Many parents ask how can they help to improve their child's Mathematical ability. The obvious answer is always to practice maths by doing more questions, mark the questions and correct any errors until you have mastered the skill before moving on.
Many parents already know this and have tried this and they ask is there any other way to improve Mathematical Ability?
The answer is yes, there are lots of other ways to improve mathematical ability.
Have you ever wondered why so many children have a natural ability in Mathematics from Day 1 in school. Have these children secretly been learning Maths before school?
You may have had these thoughts, but I think this was unlikely.
There are many skills children can learn even before school that will help them to easily grasp mathematical concepts.
Here are a number of different activities that I believe will help children improve their mathematical ability and what age you can start these activities.
- Jigsaw puzzles (Age 1 and upwards) – As they get older, increase the number of pieces.
- Playing chess (can start with checkers from age 3), would recommend from age 5 but can be done younger
- Sudoku Puzzles – age 7 and above
- Logical reasoning / Aptitude test – age 9 plus. These are similar to the questions you get on job applications with sequences of patterns and are asked to work out the next pattern.
- Playing a musical instrument (age 2 upwards) – Learning piano is linked with mathematical ability.
- Logic Grid Puzzles – these are great for anyone over the age of 7, I will be going into detail on this in this article.
What are Logic Grid Puzzles?
These are puzzles which contain a grid and have a number of categories and within each category are a number of options. Using the clues provided, you need to identify the links between each category.
In the example, the categories are knitters, items, placement. The options in the item category are sweater, hat, mittens, blanket.
All the clues require only logic to identify the links between the categories, no general knowledge is required, so this is perfect for children. In the grid if you identify a link between two options, draw a circle between them.
If you know that two options to not link, place a X between them.
My personal experience of logic puzzles?
I used to do logic puzzles as a child, I discovered them for the first time when I was about 7 years old. I started off by doing small logical puzzles and went onto more difficult (bigger with more categories and/or options) ones. I tried doing these last week for the first time in many years and it took me a lot longer now compared to when I was aged 10/11.
Back when I was a child, we had to purchase logical puzzle books in order to complete them. Now you can find websites which allow you to complete the puzzles on the website without needing to print them. One of these websites that I can recommend is Puzzle Baron
Of course if you prefer using puzzle books you can still find these online, here is a book I have found on Amazon on Logic Grid Puzzles
How do you complete a Logical Puzzle?
The best way to explain how to complete a logical puzzle is to show you in a video. Below is a video I have created where I explain my thought process and actually complete a whole logical puzzle in the video.
Remember for each puzzle, there is only one unique solution, so the website will check your answer at the end and also compare your time to the 1000's of others that have completed that same puzzle. Also if you get stuck, you can ask for a clue.
