Last night our grandson Brayden had some subtraction homework to do. He had already finished his writing and sight words and his enthusiasm was beginning to fade. To reinvigorate homework time and make the math fun, his mom brought out the math manipulatives, but these were extra special manipulatives. Emily filled a small paper cup about half full of M+Ms. And as much as kids are attracted to small colorful objects, small colorful chocolate objects are really engaging. She explained that he could use the candy to count out and subtract the numbers, and when the homework was successfully completed, they were his to eat. Brayden’s mom sat nearby as he worked through the math problems, counting and subtracting his candy with great enthusiasm, completing the assignment in record time.

Math may not be your child’s favorite subject, especially if they are visual learners. They may get bored, frustrated or even struggle because of the way math is being taught. Visual kids have a hard time with worksheets and need a more hands on visual approach to doing math, or any subject for that matter. They need to ‘see’ what they’re learning and ‘why’, before it begins to make sense to them.

To help them be more successful in the classroom and at home be sure you –

• provide small colorful manipulatives
• be sure they understand the ‘why’ before you press them to ‘do’
• add pictures and use color
• connect it to real life

Most importantly, make math fun!

Get more detail on these strategies with these related articles:

10 Visual Studying Activities

iPad Apps for Math and Children

Photo Credit: The Hyper House

Bette Fetter Founder and CEO of Young Rembrandts and Author of Being Visual [email protected] Follow Bette on Twitter