Experts believe that the age range from 3 to 6 is a golden period for children, a crucial three – year span that can influence their entire lives. During this time, if parents can provide effective education and guidance tailored to their children’s mental levels and abilities, cultivating their thinking skills, it will make their children’s brains sharper. This will lay a solid foundation for their future intellectual development, emotional intelligence enhancement, and the development of learning and life skills.
The educator Kalinin said that mathematics is the gymnastics of thinking, and mathematics is of great significance to the development of thinking. Having mathematical thinking is a vital ability for our daily work and life.
Montessori believed that the age from 3 to 6 is the most important sensitive period for children’s mathematics learning. Parents need to take it seriously and gradually stimulate their children’s interest in learning mathematics.
So, how can parents guide their children to discover the beauty of mathematics? And how can they cultivate their children’s mathematical thinking?
Professor Zhang Meiling, an expert in children’s mathematical cognition research, in her book “Mathematical Thinking Training That Benefits Children for a Lifetime,” has helped parents find the right way to enlighten their children’s mathematical thinking. This can stimulate children’s mathematical thinking and enable them to integrate mathematics with life.
01
Parents: The Irreplaceable First Teachers of Children
The earliest education a person receives in life comes from the family, specifically from the early education provided by parents. As the saying goes, “Parents are the first teachers of their children.” A good mother is even more important than a good teacher and shoulders a significant responsibility.
How can intelligent parents conduct thinking enlightenment and training for their children?
First, they need to know the four characteristics of the thinking development of children aged 3 – 6:
Thinking mainly relies on perception and action at first, then on representation, and finally transitions to relying on concepts.
It develops from intuitive – action thinking to concrete – image thinking, and then to abstract – logical thinking.
It progresses from reflecting the external connections and phenomena of things to reflecting their internal connections and essence.
It changes from reflecting current things to reflecting future things.
That is to say, the sequence of children’s thinking development is from the physical to the mental, from the concrete to the abstract, and from the present to the future.
Therefore, we should follow these four characteristics to conduct thinking training for children.
Early childhood education does not mean teaching children knowledge in advance. For the sensitive period of 3 – 6 – year – olds, simple educational enlightenment is sufficient. The main goal is to let children feel that mathematics exists in life, give them a basic understanding of mathematics, and focus on cultivating their interest in mathematics.
For example, a kindergarten teacher asked the children, “Can we live without numbers in our lives?”
Some children said, “No, without numbers, how can I press the elevator buttons?”
Some children said, “Then if I have a fever, my mom won’t know how many degrees I have on the thermometer.”
Some children said, “Without license plate numbers, how can I take the bus?”
…
This shows that children have a lot of experiences with numbers in life, and this is the beginning of mathematical thinking enlightenment. The numbers here are not abstract or conceptual but real, practical, and indispensable in life.
To do a good job in mathematical thinking enlightenment at home, the following four principles must be followed:
① Derived from Life
When enlightening children’s mathematical thinking, we should follow the principle of “the greatest truth is the simplest.” Let children experience mathematics in life and apply it to life. Don’t make children think that mathematics is something unfathomable. Let children observe and touch things on their own. During this process, parents can easily enlighten their children’s mathematical thinking through guidance.
In fact, there are many opportunities to experience mathematics with children in life. For example, why are the wheels of a car round instead of triangular? Why does the base of a building block structure need to be large and stable?
Let children feel that mathematics exists everywhere around them.
All we need is a pair of eyes good at discovery, to see mathematics everywhere in life, so that we can enlighten children’s mathematical thinking anytime and anywhere.
② Gained from Experience
Children grow up through practice and activities. Therefore, the best enlightenment is to let children gain knowledge from their own experiences.
This is mainly determined by the characteristics of children’s thinking at this stage. Letting children experience in a specific situation will leave a much deeper impression on them than the knowledge obtained by rote memorization from books. It is also very helpful for inspiring children’s own thinking.
For example, when taking a child to the supermarket, ask the child to count what to buy before going. For example, buy one apple for each person in the family, 1, 2, 3… 6, a total of 6 apples; then buy 3 tomatoes and 2 cucumbers for mom; buy one ice – cream for sister and oneself, etc. Persisting in this for a while can effectively cultivate children’s number sense.
③ Parents’ Enlightenment Comes First
Parents are the closest people to children. Since a child is born, parents have been teaching the child how to recognize the world. As the famous educator Carl Weter said, “The guidance of parents to children cannot be replaced by any teacher.” Especially, a mother’s values, ways of thinking, and educational methods have a profound impact on children.
A mother doesn’t have to be a math expert. However, a mother who is good at using things around her to stimulate her child’s learning interest has a much greater influence than a teacher who teaches rigidly from textbooks.
④ Follow the Rules, Don’t Be Ahead of Time
It is extremely important to follow the laws of children’s own development!
The development of each of a child’s thinking abilities is hierarchical and progressive.
For example, in the development of classification ability, children will first classify items according to their appearance attributes, such as color and shape, and then learn to classify them according to genus – species relationships, such as animals and fruits.
Moreover, the classification criteria increase from one dimension to multiple dimensions gradually. If we don’t follow the child’s development rules and let the child learn in a leap – frog manner, it often has the opposite effect of spoiling the child’s growth.
Letting children do number operations or graphic problems too early will only make them copy the answers without truly establishing a mathematical logical concept, and it will also dampen their interest in mathematics.
So, when children are 3 – 6 years old, they obtain perceptual experience related to mathematics from life, and this is often acquired unconsciously. Parents only need to provide materials and scenarios that meet the needs of their children’s age, such as toys, picture books, scene – based games, or conversations about mathematics in daily life. That’s all.
02
An Effective Way to Develop Mathematical Thinking – Family Games
Mathematics is everywhere in life, and the things around us can all become tools for children to learn mathematics. This allows children to discover the beauty of mathematics, apply what they have learned flexibly, and draw inferences from one instance.
As long as parents are attentive, they can use items at home to enlighten their children’s mathematical thinking and make learning mathematics a fun and easy activity! Parent – child games close to life can further stimulate children’s interest in learning mathematics.
For example, parent – child games like taking the elevator, playing with building blocks, paper – cutting, and role – playing buying and selling.
Accompanying is the greatest form of love, which means parents should be good at discovery.
Nowadays, many parents spend a lot of money on buying high – end toys for their children. In fact, common items in daily life can be used instead to play various games beneficial to thinking development with children.
Professor Zhang Meiling said, “The effectiveness of mathematical thinking enlightenment lies in ‘how parents teach’ and ‘what they teach’. From a psychological perspective, cultivating children’s interest in thinking is the most important.”
Some children don’t like learning mathematics. They think mathematics is difficult because they have lost interest in it and resist it mentally. Such children won’t get good grades in mathematics. However, if children don’t regard mathematics as a subject but as their own interest, they will be willing to explore it with great enthusiasm!
Therefore, it is very important to cultivate children’s interest in mathematics from an early age. This requires combining education with entertainment, letting children get in touch with mathematics through some simple games, such as drawing, comparing, finding differences, and doing small math experiments. These can provide mathematical inspiration to children and make them fall in love with learning mathematics.
Education is the future, and children are the hope. Parents should understand the “one – two – three” of education:
First, in the process of education, effort should be the standard. As the common saying goes, do your best, and this should also be the criterion for evaluating children.
Second, there is a two – way interaction between “love” and “ability.” For children, loving to learn is very important, but they also need to know how to learn. Education requires the interaction between the two. Loving to learn will make them more capable, and being more capable will make them love learning more.
Third, the effectiveness of education should emphasize the combined efforts of three elements. One dimension includes school, family, and community, and the other dimension includes teachers, parents, and children. Only when these two “triads” form an educational synergy can it be more effective in helping children become the talents needed in the future.
03
Five Self – Growth Courses for Wise Parents
On the path of education, parents should be the last ones to be lazy, and children should not be left to fend for themselves.
A child’s growth is an irreversible process. As the nurturers of children, we should first understand: Who is a child?
A child is an individual, and a child represents childhood. A child is an independent living being, and you should learn to respect him.
Childhood is just childhood. It is about playing and having fun. If a child doesn’t have a happy childhood, we owe them. Once a child passes the age of three or six, this age will never come back.
A child is a growing person. Every word and deed of parents deeply affects the child, even determining the child’s entire life. As nurturers, parents should attach importance to their exemplary role.
Therefore, as parents, we should be strict with ourselves, be willing to learn and reflect, correct bad habits, and lead by example. Set a good example for children in every little detail of life. The behavior of parents is the future of children. Only when parents study hard can children make progress every day.
A child is the future of the country. Parents are the first teachers of children and will always be their teachers. Because home is a school where children will never graduate. Our children are like a mirror reflecting their parents.
So, to educate children, we should first educate ourselves.
To be a wise parent, be sure to take these five self – growth courses:
The First Course – Goals
All parents in the world share a common goal: they hope their children will be more successful and happier than themselves.
So, what is success? – Let every child become the best version of themselves.
And to let children become the best version of themselves, parents should first become the best version of themselves.
The Second Course – Creation
What is a successful life?
A successful life requires two wings. One is a positive mindset, and the other is learning wisdom.
A positive mindset means mental health. We need to figure out how to understand ourselves, others, the present, and happiness.
For children, learning wisdom means that learning well is not just about getting 100 points but about the wisdom of learning throughout their lives.
The Third Course – Construction
Parents should help their children win at the finish line. To do this, they need to construct three worlds for their children: a complete spiritual world, a wise knowledge world, and a perfect life world.
The Fourth Course – A Good Parent – Child Relationship
This is the main foundation for parents to carry out education. Building a warm home is a very important aspect of raising children.
The Fifth Course – Giving
Parents should give their children five golden keys to lay the foundation for their children’s healthy, happy, and fulfilling lives. These five keys are a healthy body, a flexible mind, a happy attitude, a colorful stage, and good habits.
It is hoped that every parent can start from reading this book, grow together with their children, and no longer worry about their children’s learning ability.
