His big objection has been the calculations. I'd like a way for him to absorb those without realizing he's "working" and other things to make problem solving fun. Thanks in advance for the help!
This has been a tough problem for me, and I find myself stumbling along doing the best I can.
At times maths is fun, but I confess that I stay away from trying to make learning fun overall. Learning is work --- sometimes hard work. I fear that putting too much effort into calling or making it fun risks inspiring kids to shut down when it isn't fun anymore.
The fun part for me is the initial thrill of a new idea and the end result of figuring something out and in my case (I hope) implementing a real solution to a real problem.
So, that said: I have two goals when I teach my kids: 1. teach them that if they keep trying, they can understand something that looks "too hard" initially, and 2. don't make them hate learning by pushing #1 too much. Easy to write, hard to implement.
With maths, the understanding with my 8 year old is that we do something twice a week for 30-60 minutes, depending. Sometimes he doesn't want to do maths, but there are times when he suddenly gets interested in spite. For example, I was teaching him to multiply polynomials the other day and he complained initially. Then, suddenly, the penny dropped and the details fell into place. At this point, he became very engaged and got right down to finishing the problems I had given him. Suddenly, that Impossible Problem was not so difficult. Big smile.
Val
