Brushing up maths this summer

As the summer break approaches, students are excited about spending leisure time, while parents and teachers worry about keeping learning intact. Students losing their ground academically, especially during the summer break has been a long-standing concern.

Mathematics is more susceptible to such learning loss. It is one of the prime subjects that enables cognitive development. According to a Harvard study, on average, students lose approximately 2.6 months of learning in maths over the summer break — and teachers have to spend time to make up for that loss. This leads to a setback in the teaching process.

We know maths has real-life applications, and parents and families should help their children see that. It can be tricky to convince children to take on maths studies during vacations. Here are some ways to change the ‘All play and no studies’ trend and bridge the gap by introducing fun-filled learning activities during the long break.

Maths in daily life: A child’s curiosity is piqued when maths and real-life applications come together. Point out the maths in daily activities and simultaneously toggle them with questions that require analytical thinking. The examples could be as simple as understanding the shape of an orange or grasping the speed at which a car moves. They will understand that the subject appears beyond the four walls in the classroom and associate it with real-life applications.

Awareness of numbers and fractions: Teaching measurement in cooking, fractions in baking, travelling distance from home to parks, and basic grocery calculations are some of the tricks. Parents can also encourage kids to play sports and help them analyse the game by explaining concepts like angles at which you can throw the ball, batting and bowling averages, or providing an understanding of how using permutations and combinations can help their favourite team or player quality for the finals of a tournament.

Play maths-based board and card games: The good old-fashioned Monopoly is one of the best board games that can easily teach children the maths behind calculations and numbers. Mathematics of basic BODMAS calculations make their way into games such as Bingo, Twister, and Equate as well. Card games like Match to Make Eleven and educational cards are fun ways of learning too.

Magnets, memos, and maths on the fridge: A lot of stickers and magnets make their way to the fridge, especially during summertime. Adding memos of formulas, tables, and tricks to remember can help students improve retention every time they reach the fridge for their favourite snack. Make all those hungry-tummy visits count!

Introducing maths adventures: Going beyond the conventional structure of workbooks, textbooks, and worksheets, parents can explore creative ways to introduce maths adventures. Fort/tent building, figuring out the maths behind a Rubik’s Cube, and organising scavenger hunts with maths clues and graphs will make summer days more refreshing. Maths camps and online tutoring can also help glue the concepts more effectively to their memory.

These small tips will lead to large-scale results and help avoid learning loss during summer. Critical thinking and problem-solving skills can only be acquired by understanding the WHY of maths and not just by memorising the answers. Use creative tricks to tap their cognitive potential and make them summer-ready for school!

(The author is the founder and chairman of an ed-tech firm)