StudyingWithKids

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...

Channel NewsAsia featured a story about a local Singapore Secondary that started school 45 minutes later to give them more sleep. It started off as an experiment in the first semester and the teachers saw a big improvement in the students' attitudes and alertness in the morning. As a parent of a child studying in Primary school that starts at 730am, he was to wake up at 6am to prepare to take the school bus at 630am. If the school starts at 815am, he could wake up at 645am and take the bus at 715am.As he has a strict sleep time at night, that additional 45 mins would help stay more alert in school. Given that school ends much later on Tuesdays for CCA and Thursdays for extra classes, that extra 45 minutes of sleep would contribute to his well being in school. There are some on the Channel NewsAsia video post who highlighted that the change in timing will cause jams in public transport. I totally disagree on this. To be in school in 815am, the student should be already ...

Boys usually learn faster if they are hands on and can visualise the problems. As such, I usually use Legos to explain maths concept to my son so he can visualise the working and the solution. Last night, we were going through the maths homework and there was this arithmetic problem sum that required the understand of the concept of units. It only dawned upon me in the morning after how I could have used Legos to explain the concept to him, which I will be showing him later today. The Problem Sum There are three fishes. Fish A cost three times as much as Fish B. Fish C cost $4 less than Fish B. The total cost of the three fishes is $46. Find the cost of Fish A.  Step 1: Compare cost of Fish B and Fish A. Let's take the 1-whole Lego block to represent the cost of Fish B. Since Fish A cost three times as much as Fish B, the cost of Fish A cost 3 x 1-whole Lego Block. Step 2: Compare cost of Fish B and Fish C  As Fish C cost $4 less, let's the 3/4 ...

They call it the Chicken and Rabbit maths question. The question will start with the total number of chicken and rabbit, and the total number of legs. With this, you be asked how many chicken there are in the farm. The chicken and rabbit can be replace with any two and four legged animal respectively. Example of question - Hussain saw a total of 23 sheep and ducks in a farm. If there are total of 82 legs, how many ducks did he see? Many parents will look to algebra to get the answer. Eg x=sheep, y=ducks, so x+y=23 and 4x+2y=82. As this is P3 maths, you are technically not allowed to use algebra as it is not taught yet and algrebra is Mathematics and not Arithmetic. The other method is to do ratios but it can be a challenge if the numbers get too big.  I found a Youtube Video which explains how to this sum but I am blogging this to keep a record on how to this for posterity. The Explanation and The Working  There are a total of 23 animals in the farm and ...