If learning is made into a chocolate wine heart, how can children not like it; if learning is made into an oxymoron antidote pill, how can children like it?
I found that playing "kiosk" with my child is a very good activity. Teaching children to add, subtract, multiply and divide through this game can effectively promote children's math skills, and is a real fun and educational learning method.
When Yuan Yuan was about 4 years old, I taught her how to do calculations for a while, and I started using the method of doing "2 + 3" with my fingers. She liked doing it at first, but after a while she got bored. I thought, "What is the best way for children to learn calculation and still be interested in it?
At that time, community supermarkets had not yet appeared, and there were usually one or two "kiosks" in each residential area. I always let her tell the shopkeeper what to buy, and let her hand the money to the shopkeeper. At that time, it was just to let her learn to do things and learn to deal with people naturally. Little did I know that this would give her a concept of what money could do at a very young age.
Once Yuan Yuan and I came out of a small store to buy something, with eyes full of envy, said she wanted to open a kiosk when she grew up. I asked why, she said we have to spend money to buy things, open the kiosk people will not have to spend money. I later found out that she and the neighboring children were playing the game of opening a kiosk together, playing the role of shopkeeper and customer to each other, and the person playing the shopkeeper was always very proud of himself. It seems that she is full of desire to be a small shopkeeper, so I thought of playing the game of opening a kiosk with her.
Yuan Yuan was the shopkeeper, and her father and I were, of course, the customers. We took some things for her to enclose a "small store" on the ground floor, and set up a variety of "goods", goods are real, there are alternatives (such as her favorite ice-cream will have to find alternatives), as long as she understands it, and then we took turns to patronize her store.
We carefully browse her goods, choose what to buy, ask her how much, and sometimes bargain a little. When we pay, we usually need to get some change back, for example, if we buy a chopstick for six dollars, we usually give her one yuan, so she has to find forty cents out.
In the beginning, she was the one who set the price, and the child set the price, regardless of the size, a relatively whole, relatively simple number, such as 1 yuan, 200 yuan, etc.. She usually doesn't use "1.40 yuan" or "203 yuan" to make things difficult for herself.
After playing with it a few times, we secretly steered her towards more complicated calculations.
For example, the original ice cream sold for 1 yuan a piece, we suggested that the price of ice cream has increased in the past few days, a dollar two per piece, you do not want to increase the price here ah, price increases can make 20 cents more per piece. Then we gave her two yuan or five yuan, so that her calculation is more complicated.
Yuan Yuan didn't like this kind of pricing with change at first, which gave her trouble in calculating. I then took her outside to the commissary and asked her to pay attention to the fact that the commissary's prices were basically fractional, so her "prices" became fractional.
The transition should be natural when the difficulty of opening a kiosk rises, so that the child's interest is maintained.
We usually start with adding and subtracting up to 100 yuan, and later give her some advice that something should be very expensive, so she can set the price to 3,500 yuan. I remember that when Yuan Yuan was about four years old, she could mentally add and subtract within 500, which she basically learned through "business".
The kiosk game continued to be played until Yuan Yuan was in the second or third grade. When she learned multiplication and division, I secretly added knowledge to the game, such as a pencil for 9 cents, and I asked to buy 8 at once; or a pack of cookies for 4 yuan with 10 pieces in it, and I only wanted to buy 3 pieces. In this way, she had to use her knowledge of multiplication and division to calculate.
The process of "opening a kiosk" is the process of children constantly doing "application problems", which has a very good effect on children's math initiation. Mathematics education should not pull children to abstract numbers at once, do not take some dry and boring calculations to make it difficult for children. Let the child feel the numbers in the game, let him appreciate that calculation is not an abstract thing, but a useful thing that exists in the surrounding life and is closely related to our daily life.
When Yuan Yuan was in the first and second grade, while other students struggled with abstract numbers, she saw through every problem at a glance and thought they were too easy.
When Yuan Yuan started fourth grade directly after second grade, the school director was a little worried. He said that the third grade was a critical year, and that the learning content in this year was difficult, especially math. So I found two math books for the third grade, and spent ten days with Yuan Yuan learning them together. She mastered them very well, and when she took the test with some children who had been in the third grade at the beginning of the school year, she scored the highest.
It is not that Yuan Yuan has any special genius, but the relevant knowledge she has already used when she "opened the kiosk". When the "shopkeeper" brains, her mathematical thinking ability greatly improved, learning the textbook very easily.
There is a natural tendency in children to imitate adult life. I remember playing house when I was a child and having a lot of fun. I think Yuan Yuan must have felt the same way as I did when I was playing house, only she didn't know that she was learning to calculate in the process.
So, why does learning have to be "hard"? Learning can also be fun. And, learning with fun will make children learn better. We all want our children to enjoy learning. If learning is made into a chocolate wine heart, how can they not enjoy it; if learning is made into an oxymoron pill, how can they enjoy it?
There are a few things to keep in mind when playing the "kiosk" game.
The first is not to tell the child the intention.
The first thing is not to tell the child the intention of the game, in the parent is to let the child learn to calculate, if you tell the child this purpose, or he noticed, the child will lose interest in the game. It is important to make the child feel that this is just a game, just to play. When adults play with children, they have to come up with a serious and simple mind, treating themselves as if they were children to play with as much devotion, not to have any preaching in the process, and not to reprimand the child for miscalculation.
The second is to avoid causing embarrassment to the child.
When we were playing with Yuan Yuan, at first Yuan Yuan had no sense of how much something was priced, and was quoting numbers completely at random. For example, when she priced a small piece of "cake" at 100 yuan, her father said exaggeratedly, "Ah, it's so expensive!" Her father was trying to create an atmosphere by exclaiming the market price that he knew, but his tone scared Yuan Yuan. Yuan Yuan felt from her dad's tone that he had set the price too outrageous and was a bit overwhelmed. When asked again about the price of the next thing, she quoted with some timidity and uneasiness, hesitantly stating a number and then waiting for the adult's reaction to test whether it was set right. If you play like this, your child's attention will not be focused on playing, and you will feel nervous and bored after a little time. I quickly came out to intervene and told her father that the cake was worth the money because it smelled so good.
Afterwards I told Yuan Yuan's dad not to make such a fuss in the future, no matter how much the child priced. Don't interfere with your child's thinking with your life experience, children don't have the concept of market value. We just want her to learn to calculate, not to learn to do business, so it doesn't matter how she prices. She can set a pound of rice at $200, or a gold ring at 40 cents.
The third is not to let the calculation be difficult for the child.
What parents need to remember is that this is a game, not a math class. Parents can develop their children's numeracy skills through "buying and selling," but they should not be rushed. It is important to put the child's fun first and learning second in the game. The difficulty of the calculations can be increased slowly, but do not let too difficult calculations interfere with the fun. If the child repeatedly feels the difficulty of calculation in trading, he will feel frustrated and will lose interest.
The fourth is not to force your child to play.
Don't play the same game frequently just to get your child to learn. After I spoke to some people about this game, there were people who went home and played with their children every day. At first the child is still interested, but even play three days after the child does not want to play, the parents will be left to persuade the right to play.
There are also times when you just start playing, a business deal has not yet been concluded, the child suddenly does not want to play for whatever reason, then parents should not force, as long as the child does not want to play, we must immediately stop, so as not to spoil the appetite of the child for the game. If parents are too active in the game, it is also easy for children to detect your intentions.
The fifth is to try to use real money.
When I started playing with Yuan Yuan, I didn't want to use real money, I thought it was unhygienic, so I used some pieces of paper with face value written on them to play. But it turns out that children are not interested in fake money. Once a child realizes that money can be exchanged for something she wants, she will be attracted to it. Using real money can make her more involved in playing, and just pay attention to washing her hands after playing.
As I write this, it occurs to me that it might be better to keep a record of each "win" and save the money she earns so that she can use it when buying things for her. We didn't do this when Yuan Yuan was little, just guessed it would be better.
Sixth is to increase the number of game variations, try to make each game slightly different.
Generally speaking, children are willing to be "shopkeepers", especially at the beginning. After playing the game a few times, in order to keep the game fresh, you can switch roles with your child and let him or her return to the identity of the customer. No matter who plays the customer, they can play different roles or form different combinations, sometimes grandparents, sometimes children, sometimes doctors or teachers. Different identities have different things and needs, so that there will be a lot of stories generated out. You can also involve the various toys in the house, such as plush puppies and bears, to buy things, but of course someone to replace them to talk and pay.
In addition to "running a kiosk", we also "set up a food stall" with Yuan Yuan. She is sometimes willing to be a market vendor, so we use small pieces of paper to draw various vegetables and fruits, or find various substitutes, and play with her to sell vegetables. For this reason, we went to the Chinese medicine store and bought her a small scale, because at that time the market vendors were using portable scales with a weight and a pole.
The lesson from "opening a kiosk" is that learning is better when it is integrated with life, and education from life can be everywhere.
Teaching children to learn does not necessarily require sitting at a desk, as long as there is an intention, you can find opportunities for education everywhere. For example, when you first teach a child to count from 1 to 10, if you only repeatedly recite the numbers verbally, the child will only hear the syllables and will not know what they represent, nor will he understand what these "1, 2, 3, 4" are. If you are carrying your child up and down the stairs, count the steps as you go; when you open a box of chocolates, make sure you count the number of pieces inside before you eat them. In short, whenever "1, 2, 3 ......" is recited, it is always associated with a specific thing, and the child will remember faster and build up the concept of counting.
I clearly remember when Yuan Yuan was two and a half years old, once her father came back from overseas and bought her a set of 6 Wahaha milk yogurt. After she drank one in the morning, I put the rest away. In the afternoon she suddenly asked me, "Where are the 5 Wahaha?" I was a little surprised that she knew there were 5 more. She didn't know how to add or subtract at that time, so her concept of counting at that time must have come from the fact that I used to count all kinds of things with her "1, 2, 3, 4 ......".
When children enter schooling, they can still learn their lessons through "activities". I found that it is a good activity to let children be "little teachers" to parents.
When Yuan Yuan first started elementary school, the teacher taught them phonics, so I told her that she could master it as soon as possible. Can you come back at night to teach mommy after you have learned pinyin at school? I said it sincerely, and Yuan Yuan was very happy to hear it and said yes. Then she taught me what she learned at home every day, and I listened to her and learned carefully.
When playing "Little Teacher", I paid attention to several issues.
First, in the design of such activities to "empower", let the child "power".
Being a teacher is the same as running a kiosk, both of which allow children to use their knowledge and learn by doing. They also have a common feature that makes children feel "empowered", which is one of the reasons why such games can attract children. So let the child be the protagonist and the initiator in such activities, and do not let him feel passive and directed by adults in the activities.
Second, choose those things where the answer or content is more certain for the child to speak.
I only let Yuan Yuan teach phonics, because language learning is open-ended, and it is not good for children to talk about it, and there is no point in talking about it. What I let her talk about is usually math, because math has a closed rigor. It is also important to note that lecturing is not something I should do very often. I usually observe my child's learning secretly, and only when I find that she has not mastered it well for a certain period of time will I let her lecture to me. This is also like "opening a kiosk", do not let the child feel bored in the activity, but to find ways to protect the interest.
Third, parents should be natural in the way they make requests, and not always use the excuse that they didn't learn well as a child.
For example, sometimes I would find a mistake in her workbook that was caused by her not being very clear on the concept, and then I would pretend to be surprised and say, "This problem seems to be done correctly, how come the teacher gave a typo?" So I greeted Yuan Yuan to see if she had made a mistake or if the teacher had given a wrong grade. In this process, I had to both pretend to be confused and guide her to think in the right direction. In order to figure out whether she was wrong or the teacher was wrong, Yuan Yuan would seriously come with me to analyze and rethink the concept. The result, of course, proved to be that she got the problem wrong, but she at least corrected her mother's "mistake", which also gave her a sense of accomplishment; at the same time, she basically grasped the concept that she did not grasp before.
Fourth, don't pick on your child's lecture during the process, let alone laugh at his mistakes in the lecture.
Since parents are students, they must show sincerity and listen to their children's lectures seriously. As with the commissary, do not let your child detect your intentions, otherwise he will just think that his parents are examining him in this way and will not feel proud or interested. If there is a mistake in your child's thinking or statement, speak politely or use inspiration to guide him in the right direction. Never let the child feel humiliated because he or she did not speak well. The slightest hint of lecture or mockery from the parent during this process will cause the child to become especially frustrated and lose confidence in speaking. Be sure to let the child experience a sense of accomplishment in the process.
I heard a speech in 2004 by Mr. Liu Changming, a famous contemporary educator and then principal of Beijing No. 4 Middle School. He was an excellent physics teacher at the school before he became principal. He told me that when he was a physics teacher, if any of his students made a mistake in an exam, he would ask the student to redo the problem and then tell the class about it again - "do it again" and "tell it again "The effect is completely different. What can be clearly said once, it must contain serious thinking and has been clearly understood before it can be clearly said; what has been said will be imprinted more deeply in the brain - if "doing it again" is just learning again, If "doing it again" is just another learning experience, "telling it again" becomes a practice, and it is a knowledge application activity for the students, which allows them to master it better.
This activity can also be applied at home, when parents want to give their children homework, you might as well let them "tutor" you once. Of course you have to find a way to do things subtly, so that this activity can happen naturally, without making the child feel nervous and awkward.
I heard a parent say that his son was not good at math when he first started high school, and that he let problems go easily and refused to study them. He looked at his child's math textbook and felt that the content was beyond his knowledge and that he could not tutor himself. According to the general thinking, is to hire a tutor for the child, or enroll in an extracurricular tutoring class, but he considered the level of tutoring and convenience of others, and felt that he learned to tutor his son better. So he began to chew on his son's math textbook. The son's math level was at least better than his, so he asked his son if he didn't understand something. The child also has many unclear places in the process of speaking, they will go together to study, research can not be made to let the child go to school to ask the teacher or classmates, and then come back to the father. Being a father as a student is not for show, he is serious about learning. When he found his own math level greatly improved, his son's math scores also improved significantly, and the child learned to pursue the problem, no longer as before, there is a problem put on waiting for others to tell him, than the effect of taking remedial classes much better.
In short, instead of worrying about your child's test scores, spending money and effort, and unilaterally forcing your child to study, parents should put some thought into designing and creating something that contains relevant knowledge for your child to do, so that your child has the opportunity to use what he has learned to solve some practical problems. Practice is the best "extra-curricular class".
In addition to the above examples of "running a kiosk" and "being a teacher", there are certainly many other ways to do this. For example, when parents settle the family's financial accounts, they can ask their children in elementary school to help them calculate with a pen if the calculator is broken, or try to fix a broken electrical appliance with a child who has studied electricity in physics class. It is best to find the knowledge that needs to be grasped, especially from the child's interests, and to design his interests and activities together.
According to the great educator Sukhomlinsky, "The reason why a child falls behind in school is that he has not learned to think. The various things, phenomena, dependencies and interconnections in the surrounding world do not become the source of the child's thinking ...... Let the actual things teach the child to think - this is an extremely important for making all normal children intelligent, resourceful, studious and inquisitive condition."
The famous American educator Dewey's core educational idea that children and youth should learn from life and go through the motions of doing, not from books. He believed that the most successful teaching method in education is to "give students something to do, not something to learn".
Therefore, when parents want their children to improve, they should not rush to pull them into books or extracurricular classes, but should create opportunities for them to apply what they have learned to solve problems. No matter what you learn, if we create opportunities for your child to practice "opening a kiosk", he or she will most likely not struggle with learning.
Special tips
When playing the game, adults should be serious and simple, and play as if they were children, without lecturing or reprimanding children for miscalculations.
Don't lecture or reprimand your child for miscalculations. Put your child's fun first and learning second in the game.
Don't pull your child into abstract numbers at once, and don't make it difficult for him/her with some dry and boring calculations. Let your child experience numbers in games, so that he can appreciate that calculation is not something abstract, but something useful that exists in the surrounding life and is closely related to our daily life.
Once your child enters school, he or she can still learn homework through "activities". It is a good activity to let children become "little teachers" and give lectures to parents.
When parents want to tutor their children, you might as well let them "tutor" you once.
Parents should find ways to "empower" their children when designing these activities, so that they can "take charge" and become the main protagonists and initiators of the activities; don't let them feel passive and under the direction of adults in the activities.