>tutoring 11 year old cousin >supposed to focus mostly on coursework, but also have unstructured learning time
what are some easy ways to introduce him to important math concepts? I've been mostly playing popular board games like catan and dominion that have fairly complicated rulesets and probability, but I want to introduce some formal logic, discrete math and more rigorous geometry. Besides minecraft, probability games and messing with a compass and straightedge, what are some kid friendly ways of doing that?
I'd introduce him to basic algebra if you haven't already, at least the ideas of variables. Make sure he enjoys math too.
Benjamin Carter
Hit him very hard in the head and hope for the best
Hudson Barnes
Thoughts on swift playground?
I'm taking my niece through it right now, she turned 7 in the summer. Picking it up fast and really likes it so far. Once we're done and she has a better understanding for problem solving and abstraction, I'm going to start working through math to give her a leg up.
Jaxson Hernandez
he's blood related to me so I'd say he's fucked
He's going to start learning basic algebra later this year, so any ideas on how to introduce the idea of a variable?
as far as enjoying math he's not crazy about the actual on paper course work but hes fine with visual representations and counting blocks/number lines. He's crazy about games too
Jackson Perez
Train them birth. Home school hardcore. Be brutal.
Ian Cooper
I havent tried it myself but it seems cool. I'm debating between introducing him to either scratch or swift playgrounds. Swift definitely seems more kid friendly and fun than scratch
Benjamin Sullivan
I'd suggest basic problems calculating using variables. Give him simple expressions like "x + 2 = y" and ask him "if x = 4 then what's y?" for various values of x. Then reverse the problem, and ask him "if y = 7 then what's x." From there work with manipulating algebraic equations (e.g. adding numbers to both sides of an equation and such).
Dominic Evans
I downloaded it on my work iPad (because it's utterly useless for anything else) and we've been doing it then reading before bed. Basically, we'll work through the problem together and then every couple of nights I'll back it up and let her catch up on her own. Apple have structured it really nicely and introduce the concepts so that even a 7 year old can easily understand what needs to be accomplished.
I don't want her to be some code monkey though, I just see this as a good introduction to algorithmic thinking before we start getting more into math.
Anthony Lee
use the game as a goal where the skills you give him are usefull to be better at the game. This gives a real reward structure (kids don't give much crap about grades..) which will stimulate learning.
Also the biggest difference between kids shit at math and kids good is understanding the base concepts so you can derive them from each other and reapply them correctly. The kids who just memorize formulas end up shit tier so make sure he really understands it.
Liam Howard
Autist base math induction
After high school math content, start to add a lot math problems like IMO after thousand problems, start to teach real analysis,algebra,topology, foundament mathematics,geometry,differential geometry, get him on good university and start to build some career path, maybe end up as virgin,terrorist,depressive or become McDonald flipper burger but hey math "genius".
Usually people developer Math fear because never take time to build math concept and dedication.
Christopher Evans
I'm definitely going to do that, but I really want to find a deeper, more intuitive way of having him understand algebra and variables as more than just symbols on a paper. The balancing scale analogy seems to work decently, but I want to find some others for variety
Thanks I'm going to download it myself and check it out.
>I don't want her to be some code monkey though
if he goes into CS i'm considering my efforts a failure
Lincoln Davis
in my opinion he need to love math and spend a lot of time doing it
Sebastian Collins
Some gold medal IMO takes courses on Harvard and MIT, just build math autism.
yeah he's really motivated by games and it blows his mind when something else we work on helps him do better on the game. When I taught him what the dots mean on the Catan numbers it blew his mind. It was like this part in the wire
>Also the biggest difference between kids shit at math and kids good is understanding the base concepts so you can derive them from each other and reapply them correctly.
completely agree. I'm trying to get him to have a deep understanding of what a number is, based on the number line and physical representations, and what math operations actually represent. They have certain strategies that they use in school for operations like addition, multiplication, division fractions etc... and I'm making sure he actually understands how those strategies work
James Diaz
great advice champ, maybe you should tutor him
lol IMO would be the dream. I should ask his parents if I can take him out of sports and drastically cut down on his social time for math
no memorization... no formal proofs... no silly notation...
Think about a problem to solve, and then help the kid solve it. Make some art
Jack Morris
Have really good genetics for fast mathematical calculation and thats all folks.
Hudson Sanders
>any ideas on how to introduce the idea of a variable? There's a little animal, and we don't know its name, so we just call it 'x' while we search for clues.
Samuel Nguyen
I didn't know math could be this cute
John Allen
great read thanks. this is the most lucid description of what I'm trying to help him understand about math. I don't blame teachers for having trouble with this in a class of 30 kids when they barely understand what they're trying to teach, but I'm excited about the opportunity to take this approach.
I completely agree with the idea that the importance and beauty of math comes from being able to create or invent maths to solve problems. I'm motivating a lot of the problem solving with games and guiding him along, but I feel like he's up for some more abstract stuff with geometry and other problem solving. I've been trying to come up with some games myself to introduce ideas of logic and geometry, and might introduce him to euclidea.xyz/
The historical importance of math has always fascinated me too, and I wish I had been exposed to it at a younger age. The idea that fairly simple math problems revolutionized the world through navigation, architecture, economics etc... is amazing to me and I hope to expose him to these problems that ancient and developing civilizations faced
I'm making sure he understands what he's actually doing in school too when he's learning something as simple as long division, multiplication or fractions. I tend to focus on spatial or physical representations since that's what makes the most sense to me, usually with counting blocks or strips of paper, but I'm always trying to find other kinds of strategies too
Gabriel Reed
like i give a shit about how fast he's able to calculate something. I'm not trying to train him to be a computer
Oliver Gomez
drugs >In 1979, Graham bet Erdös $500 that he couldn't stop taking amphetamines for a month. Erdös accepted the challenge, and went cold turkey for thirty days. After Graham paid up--and wrote the $500 off as a business expense--Erdös said, "You've showed me I'm not an addict. But I didn't get any work done. I'd get up in the morning and stare at a blank piece of paper. I'd have no ideas, just like an ordinary person. You've set mathematics back a month." He promptly resumed taking pills, and mathematics was the better for it.
Lincoln Wood
good luck OP. imo most early math education shouldn't even be done with numbers. like has in the paper, they're just a bunch of hindi symbols. its much better to work with what numbers actually represent first, then abstract later
Juan Ross
You can't create geniuses, but hard work can get you far. Basically there are 2 things you must do:
- Make it fun. There is this very fine line between to easy and to hard where there problems become fun. You'll have to find problems that are hard enough that he must think about them, but easy enough that he can solve them on his own.
- Inspire him. Show him the goal. Show him what he'll be able to do if he becomes a pro. That way he understands why of doing math.
Carter Foster
An 11 year old should have no trouble learning propositional logic, then move on to monadic predicate logic and GPL with identity Start by using English and translating it with him while learning truth tables, after he gets the connectives and notions of validity and whatnot show him trees and so on. Make up problems on the spot and do it with him. If I have kids, and they are like i was then I'll introduce logic as soon as they know their ABC's
Jace Watson
I got interested in math because I had a pretentious math professor with a massive ego and I became determined to be smarter than him.
If you want your cousin to get into math, just be a pretentious asshole about how much better you are at math than someone who hasn't studied it at your level and hope that your cousin starts to hate you.
Mason Flores
One of the ways of doing it is manipulating the child into liking it. You do that by sparking his curiosity, make him desire to put in the effort. You do not spoon fed him the information and most importantly, don't force him. If a child hands you his broken toy, you do not fix it for him. You scratch your head in simulated confusion and throw it in the garbage. The child might pick it up and actually try to fix it himself.
Bentley Rogers
Did you actually end up smarter than him?
Daniel Ward
Show him some pop-math videos like Numberphile.
John Martin
I'm still an undergrad, so no. But it's still a large part of my motivation when i study math, although I've also grown to really appreciate the field.
