Before I dive into some fun ways to overlearn math, you might be asking, why do children need to overlearn math? And what does it mean to overlearn something? Overlearning means that a skill is practiced far beyond the point of initial mastery, to the point where the skill becomes automatic. You don’t want your children counting on their hands when taking their timed tests for college, and neither do you want them to get ripped off as adults because they do not have their basic math facts down cold.
Cheryl Lowe, the founder of Memoria Press, explains why overlearning is so vital, especially for math: “Math is systematic, organized, orderly, logical and cumulative. In a cumulative study, each skill builds upon the previous one; nothing can be forgotten; everything must be remembered… Math begins with memorization, computation, fractions, decimals, percent, word problems, and proceeds to problem solving, algebra, geometry, trig, and calculus. Math is hard because it builds so relentlessly year after year through every year of the child’s education. Any skill not mastered one year will make work difficult the next year. It is unforgiving. It has to be overlearned. That is why few students reach a high level in math. They reach a glass ceiling because the cumulative nature of the subject catches up with them. Eventually they are over their heads and quit.”
So how can you drill basic math facts in a way that the kids don’t get sick of it? Here are some fun ways to overlearn math:
- Roll two dice and add, subtract, or multiply the numbers together. My kids loved doing this with extra-large foam dice that we rolled on the floor.
- Jump up and down on a trampoline while shouting basic math facts. The movement of the body causes the mind to remember the facts more clearly later.
- Make a large number line on the floor with construction paper and ask younger students to add and subtract by running the correct number of squares back and forth on the number line. You can also do this with skip counting, hopping over a square to count by two’s, or hopping over two squares to count by three’s.
- Play games like Yahtzee to learn to add quickly, since each player must add the numbers on five dice every time it’s their turn.
- Grab a deck of cards and make two piles, face down. Draw one card from each pile and add, subtract, or multiply the numbers.
- Buy many-sided dice that are colorful, and have kids shake all the dice and add them up. Go around in a circle, to see who gets the highest points for each round.
- Skip count using an abacus, pushing the beads across by three’s, or four’s, or five’s.
- Grab a set of dominoes and add, subtract, or multiply the two numbers on each domino.
- Place 4 matchbox cars in 8 plastic bags. Skip count by four’s by counting the bags. Place 9 matchbox cars in each bag. Now skip count by 9’s. (Use any toy or object to put in the bags.)
Overlearning math doesn’t have to be tedious, but it is necessary to help our children not to struggle with math in future years and on timed tests. Have your kids choose some of these hands-on ways to learn their basic math facts. Then give them timed drills, and reward each drill that they win with a special evening of fun for the family!
Related product: Overcoming Math Frustration
Tags: Homeschooling, math
Great post! I’m a HUGE fan of over-learning, especially for math. Thanks for the tips!
Overlearning is vital, especially for math. It really pays off when the kids don’t have to struggle so much in the upper grades.
Thank you for the tips. Out of 9 kids I had one that refuse to learn to multiply and divide. He added everything. When he got to high school work, he would use a calculator and never knew if his answers were close even. Needless to say, I was very frustrated with him.
My other kids like the games you have mentioned above.
Yes, estimation in math is not possible when you don’t have your math facts down cold. I’m glad your kids enjoy playing those games. Games like Monopoly, Pay Day, and Life are also good for math skills.
Great ideas, Susan! Thank you for sharing!
You’re welcome. There are so many ways to help our kids to get the math skills they will need so desperately in the future!
I like the concept of overlearning– especially for math! There is a website called xtra math that provides a very simple computer based facts drill; we’ve been impressed by it, but also have practiced in a variety of ways– you can use a calculator to practice math facts by inputting the two numbers, saying the answer and then clicking the equals sign to check yourself.
That’s great. Kids love to practice their math skills by playing games rather than on paper anyway!
Oh, these all sound like such fun ways to learn or practice math!
Thanks! They were fun!
Board games and card games are another great way to practice math facts, fractions, order of operations, mathematical thinking, etc.
Yes, board games and card games definitely help with math skills!
How can you over-learn ANYTHING? And this, coming from one ☝️ who failed math after 7th grade
Overlearning is the key to remembering. 🙂
Heya.
As a child I had a load of workbooks in order to do math. My own child is now two and I am starting to teach her math via other ways instead. For example we practice counting when we are baking cakes on Saturdays. I have even ordered old family games in addition to use for teaching her easy math. Rather than use workbooks I plan on using a pair of dice. Now I have other assorted items to help her to learn it faster. We have dominoes and snap. And we use cards to teach her number recognition.
We are now working hard on basic math skills at home via recommended methods and techniques. Whenever we have people over for a meal I tell her to write up the total number in her exercise book. She organises her clothes into colourful piles and sorts it out according to the size or number of it. We now have a cheap clock in addition to have for time lessons. Good luck. We find numbers every day in all sorts of places.
That’s wonderful that you do so many fun math activities with numbers, to teach your two-year-old math!
Heya.
Yeah. I always like to adapt what I find on math oriented websites. I often download math resources found on one of my favourite websites as well. Best wishes to you. We have not done any maths this week however as I am on spring vacation now so I am not at home. Ideas for family math games are wanted. I have to make a short list of names but I have really no idea how to go about doing so. Thank you for the blog too. In order to teach her colours I have dice somewhere at home. Cheers for the response. I have read it.
I plan on teaching her how to play simple board games fairly soon. We are currently hoping to hold a family game evening next week. This is so that we can get to work on her basic math skills at the same time. I don’t use workbooks all that much as I tend to find the overall price overwhelming. Instead my preferred method is to look at a few free exam papers online. I print them out often. That is how I was raised. I have stuck with it.
I even like to teach her math skills based on her exam results on top of that. Recommendations and tips for informal style math lessons wanted. I plan to start later on this year. Wish me well. My step child will also help me out. I wonder how you teach them fractions and other hard topics like decimals. I have no clue either what to teach her about algebra and calculus either. Advice needed pronto. I don’t wish or want to fail now.