It's coming to the end of the school holidays. Went out to have lunch today at TJ market. While ordering drinks at the drink shop, there were two extra little helpers to the couple who run the stall. One of them was taking orders at the tables, the other helping with the cashier counter while the couple made the drinks. I reckon the cashier must be a boy who enjoys mathematics in school. Else, the parents wouldn't have allowed him to man the cashier.
This seems the best way for children to learn mathematics - providing them with real life scenarios to make use of the maths skills they have acquired. It is applied here where the children are helping to calculate the price of the drinks and returning change to the customers. An additional perk is that they get to be with their parents which is a privilege since nowadays, parents hardly have time for their children.
Schools understand the importance of having real-life context but it's not possible to have that all the time as they have to prep the students for exams. In some schools, they may bring the children out once a year to a supermarket to make purchases and apply their concept on money in the trip.
In the children's mind, having these type of learning opportunity definitely beats having their parents paying good money to hire the best tutor in town who may get them to do practice after practice on paper. Ultimately, that may get the children a good grade in school but having no passion to learn the underlying concept.
P.S. According to my relatives, playing mahjong helps in learning maths as well. Parents might wanna give it a try?
Friday, June 26, 2015
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