- Is the following calculation correct? If not, please correct it. Can you imagine why a person made this mistake?
7 – (5 – 2) = (5 -2) – 7
One possible reason for this mistake:
- The person remembers to do what is in parentheses first. So when being asked show your work, he put parentheses first.
- Well, our languages can be confusing and misleading as well. We cannot blame our kids for this. 🙂
A mother’s words: If your child made a similar mistake before 6th grade, help him. At this stage, don’t say that your child might not have a number sense. Instead, help him to develop some number sense little by little by using visual toys first, then drawing on the paper, then writing numbers on the paper. Further, if you can dig in to see why with your child, then maths will become more interesting.
Maths is very abstract for young children. No matter we like it or not, no matter what we do, we need to put various factors together as we grow up. Maths helps us train our brains to think complicated issues altogether.