps even more. Let your child assist you in separating things into even clusters. For example, after baking cookies, let your child assist you in solving the problem of how many should go into each place. As an incidental factor, mention, "That's right, twenty-one cookies and seven plates means each person gets three cookies-because 7 times 3 is 2 1. "

Mathematical, sequential reasoning enters into all kinds of daily uses. Determining halves, quarters, thirds, et cetera, when separating things is done daily in many households; for example, "Let's split this apple. You take half and I'll take the other half." Asking children to follow the directions involved in simple cooking activities gives them the opportunity to measure, mix, and follow a sequence to a natural conclusion.

Here's a game that is fun and can be regularly played. Write a number over each letter of the alphabet. Let your child use a "master card" so that he can refer to it. That is, A has a 1 over it, B has 2, C has 3, etc. Then write a message like "Dad + Jimmy = _________." The problem is solved by changing each letter to a number, adding them, and then getting the total. You can also use division by writing "Dad divided by C = - ." (Likewise, you can use subtraction and multiplication as well.)

Counting with another activity is extremely helpful. Teachers call this the "one-to-one correspondence." For example, as a child moves his piece in a board game, have him count aloud each time he moves the piece. Have him count aloud as he takes each step when he walks across the room. Have him clap his hands as he counts or clap for each step as he hops across the yard.

The arithmetic children use in school, that is, number problems on a page, are really a formalization of all kinds of experiences dealing with measurements, time, and space. Children who are performing poorly in math at school do not need drilling at home of specific problems. If they are to develop the foundations for competency in math, they need multiple experiences that allow them to reason with numbers in their activities of daily living. These activities will allow them, in turn, to develop the generalizations necessary for handling the formal arithmetic they encounter at school. Enjoyable, fun experiences will go further toward helping your child than a repetition of the frustration he regularly faces when confronted with formal math.

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