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Don't force your kids to do math

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Re: Don't force your kids to do math

#301

Post by kaashif »

jvanderbot wrote: post #30
jerkstate wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

yeah, I recoiled when the author of the post says "no bribing" - bribery is one of the most useful tools a parent has. I guess you could call it "incentive" or something, but really, it's quid pro quo.

Honestly it's so close to how the world works I can't believe 1. Avoiding loss of privilege and 2. Gaining new things as reward isn't the top two parenting tips. But probably zeroth, most important, is modelling good behavior. Kids are mirrors.

You can definitely make things better or worse for kids by choosing the rewards you give them.

My parents would reward me by letting me pick out a book at the book store. I'd be excited the whole week.

I may feel differently about reading it I had been forced to read and rewarded with something else, like junk food.

Re: Don't force your kids to do math

#302

Post by tom89999 »

Must add i had struggles with mathematics. It can be interesting, but little did i understand as a pupil. Later in life, i discovered it, i became a car mechanic, then it-guy, then non-destructive tester. English is my first and only second language, its enough to lurk here, read books and serve customers on a professional level. I think i dont need french, nobody around me speaks it, i am not interested going to france..at all. All the math i was thaught, was do to the job and that filled my fridge. Its okay to push kids to university so they can use that math knowledge, but who foresees what the kid wants to work? School is not the end of the road, one can always attend courses, getting autodidactic knowledge later in life. Today we dont need 10 architects while having only 1 roof tyler.....

Re: Don't force your kids to do math

#303

Post by tim333 »

I'm reminded of another HN comment on learning math, more pitched at advanced maths but probably still applicable

>...recommendation is a metaprinciple: enjoy mathematics. Benjamin Finegold said similarly that the secret to chess is to enjoy every move. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42290996

Since then I've watched a few times Ben's beginners chess advice aimed at kids and feel it can apply to other things, math or in my case I'm trying to apply it to trading. It's been quite good. The basic idea, enjoy doing the thing and do it repeatedly so you build pattern recognition https://youtu.be/B5bCfwCyo18

Re: Don't force your kids to do math

#304

Post by tom89999 »

laurent_du wrote: post #102

Very poor take. The author clearly has very limited experience with raising kids. Most kids won't do difficult things if you don't push them. Playing music, learning to spell correctly, doing mathematics, and so on. A very small minority of kids will do all of that easily and for the fun, but you can't rely on it. If you don't push your kid to do their 20 minutes of piano every day, they will half-ass it and will sto…

But should the parent decide if the kid will become a musician? What if its not talented and pushing it with force to mechanically play Mozart? I later became interested in playing bass guitar, nobody forced me. I did it for leisure. Children are and will not be experts in all fields. Sure you are right that some discipline is needed to move forward and to keep up with something. Do you remember and use everything you ever learned in school, if its not needed for your current job? Kids nowadays spent half to 3/4 of the day in school or outside their own home. When should they be kids? I understand the pressure of parents to make sure they have good grades, some is necessary, but not really all of it. I never learned touch type in school. I did that on my own after work within half a year. I did it because i was interested in. Worked 20 years in IT. Now i am currently trying to get my amateur radio license, i use my knowledge that i collected so far, allthough i was bad at math in school. Life is a journey, i got three professions so far.

Re: Don't force your kids to do math

#305

Post by jvanderbot »

kaashif wrote: post #301
jvanderbot wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly it's so close to how the world works I can't believe 1. Avoiding loss of privilege and 2. Gaining new things as reward isn't the top two parenting tips. But probably zeroth, most important, is modelling good behavior. Kids are mirrors.

You can definitely make things better or worse for kids by choosing the rewards you give them. My parents would reward me by letting me pick out a book at the book store. I'd be excited the whole week. I may feel differently about reading it I had been forced to read and rewarded with something else, like junk food.

We are torn but decided to keep books scarce, and scold them a little bit when they sneak books into bed. We know but they are much more likely to get their rebellion out reading now. Which I love.

Re: Don't force your kids to do math

#306

Post by dr_kiszonka »

danenania wrote: post #258
WalterBright wrote: post #63

> Without realizing it, he was doing algebra. A friend of mine taught remedial math at UW to incoming freshmen. She would write: x + 2 = 5 on the blackboard and ask a student "what is the value of x?" The student would see the x, and immediately respond with x means algebra, algebra is hard, I cannot do algebra. So she started writing: _ + 2 = 5 and ask the student to fill in the blank. "Oh, it's 3!"

I got my daughter (just turned 6) this little hand held math game for her birthday: https://www.amazon.com/your-orders/pop?ref=ppx_yo2dv_mob_b_p... She loves it. It uses a ‘?’ for basic algebra style problems and after a few days of playing (if/when she wants to, we don’t make her play it), she was already much better and faster at those problems. It made me think that schools should be giving kids games like these.

Is this the game? You linked to your order history.

https://www.amazon.com/Educational-Insights-Math-Electronic-...

Re: Don't force your kids to do math

#307

Post by ForOldHack »

laurent_du wrote: post #102

Very poor take. The author clearly has very limited experience with raising kids. Most kids won't do difficult things if you don't push them. Playing music, learning to spell correctly, doing mathematics, and so on. A very small minority of kids will do all of that easily and for the fun, but you can't rely on it. If you don't push your kid to do their 20 minutes of piano every day, they will half-ass it and will sto…

At first I am reluctant to agree. But I decided to take math and English every year. I sucked at math, and had to figure out how to get good on my own. Now I have a degree. Math and music go hand in hand. I hated the music I was learning, so I quit lessons, and got the music I wanted to learn and struggled to learn it and I got muh better. I am an avid reader.

I reluctantly admit that you are right, and I am the better for it because I overcame my lazyness and found joy, in math, English, reading, and music. I sing, play piano, guitar, and listen with appreciation.

Re: Don't force your kids to do math

#308

Post by [deleted] »

lukan wrote: post #103
laurent_du wrote: post #102

Very poor take. The author clearly has very limited experience with raising kids. Most kids won't do difficult things if you don't push them. Playing music, learning to spell correctly, doing mathematics, and so on. A very small minority of kids will do all of that easily and for the fun, but you can't rely on it. If you don't push your kid to do their 20 minutes of piano every day, they will half-ass it and will sto…

Different point of view: do you consider hunting in the wilderness to be difficult? I do, it requires being still in miserable conditions for a long time, being cold, wet, mosquitos, and then usually still no success, but frustration. But to my knowledge, no savage kid is in need of being forced to learn it. "children sense your true passions and naturally want to join in" And that is my experience as well. But if yo…

[deleted]

Re: Don't force your kids to do math

#309

Post by danenania »

dr_kiszonka wrote: post #306
danenania wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I got my daughter (just turned 6) this little hand held math game for her birthday: https://www.amazon.com/your-orders/pop?ref=ppx_yo2dv_mob_b_p... She loves it. It uses a ‘?’ for basic algebra style problems and after a few days of playing (if/when she wants to, we don’t make her play it), she was already much better and faster at those problems. It made me think that schools should be giving kids games like these.

Is this the game? You linked to your order history. https://www.amazon.com/Educational-Insights-Math-Electronic-...

Oops, yes that’s the one.

Re: Don't force your kids to do math

#310

Post by dr_kiszonka »

uwagar wrote: post #268
5- wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

most likely this very unfortunate misnomer started with fortran, where it was deemed lucrative to point out "how much programs look like mathematic formulas!". not only is this overloading a symbol (equality) with a completely different meaning (assignment), it is also a poor choice typographically, as it represents a directional operation with a directionless symbol. using an arrow for assignment is much better. it'…

arrow for assignment is cool, but the backspace key is the only closest arrow-like key on the keyboard but it has a different purpose. plus the arrow key should be laid out such that u dont have to press a SHIFT/CTRL/ALT to produce it. for this reason, i felt C a breath of fresh air cos u could just assign using = instead of what we was doing in pascal which was the horrible := where u had to press SHIFT for the : th…

Right. If we went more in the direction of APL, we would have had way more symbols.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/94/APL-keyb...

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