Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Elementary School Mental Math tricks?

I was looking at a book called Mental Math. The author did his tricks infront of aidiences to amaze them. I'm not a Math/calculator head like my ds9 going into 3rd grade. Does any body think this stuff is good to introduce to kids this age? I think my son would love I but would it interfer would learning the math st school? Or cause some confusion. I wonder if anyone is familiar with this. My ds is gifted most strongly in math tested 9th grade on achievement test.He will do 5th grade Math at school nest year.

Is it the one by Arthur Benjamin? Ds9 loves this book, we have it at home.
There is a relationship with math and magic. Since he can't borrow certain books at the library at his new school now (because of rules, rules and rules - roll eyes), he brought home a Magic book.
I have not read the Mental Math book. I pretty much leave him on his own when it comes to reading. I don't think it has confused him at all. He is doing CTY - AL1 now.

Here is the book I'm referring to
Secrets of mental math : the mathemagician's guide to lightning calculation and amazing math tricks / Arthur Benjamin and Michael Shermer

If it is just teaching another method/technique to doing the math, I would think that could be complementary to whatever math your DS is learning. I tend to agree with the school of thinking that learning many different ways to solve a problem is useful.

I remember seeing an infomercial on that 15+ years ago. I think it is super cool! I don't think it would cause any harm and I believe it would be fun for many kids. Hey, the worst that could happen is that DS is practicing math arithmetic tricks instead of daydreaming when class is too slow for him.

I am a very mathy person (mathematician) but not a human calculator. The tricks I saw were nice ways to do that, just mental math. I have to think hard to see if I still remember what I learned. I did not have access to the book by then, so I am just going from the show I saw (they showed people adding and knowing how much their cart full of groceries would be, etc.).

I do NOT think it would confuse a smart kid.

My son has a book called Mental Math in Junior High. He particularly liked when the author said "there is no single "right" way to do a problem in your head. Several alternative methods may be equally practical and efficient. To develop flexibility in thinking about numbers and number relationships, students should learn to look for an recognize a variety of approaches to the same problem. During discussion, encourage students to share different strategies and talk about the advantages of each.

Quick mental math ability is required on some of games he plays so he has been willing to practice different methods to see which is faster for him. He much prefers doing mental math to having to write out math problems because he has dysgraphia.

I found the book @ our annual library book sale & snatched it up for a couple dollars. It's not bad. Although it'd be a beast of a way to teach math outright.

With our son, I just left it out "accidentally" for him to discover on his own (otherwise it would be *forced* learning!). He saw some cool tricks, but I told him he had to learn the "right" way first so he could show his work on tests, etc. Afterward, he's free to learn & use whatever trick he wants.

I like the one that lets him give your the DOW for any date, or something like that. Merely a parlor trick, I know, but still pretty cool.

These "tricks" are also useful for double-checking answers, which can be tedious otherwise.

While the things he learns won't always be applicable, he at least adds some tools to his problem-solving arsenal. And so far he's pretty good about choosing the best approach for a given problem.

Arthur Benjamin's books are very popular among gifted kids. My son adores him. Arthur Benjamin is also an author of Joy of Mathematics DVD, another highly recommended resource.

If you have a mathy kid then chances are really good he will like Arthur Benjamin's books and videos.

Speaking of "cool" math tricks... this one even impressed his mom, who doesn't generally give a hoot about this kind of stuff.

And if any of you already know this, please bear with me... it's new to us & we've been giddy as all get out.

Multiplying numbers by 11 made easy:

2-digit:
Concatenate 1st digit, sum of 1st & 2nd, 2nd digit
23 x 11
2|2+3|3
2|5|3
253

3-digit
Concatenate:
1st digit|sum of 1st & 2nd|sum of 2nd & 3rd|3rd digit
245 x 11
2|2+4|4+5|5
2|6|9|5
2695

And so on...

When you have some sums greater than 10 in the middle, you have to carry back the one, but it's still very easy.

Class dismissed, now go amaze (or frighten) your friends & family!