Fun Math Tips Every Parent Should Try! | ep. 107

TD Flenaugh and Lauren Moseley discuss strategies for making math enjoyable and ensuring children are on track for success. They emphasize the importance of fostering a positive math mindset, suggesting various activities like counting collections and using real-life examples to teach math concepts. They highlight the shift from rote learning to understanding math processes and the role of parents in supporting their children's math education. They also discuss the significance of real-world applications, such as understanding percentages and fractions, to enhance children's math skills.

Transcript

TD Flenaugh: 0:03

Where my mathematicians at? This episode, we're going to talk about how to have fun with the math, and you don't want to miss it, those tips and strategies to make sure your kids are on track for math. Hi. Thank you so much for joining the Falling for Learning Podcast. We have this podcast to help parents and caregivers with having the resources, strategies and tools needed to make sure that their children are on track for earning and to stay on track for success. Okay, so I want to say that yesterday was my last day of work, and I'm feeling tired a little bit, you know? I really want to jump up and get all these things done, and I'm lagging a little bit, but it's fine.

Lauren Moseley: 0:57

Yeah, you know what? You're tired is a whole different level of tired. So that's why we have the whole summer off. We need it to recover and rest, yes, for three weeks now. So that's, you know,

TD Flenaugh: 1:13

way to rub it in, way to rub it in, whatever. No, yeah, it's great to have our our time

Lauren Moseley: 1:22

here. Yeah, you get some some sleep. Girl, sleep in you were up early, super early this morning. I would not have been up at six, anything.

TD Flenaugh: 1:30

No, I was up at six, but then I went back to sleep. So I had my first nap of the day. You know,

Lauren Moseley: 1:41

your mid morning nap?

TD Flenaugh: 1:43

Yep. So then I got up around seven and lazed in the bed for a little bit. Anyway, I definitely got to be about my I got to get back on my exercise game. Do you know I was doing so good, I had gone 100 something days, but then my back went out, and then I just really couldn't sustain so I really want to get back on that, because it was all about getting myself exercising every day, even with work, because I feel like I'm one of those worker bees where I'm like, I need to do I need to wake up At Five and work on this lesson plan, or grade these papers or do these things, or plan for this project, and working out doesn't fit into that. You know, by the time I lift my head up from that screen or from that book or whatever I'm doing, it's time to get into the shower, get ready for work after work, a lot of times I'm tired. It's like, I'll go later, and then I never go. So I was on a roll of several days, you know, either walking, running, you know, even when I started work and they had, I had was very early hours, seven to 330 I was on really early hours. I would still get up, but I need to get back to that, because I'm, you know, I go to physical therapy and stuff, and hopefully I don't have any more debilitating back, you know, my back going out so that that really sidelined me. So what have you been doing? Yeah, so what have you been doing to take care of yourself?

Lauren Moseley: 3:24

Well, I get out every day because I have dogs, and they all require a nice, long walk. So I just came back from my morning walk. It's very that's why I'm glistening a little bit. Yeah, so I'm definitely getting, getting lots of dog walking time. We're sleeping in, though we're not getting up at the crack, but you can't sleep in too much because it's so hot you have to get out or miss that opportunity, because after after 10 is brutal. And I've been decluttering. I have been going through every closet, every drawer, and just saying, Do I do I need this? And if I don't, it is going in the trash. So we've been doing a lot of decluttering. And look, I have to show you this in my decluttering, I found my I was going to read this to my first graders, but there's some pictures of him with those yellow pants with the cheeks out, so I felt that this probably wasn't school appropriate, iconic little alphabet journey through his life. So I'm finding all kind of cool things as I declutter, things that I forgot, that I had, that I needed and loved, but all the other stuff is went out on the curb, and within an hour it was all gone. So thank you to the neighbors and friends who just came by and picked up random, boxed up junk. We appreciate it. One man's trash is another man's treasure.

TD Flenaugh: 4:57

All right, I'm glad you made the choice and. Not to show your first graders, the Prince cheeks, cheeks, nice.

Lauren Moseley: 5:09

It's really a, it's really an A through Z book for me, it's for me. You know, it's always good to practice those primary skills. You know, alphabetizing is so important,

TD Flenaugh: 5:23

yes, and in addition to alphabetizing being really good is also numbers and number, numberizing? No just Today, we're going to talk about numbers, math, math skills, playing. right? So I have not taught math in a very long time, but I am a math person. I really am. Want to say that. I don't want to say I'm not a Math. I just don't teach, I don't specialize in teaching math, but I'm a math girl, like I took calculus and I took, you know, pre algebra and all that, and middle school, algebra in middle school. So I'm a math person. I just don't teach math, which, there's a lot of math people that don't teach math so

Lauren Moseley: 6:16

well, I would even, I would even say that if you're a person, you're a math person, because math is everywhere.

TD Flenaugh: 6:25

I like that. That's a good idea, right? There's just something about math. And we've talked, I've talked about this before, where people will readily say, I'm not a math person. I don't do math, I can't I don't get math or whatever. And it's so acceptable to say. And my husband was pointing out, like, people don't like, I'm not a reading person. I don't read. I don't really know how to read. I'm not good at reading. Like, it's like, you're not gonna hear it. But math, a lot of people feel comfortable saying that. And yeah, I it's, it's sad because they it's like, I've accepted it. Not good at it. Nothing else to say about that.

Lauren Moseley: 7:05

I don't a math brain. Yes, I've heard that. Yeah, so and I think even you know my I grew up with a mathematician. My mom is she worked for McGraw Hill. She's worked for lots of publishing. She's written math textbooks. She's chaired, you know, the camp conference. So she is definitely growing up in our household. She was the math person. She could do math with a pen.

TD Flenaugh: 7:35

Wow, wow. So your mom did like math textbooks and all that kind of stuff. What are some of her math textbooks? That's amazing?

Lauren Moseley: 7:44

Um, she has some books. Let's see math, math in my world,

TD Flenaugh: 7:48

math and my or in my world, in my

Lauren Moseley: 7:51

world, yes, yes. She chaired the Texas State math standards. So she's got of books about PD for how to meet, meet the standards. And she's a She's like the the math guru in our family. She's just always been very math minded. Um, loves math. She's the person who would say, I'm not a reading person.

TD Flenaugh: 8:20

She Well, she's not gonna say she doesn't know how to read. It's not

Lauren Moseley: 8:23

gonna say she doesn't know how to read. There are people

TD Flenaugh: 8:27

I'm, yeah, I'm specifically talking about people who are like, I don't know how to do math. I'm not a math right? You're not gonna hear I don't know how to read, even if they don't know how to read. It's just not something that you open share, right?

Lauren Moseley: 8:44

But even, yeah, but my mom, she's, she's, it was, it was always very interesting to see how she could. She's got a very good way to visualize numbers, and she can do math in her head. She's very, you know, I always looked at her and and thought, Man, I am not as good as my mom in math. I didn't get that gene. It was always a little bit more work for me. But I think as I started to understand, and this is as an adult reflecting, I started to understand my education journey, I realized that a belief system is really maybe one of the most important factors in how you view yourself in terms of a learner. You know, whether it's language arts or science or anything, it's right, the book that you come into the space with about who you are as a learner, which makes really all the difference. So, yeah,

TD Flenaugh: 9:45

good point, good point. So yeah, as as we're listening parents and educators, like, let's really think about, you know, how we are sharing that belief with our kids. What are we saying to our kids? To help them see themselves as math people. And even you, if you were saying, you know, and I've even heard it like, just be like, so generalized, like, in my family, we aren't good at math, you know, like, so as a kid, if I'm hearing that, it's like, oh, well, I'm not good at math. My mom's not good at it. My auntie, you know, it's like, we're not good at math here, like we don't do that. And of course, that obviously goes into how much you're trying, right? Like, I'm not going to really put effort in this. I'm not good at it. So why put effort in this thing that I'm not good at? And so we really have to think in terms of that with our kids. And let's talk about some strategies, like, what are some things that you know, that you do with your students or with yourself, for for math, to help kids love math, be involved with it.

Lauren Moseley: 10:55

Yeah, I think a couple of things. I think I you know, knowing that we have kids that come in to, you know, school thinking, I'm not a math person, yeah, you know, do a little survey the beginning of the year. And you know, you have kids who are the math kids and kids who are the language arts kids. So knowing that I have lots of different types of learners, I always want to think about my classroom culture, and how do I, how do I create an environment where the kids who may not feel as confident in math? How can I create a culture for them where they can be successful? And sometimes it just starts with, you know, giving a little bit more pause time. You know, sometimes we, we have these kids who are super quick, and they know their hands, right? You know, one kid is, you know, barely got, you know, the number line drawn on their share. So definitely pausing and creating different ways where kids can respond, where it's not always the fastest kid, it's not always the kid that got the answer first. I like to create ways where there's multiple ways to show your work, yeah, and giving kids an opportunity to, you know, show it in a way that makes sense to them. Maybe they're going to draw a picture, whereas someone else is going to organize their their manipulatives on a tin frame, you know, using different types of tools. Maybe a kid is going to verbally talk about it and share with a partner. So just giving kids lots of different ways that they can be successful, and not always rewarding quickness, because a source of a lot of anxiety for kids. You know,

TD Flenaugh: 12:52

that's a good point. I mean, I was one of the students when I was in high school, for example, like I would ask the most questions in my math class, and like, our teacher would basically present the lesson, then it's like, okay, well, you your homework, your assignment is you need to do this amount. Now if you have any questions you want to ask, like you could work, or you could ask questions, and I would just be there asking questions because I needed that time to process and to think through it. The same thing with the test. For a math test, for sure, I would often be the last person or one of the last people to finish my math test, but I would still often get the highest grade on the test. So I learned not to feel anxious about it or worried about it, like, Oh, Kim is already done. John's done. I'm the only one done. Like, that's fine, as long as I could have I figured it out. So I feel like math for me, for whatever reason, and I know not everyone feels this way, but helping our kids to think through this and feel comfortable with asking questions, feel comfortable with taking their time, because, you know, I already had that in me. I mean, I am a super nerd, as I've shared before, but I gave myself the grace to do the test and take time to do the test and not worry that other people were faster at the test, but, like, I found out later, often like, Oh, I got a C, I got a D. You know, those kids who were done earlier, and I would have, like, I said, it would often happen where I'd have one of the highest grades, sometimes the highest grade on the test. And so that's something else we need to, like, think about with our kids. Yes, we want them to be, like, automatic with facts and stuff like that. But when they're working out, like, longer problems and higher level math, you they may need just time to process double check their work, whatever it is. Yeah.

Lauren Moseley: 15:00

Yeah, yeah,

TD Flenaugh: 15:05

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Lauren Moseley: 15:46

yeah, and I, I often think, you know, kids who have the most anxiety around around math, or, you know, they're the most in need of that kind of support. You know, sometimes just giving them an opportunity to talk about the process is very important. You know, sometimes we're people are looking for an answer. I hear parents all the time saying, you know, Oh, I saw their work and they didn't get the answer right. Like, yeah, they didn't get the answer right. They may have made a calculation error, but look at the process. Look at look at the understanding. They obviously understood the process because they're showing their work, and I teach first grade, so we often have a lot of opportunities to draw what it is that we're experiencing. So yeah, at the end, they miscounted. So there's an error, but the process shows that they were actually on track. And we want to celebrate those things. So those kids need to feel successful. Because math, you know, sometimes I think the concreteness of math be, you know, we're trying to reach a final answer. Can sometimes be rewarded more than the process of, how did you get there? So we'd like to have lots of conversations around, you know, explaining your answer. Can you? Can you explain to another student how you came up with that answer, and even looking at when answers are different, you know, how did, how did, how did this person get this wrong answer? What? What mistakes did they make? And being able to say, hey, that's, that's common. That's a mistake that even adult would have made. You know, my kids love it when I say, I've made that mistake before. I've done that before. I've, you know, miscounted My, my, my cubes, but because I, you know, didn't line them up in proper order, I just kind of put my finger on each one and counted. I miscounted. That's a mistake that you can make. So talking about the process, talking about, you know, how they arrived in the answer and and even even looking at the misconceptions,

TD Flenaugh: 18:01

so many good tips that you shared with us for helping kids. What are some things that parents say to you that you feel like you need to address when it comes to math instruction and like how they're helping their kids at home?

Lauren Moseley: 18:19

So I think parents probably are not familiar with the new math curriculum. There's lots of different ways that we're approaching math now that I didn't learn math this way. We really focused when I was when I was young, we focused a lot on algorithms and learning to memorize steps. And there wasn't a lot of understanding about why that, why those steps were the way they were, like long division. You just remembered a little poem. You remembered, you know, the steps, and that's what you did.

TD Flenaugh: 19:01

So that's what so that's what you mean when you're talking about algorithms, right, right? You're talking about the steps. Just, this is the first step. This is the second step, bring it down, carry it. You know, I don't remember what that is now, because I just do it, but that is what most of us learned when we were kids. And so, how is it different? Now? How is that different? Like, how are you going to teach math now?

Lauren Moseley: 19:29

Yeah, so we're looking at more. And, you know, I don't expect parents to be teachers. This is a profession where hopefully we have educators that have had development, you know, professional development, and they've, they've gone to school to learn how to teach. So we're not asking parents to become teachers. But I do think there's some, some mind shifts that parents can have that, you know, Math is everywhere, and we, we would. Do well to think about the things that kids already come to school with, like the knowledge that they can just automatically come to class with. I tell parents, you know, what do you have in your house that your kids can just count, and if you could make it fun, kids could spend quite a bit of time just counting and grouping things. And again, I teach, I teach the littles, the little ones, the little first graders. So you know, if I got out a container of dice, I will have kids who will be like, Oh, I just want to organize them and count them. I want to organize them by color and count them and tell you how many red dye we have and how many white ones and how many green ones like that's just something they enjoy doing. And I had a student from UCLA that was training the teachers in cognitive guided instruction, which started out with this idea of counting collections. She literally came in with a big bin of plastic baggies with all kind of cool stuff to count, things that kids love, things that glittered, things that sparkled, little gems, stickers, anything you can think of. And basically, for, you know, 20 minutes before math instruction, you know, the instructional part, the kids would take out back, it would just count, and they would group the things, and, you know, groups of 10. And sometimes they would organize it by color or organize it by shape. And it really helped them build a strong number sense, and it helped them to find numbers enjoyable. It was something that was high interest for them, even the third graders. I mean, I would imagine even up to, I didn't teach fourth and fifth, but I know the third graders were even into it, like, get them some Pokemon cards and let them sort them and count them and say, Hey, here's a stack of cards. I need to know how many cards are in here. Yeah, cool. We got it so, you know, parents could find anything in their home to just give their kids an opportunity to sort and count. I used to do it with pennies. My dad had a big, a big piggy bank that was shaped like a bull, and you'd have to shake it to get the pennies out. And I would, you know, shake out his pennies and count them and see how much money was in there, and put them back. Put it back in. That was really fun for me. So I think that's one easy way. I think another thing parents could do, because I know it's still a part of, a part of the, you know, a standard that's tested is to help kids identify coins, and that's not something we do very often, because a lot of parents are, you know, they're swiping.

TD Flenaugh: 22:52

Yes, a lot of swiping. I don't have cash.

Lauren Moseley: 22:57

And you know, kids are not as familiar with coins and dollars and things like that. They're just not there. They don't always know the name of it. They don't always know what it's worth. They've seen it, but they're not always super familiar. Um, growing up for you know, our generation that's money was, we knew what a dime, a quarter, a nickel. I can't think of a time when I didn't know what a nickel was. Like, you know, we always had change. We always had Yeah, something, you know, in the cushions or in the ashtray. Yes, always Yeah. Kids are, aren't familiar with with money. So that is such a

TD Flenaugh: 23:38

Yeah, that's so important to bring up. Like, I don't think we think about it that much and like, as we're checking in with our kids this summer, you might realize, Oh, Johnny doesn't know this. Keisha doesn't know like, so make sure you take that time, because when our worlds shift, then the natural things that we're like, okay, everyone knows that, or they should know that they don't know because we don't use it, you know, right along with, like, the analog clock, like, how many kids don't know how to tell time? Because we don't have those in our homes anymore. So,

Lauren Moseley: 24:12

yeah, I have a kid. I started, I wanted to take down my digital clock, because I would use estimates. I would say, okay, you know, it would be 1027 and I might say, Okay, boys and girls, it's 1030 so we need to start cleaning up. And I would have a kid go, it's not 1030 it's 1027 so I had to start thinking about, you know, in math, we use a lot of estimates. We use a lot of B you know, it doesn't always have to be exact. And that led to great conversations about the clock and about, you know, yeah, I can say it's 1030 even though see this big hand, see how close it is to the six. So you can still call that 1030 because it's an estimate. And we had great conversations. And so now, when I say, Okay, it's 1027 I you know, Javier won't go, Oh no, it's not we. Still we. It's not 1030 yet we don't go to lunch until 1030 and building in those conversations about, well, we need, we need about three minutes to line up and get our snacks. And, you know. So I think parents can also have intentional conversations about time and about how long things actual actually take. Like, how long does it take you to tie your shoes, you know? How long can you hold your breath? Can you hold your breath for hours? You hold your breath for minutes, you hold your breath for seconds. Like, those are things that you can build into just a normal day, a normal conversation. You don't have to buy anything that give kids a little give kids that that edge and that understanding, that Math is everywhere. And these are kind of things that are going to show up in the classroom. There will be word problems about these things, and if they've already had a real life experience where they can talk about it and think about it, I think that's always that's always helpful,

TD Flenaugh: 26:09

yeah, for sure. And even when we think about just having patience, right? If I know, if it's five minutes, you know, I'm like, Okay, I could deal with five minutes. Or I could do with an hour, I could count it down. But, yeah, when you're younger, time is like, go so slow. You're like, an hour, two hours, you know, you know. And then sometimes we have to do something, and it's like, well, actually, it only takes five minutes if you do this, and you're like, Okay, you know, it's not as bad, you know, also giving you that perspective, yeah, in terms of time and numbers, yes, like that,

Lauren Moseley: 26:49

yes, absolutely.

TD Flenaugh: 26:53

Yeah, yeah. So another thing I thought that was really fun dealing with math is, like, geometry and shapes. So I so that I just, I don't know what it was about the shapes and the calculations, but I just really liked, I really liked that type of math. Yeah, then you know the practical, practical application, right? Like, if you're going to put tile on a floor, or if you're going to put carpet, or you're going to put those little tiles of grass when you're landscaping like those are things that we could talk to kids about. Transfer that information. We're just going to put a fence up, right? We're not going to put everything all over the lawn. We're just doing that outside of the line, right? And there's lots of ways we could, you know, like, How many books do we need to put around our little fort that we've made in the living room, to have a little, you know, fun things and obviously, more concrete, like real life examples of like, making a fence, making a putting a string around something, you know, belt, like, how, how long does your belt have to be as you're getting older, or whatever? Yeah, yeah.

Lauren Moseley: 28:15

I remember I understood percentages. I had to be second third grade because my mom loved to shop, and I knew that 50% was a greater deal than 15% even though those two words sound very similar, she would get really excited if it was 50% I knew that that was, that was a lot, that was a lot of you know she was gonna, she was going to be paying a lot less when it was 50% off versus 15% I know I understood fractions, because when we would drive on the freeway and it said, No, the exit to my grandmother's house is Reed road, and it would say, you know, You're getting there in three fourths of a mile, it would take a it would be longer than if we were getting there when it said 1/4 of a mile, right? So like those little things I just paid attention to, and my mom would say, oh, you know, we're three fourths of a mile. I don't know what three fourths is, but I know that's longer than when it's a fourth of a mile or half of a mile. Had no idea what those numbers meant, but when it was time to actually learn fractions, I had a context. I had some place where I would go, Oh, that's what those things mean, and it would just make more sense because I'd had a real life experience, yeah,

TD Flenaugh: 29:38

and that's another thing we could do is to help kids, like even making sandwiches. We could say half of a sandwich, or 50% of the sandwich, or cut it in quarters or fourths. Like helping kids know quarters and fourths are the same thing, and help transfer that knowledge to like, okay, four quarters is a. Dollar for quarters of a sandwich as a whole. Like those are things also that we could help prepare kids. So then, when we're in school saying, okay, a fourth and a quarter and four diff, you know, divided by four and all of that, that it has some meaning for them, right? And also, I, of course, I know how to do percentages and stuff. But when I was 16, I was working in like a clothing store, and then I learned how to do it mentally, right? Because, you know, like you said a quarter off, I mean, 25% off, and then I, you know, transferred that to quarter, and I'm like, Oh, just divide it by four, and that's the amount off of the price, you know, or half off. And one of my co workers was helping me to, like, do the mental math. But I didn't really know how to do the mental math of it until my coworker was teaching me that. And so I, you know, those are, you know, going back to shopping, or, like, you only have $50 to spend on this. So 25% off. Do you have enough? Like helping kids to think through that something that they want, right? They may be waiting, okay, as soon as it goes on sale for Christmas or whatever it is, you know, there's always sales, Memorial Day Sale, whatever the sale is like, if it goes on sale, you can get it because get it, it needs to be 20% or if you're saving up money, you could eat an off. Also talk about those increments. I have a quarter of the money saved for my new skirt, or whatever it is that they want my new game. I have half the money saved. Have three quarters of it saved, whatever. So helping them talk about numbers in different ways with different representations will also help transfer that knowledge to when they get into a classroom and all of that. So just helping,

Lauren Moseley: 31:55

yeah, Math is everywhere. It's everywhere. And I was thinking about, I don't know if you've ever heard of kids hub. It's a it's one of those guided drawing YouTube channels. The guy, he takes the kids step by step, shows you how to draw. You know, I don't know anything. They could be a rainbow, a Pokemon, but he talks a lot about shapes. He's, you know, he says, Draw a triangle here, draw a rectangle here, draw a square here. And he's, and he's guiding them through this process of, you know, you know, even spatially, like, put it on the top of your paper, put on the bottom your paper. So although those things is art, but it's math. And I think about, you know, how easy that would be even to let your child, you know, go to YouTube and, you know, go to, we can probably put that in the show notes. Yes, go to this website and have kids learn how to draw their favorite character using shapes. And he's, and he's indirectly teaching them, you know, geometry. So there's so many things that kids can can do over the summer that kind of give them a little, you know, boost. So when they go in the classroom, you know, they have a they have some type of experience that helps them. Yeah.

TD Flenaugh: 33:22

Well, we hope that you do something today that gives your child the competitive advantage. We appreciate you watching us. Have a great week.

Lauren Moseley: 33:32

Yeah, and get some rest.

TD Flenaugh: 33:35

Rest. Thanks again for supporting the falling for learning. Podcast. New Episodes go live every Saturday at 5pm you can watch us on youtube.com, at falling for learning, or listen on all major podcast platforms such as Apple, Google, Audible, Spotify and much more for more resources, visit, falling in love with learning.com we really appreciate you. Have a wonderful week.

Lauren Moseley: 34:12

Yay. You.