Im 18 years old and getting to grips with advanced mathematics (pre-university) and I have a younger brother of 4 years old (quite an age gap). I want to get him interested in learning (and away from the iPad/tv), especially through maths. He hasn't formally started school, but went to a nursery where they may have taught numerics but that's about it. I have printed worksheets such as "add one to this number" kind of thing but he fails to understand. I also don't know how to convey the idea of counting. Is there a certain protocol to teaching kids of such an age mathematics, however basic? Is he too young to spend at least 10-20 mins doing some maths with me, or should I let him turn 5 and progress from school?
My aim is for him to develop a passion for maths as I currently do, and not take the subject as a burden as many people do.
thanks (sorry if this is not to be discussed on this site)
Best Answer
Here is how I taught my children at this age:
First, I tried to count things with them, like steps if we were walking up and down steps together, or parked cars as we walked along the footpath.
I would make up "stories" about characters they liked (e.g. Thomas the tank engine), of the form "Say there are two trucks in the yard, and Thomas brings in one more; how many trucks are in the yard now?".
I made them "number snakes" (something I learned from Joe Silverman): draw a snake on piece of paper, and break up its body (just by drawing lines) into a three of our segments. In each segment put a (very small, to begin with) number. Now your brother has to add up the numbers to see what total number the snake wants to say. It helps to be a bit theatrical about the whole thing.
One thing to remember is that at this age, even if your brother knows how to count "1, 2, 3, 4, ...", if you ask him to find $3 + 1$ (directly, or via a story or number snake), it probably won't be obvious that this is the same as just counting on one step from 3. So be patient, make the questions very easy and interesting, and don't overdo it. If you really want to do this, it has to be something of a long term project. (In particular, 10-20 minutes of studying with you may not be feasiable; going for a 10 minute walk around the neighbourhood, and using that time to incidentally count cars, or trees, or cracks in the pavement, or tell counting stories, might be better.)
You might also find this MO question helpful. I like this answer in particular.