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[quote=Anonymous]Completely agree with everything 8:05 said.

My own kid is 2nd grade.  He is interested in math; we answer his questions and encourage discussion about the concepts, but don't "push" unless he is "pulling" information from us.

Case in point, last night's dinner conversation started with "Mommy, what does it mean when a number has a 'period' and then another number?  Like 5-period-3?"  I have no idea why he asked, but he had seen a decimal number somewhere and was curious about it.  He's already been learning fractions (partly in school, partly at home through these same kinds of conversations), so I explained that "zero-point-5" means five-tenths, 0.05 = 5 out of 100, etc.   He asked a few follow-on questions (he was kind of blown away by the idea that 0.40 is equal to 0.4).  He's also been learning greater-than/less-than at school, so I threw in a few "which is greater, 0.8 or 0.15?" type questions just to keep it interesting and tie it back to his schoolwork.  Turnabout is fair play - after I give him a few questions, he creates a few "problems" for me to solve.  He makes a game out of it.  After 10 or 15 minutes, he moves on to another subject.

We tend to have these conversations over dinner, so we've started keeping a notepad and pencil at the table to sketch things out.  Only when he asks, though.  My goal is for him to enjoy math (and reading and history and art and PE and science, for that matter), not necessary to have the most knowledge that I could cram into his little brain.  In the long run, I believe that a love of learning will take him further than any amount of drilling.[/quote]

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