StudyingWithKids

It is back to school and my son is now in P4. The maths, it seems, getting tougher with each year. So it is the first month of school and the teacher decided to give a maths workshop, which I suspect is to gauge the level of "smartness" in addressing questions. I look at every maths question as a challenge. Out of the 4 questions, I was initially stumped by the following questions on marbles. There were twice as many blue marbles as red marbles in a container. After 240 red marbles were removed from the container, the number of blue marbles was thrice the number of remaining red marbles. How many blue marbles were there in the container? My initial approach to the question was to go with the first sentence, followed by the next one. This gave me the following block diagram. That got me stumped. the problem was how do you account for the 240 red marbles that were removed? How do you find the answer then? I searched the internet and even got an example of ratios...

One rock at a time My son and I were at Tampines Hub recently, walking from the Library to the Kopitiam. We came across this new rock climbing facility and it had a no frills $15 for 30 mins climb. Though we didn't come prepared and it was in the evening, I decided for my son "why not". $15 for a $30 min climb is also quite value for money given that other areas charge higher. After asking my son if he wanted to give it a try, which was a instant yes, we took the plunge, paid the $15 and $1 for socks, and my son was soon excited for his rock climbing experience. I heard that some venues even charge for the harness and this facility didn't. Hence, the $15 was quite worth it. As my son was preparing for his first climb, even though with the safety harness, I had my heart in my mouth. My thoughts were of thinking, what if he fell, would I be able to catch him each time? The instructor was quite good with my son, giving him easy to understand verbal instruct...

My son had his wallet confiscated by his school principal once. I only asked him why it was confiscated but didn't go to the extend of calling the school to get his wallet return, let alone thinking of suing the school.  However, a parent in a well known school in Singapore got wind of his son's iPhone being confiscated, as a result of using it during school hours, decided to sue the school after a call to the principle's office to "jail break" the phone was unsuccessful.  The lawyer for the parent argued that not returning the iPhone to the student "amounted to the tort of conversion" which in layman terms means "involves denying a person's rights to his property". Th Singapore courts decided that the case was "frivolous and vexatious". Lawyer argued that student did not enter a contract with the school but judge said that the school rules were well explained and if the parent had issues with the rules, should have...

Below is a money problem sum for Primary 3. It isn't that difficult to solve when you under the basic approach. Mr Lim went to watch "Disney on Ice" with his two sons. He paid $147.50 for all the tickets. A child ticket cost $30.50 less than an adult ticket. How much does a child ticket cost? Child tickets are of equal parts and the adult ticket is $30.50 more than 1 child ticket. So to make the Adult ticket to be of equal parts with the Child ticket, you have to take away $30.50 from the Adult ticket. If you do this, you also have take away $30.50 from $147.50. $147.50 - $30.50 = $117 All of the 3 parts are now equal and the sum of the 3 parts is $117. So you just take $117 divide by 3. $117 ÷ 3 = $39 As such, each child ticket is worth $39. There could be some variations where question ask for the total of two child ticket which you take $39 x 2 = $78 or your child will be asked the price of the adult ticket which is $39 + $30.50 = $69.50.

I was going through my son's maths homework today and the number bonds thingy came back again in counting money. I find number bonds to be rather unbearable and unproductive. It is like you have to do additional steps to get the answer when a simple subtraction will provide the answer. Wouldn't the method below be more efficient? To explain the number bonds method of subtracting money, I had to explain to my son why - x - is positive and - x + is a negative - this is something out of concept for a primary 3. Take the number bond above as example. From the number bond, the equation looks like this 22.65+3 -(3+0.25), if you break open the brackets and you have explain multiplication of positive and negative to a primary 3 kid. As such,  I had to stick to a simple routine to get him to under how this works. You start first by taking the subtrahend ($3.25) and break it into two - one part whole dollar ($3) and the other part cents  ($0.25). From the minuend ($...

If you hear the Generation X parents, like me, complaining why today's primary school maths was so different then, or we were never such methods or asked such questions, the answer is very simple. While doing some research on Birds and Sheeps problem, I found out that today's primary school maths is based on the maths modelling/heuristics approach that started in 1990s. So it make sense, Generation X parents were born from  1961 – 1981. Even for those born in 1981, they would be seven and in Primary 1 by 1988, meant that they were not even introduced to the modelling heuristics method.  However, Generation X parents today have the luxury of the Internet. Just google and practically someone has done a video or written in layman terms on how to solve these primary school maths question.  On the other hand, for some, the Internet is still an alien technology and looking for answers on Google isn't an option. When Parents can't teach their children, what to th...