How to Teach Kids Addition

Math, for most, is a dreaded term that people want to run away from. But for a child, learning math is exciting and magical. If you’re wondering at what age should a child learn addition, the answer is as early as 2 years old. It’s fun to teach kids addition by telling them that 4 plus 4 equals 8, 5 plus 3 equals 8, and 6 plus 2 also equals 8! There can be loads of confusion and loads of laughs as well. Now, how do you avoid confusion while teaching a child basic math and what is the easiest way to learn addition? Let’s take a look.

Use Objects

Keep 3 or 4 toys in a row and ask your child to count them. Now add 2 more and ask them again. They will automatically learn that when 2 got added to 3, there were 5 toys in total. Now keep doing this with different objects around the house – fruits, pebbles, soft toys, chips, etc. They will mentally add in their minds with the help of visual aids, and it will help you figure out how to teach a child to add without using fingers. This is how you explain simple addition to your kids

 Songs and Videos

Songs like “5 little ducks”, “one, two, buckle my shoe” and “sing a song of 6 pence” have elements of math in them. This is how to teach addition to first graders. You could find classic as well as new nursery rhymes that have numbers and counting in the lyrics that will help your child remember their numbers and addition. There are many videos you will find online, too, that have action songs and dances, that help children get the hang of adding numbers.

Activity Books

    How do you teach addition activities? With activity books, of course! Once they have numbers floating around in their minds, it will be a good time to introduce a few basic activity books to them. These activity books usually have images of objects in a row and the child has to write down the total. Similarly, the next step will be 2 rows of images and the child will have to pay a little more attention in writing down the answer. After you’ve conducted this exercise with them with their toys or fruits, this activity will be a recall for them and pretty easy.

Make It Fun

If you want to think more on how do you explain simple addition, you can always try to conduct the same activities with your child in fun ways. You could keep a number of toys in a row and ask them to count and write down their final answer with crayons. It could be like a quiz and you can tell them whether they’ve won the round or not. Similarly, you can make the shape of 2 numbers with play dough, and they have to give you the answer by using the play dough to make the shape of the number that’s the an

Games Can Be Useful

You can pick from a wide range of games or even make up some of your own games when you’re speculating how to teach addition with activities. You could have Jenga, where they pick a piece and solve the math problem on the piece, you could bring the family together and make groups of different family members and ask your child to count how many are in each group or how many would be there if 2 groups were added, and there’s also the classic board games like Ludo, and Snakes and Ladders that can be fun for everyone.

To conclude, anything can be taught to children when it’s presented to them in a fun way – even something as dry as math! When you teach kids addition, you can use flash cards and playing cards, board games and outdoor games, and even something as simple as making them count the number of trees as you walk down the street. Children are eager to learn, and the early ages are when they grasp best, so go ahead and make learning addition fun for them.