Make learning a fun and positive activity

LEARNING doesn’t have to be a chore. Indeed, it can be a fun, fulfilling and positive experience. Allow me to share some personal experiences.

There are several approaches you can take. For Mathematics, tell your children that the subject is easy and even fun. It’s all about adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing. Come what may, only these four activities apply. What’s easier than that?

If you don’t believe me, try it yourself. This was what my former Mathematics teacher, Cikgu Abu Bakar, told me and I’ve since passed it on to my kids. He also told me to treat every Maths question as a riddle. A simple revelation, yet such a powerful one.

It releases the fear in your mind and you’ll end up viewing any mathematical problem in a whole new way. As a primary and secondary student, Mathematics was my favourite subject because of this. I loved to solve a problem by treating it like a riddle and breaking it into smaller manageable pieces. I constantly asked myself, “is this an addition, a multiplication, a subtraction or a division problem?”

My secondary school years were spent in a boarding school. I can clearly recall how some of my friends would wake me up from a peaceful slumber just to get my help with their Maths questions.

Now whenever my kids are stuck on a Maths question, the first thing I do is ask them that question. More often than not, they’d be able to pinpoint the real issue and address it accordingly. I can tell you that there’s nothing more satisfying than being able to solve a Math riddle successfully!

HAVE FUN LEARNING

Science is another subject that usually sends a chill up a child’s spine. The subject is all about logic. To understand why things happen the way they do, scientists conduct experiments. The same is done for Science taught at primary school where most of the syllabus deals with conducting experiments and documenting findings.

Hence, to ensure that your kids understand the subject they must understand the experiments. You can even simulate simpler experiments yourself at home. For example, you can easily show the effects of friction on different materials or the sound made by different types of objects when they fall on the ground.

These simple experiments at home help to reinforce their understanding even more — just as I have personally experienced with my children. After such a session, they’re usually able to answer the questions which they had difficulty with. It’s time we remove the stigma that these two subjects are difficult. Instead, let the children have fun learning them.