Tips on how to improve your child’s addition and subtraction skills
Have your child master counting up to 20 and counting down . Having this skill goes a long way.
Old school techniques aren’t obsolete! Teach them to use their fingers when counting up or counting down. This is called one-to-one correspondence. This is very effective when adding or subtracting numbers within 10. When adding numbers bigger than 10, have your child say the bigger number and have them raise their fingers with the number they are adding to the number they said. When subtracting, you can use either of these two ways:
One, have them raise their fingers for the number that they are subtracting (taking away) then they can count down while simultaneously folding down each finger and the last number counted is their answer.
Two, another old school trick is Flashcards. Rote memory may not be for all types of learners but it surely does help with retention. Kids don’t need to memorize everything but every single bit of exposure to the facts when you are using flashcards helps. Each time they visualize an addition or subtraction fact, they can easily recall what the answer will be without even counting. This is how Fact Families work.
They are related because you can add the two numbers together and the third number becomes the answer and you can switch them around. Each of the sets of numbers (equations) are Related Facts and when the four of them come together, they become a Fact Family.
Using Supplementary Learning Apps
We decided to put a focus on 1st grade addition and subtraction for our first app. We purposely timed the release of Pack and Go! around this time of the year, April 2021, because we know that 1st grade students will be focusing on this topic in their classrooms and they have to master these skills in order to become a well-prepared 2nd grader for the following year. Our goal is to provide additional opportunities for the students to practice adding and subtracting while having fun. Parents play a vital role in making their children become great mathematicians. Here is some information that will help you, as a parent, pave their way to becoming one.
