Novel Approach to Teaching Math to Children

According to the National Center for Education Statistics ( http://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/2009/analysis/section1b3.asp ) children in the United States are lagging behind those in other countries in the area of mathematics. More specifically, the average scores of 4th-graders from Hong Kong, Japan, and Singapore consistently outperformed their U.S. peers in mathematics, as did those from the Russian Federation and Chinese Taipei. Given the projections that competency in these particular skills will be a requirement in the jobs of the future, this is indeed a disturbing trend. Why is this happening?

In the "olden days", if children wanted to have fun they could play games, run outside, or read books.  Then came television with it's multiple channels of passive viewing.  Along came the computer with it's myriad of games.  The internet linked up children with "everything and anything".  Then along came those "video games" which seem offer games and games and hours and hours of "entertainment".  With all these choices, where does homework fit into the equation?  Sadly, often at the end of the pile...

The key is to make math fun.  Without the "fun" aspect, it's impossible for math to rank in the "video game vs. <whatever>" equation.  Forcing children to sit down and "just do it" will more often than not produce the same results as days gone by when children were forced to practice the piano.  How many of those kids play the piano today?  More often than not, they not only no longer play piano, and many times "hate it".  What we need is a novel approach, a new way to "draw kids in" and "hook them" to math.  How do we do this?

One novel approach is to teach kids the math skills that they will need in the future via comic books. Here's an example of such a comic book.

Comic books have many advantages over other forms of media, or entertainment. They are portable, need no electricity, can't be damaged when dropped, and along with teaching math skills...update the child's reading skills as well.

If you would like additional information on this and other related subjects, please check out these websites...

• http://www.math-comic-strips.com/
• http://blog.math-comic-strips.com/