Maths and Movement

What on earth has movement got to do with maths? Surely movement is to do with physical education or sports and not maths!   When children are moving about they are happy. Children therefore love movement and are always in perpetual motion whenever they have the choice.   The problem with Maths is that it is mostly learned by sitting still with children trying to get the number work into their heads whilst at the same time doing something that is not natural to them .i.e. being still.   Being still is therefore not the best way to learn especially for children.    Motion creates emotion and if you move about it can change how you feel, in children’s case it makes them happy and if children are happy they are much more likely to be motivated to work harder and for longer.   If you could find a way of bringing movement into learning maths this would improve motivation and therefore learning and greatly enhance the speed at which children learn maths.    The question arises how on Earth can movement be applied to the learning of maths?   In fact there is a way and I want to give you an example using multiplication tables.   As we are all aware the usual way that children are taught tables is to get them to sit still and cram into their minds by using rote learning.   For example with the 3times table; 1x3 is 3, 2x3 is 6, 3x3 is 9, right up to 12x3 is 36.   The Learning Well has designed a system which is the simplest, easiest most efficient way of learning the multiplication tables and it uses movement. Because it involves movement it therefore creates motivation and a willingness to learn.     The system is based on memory sheets. The sheets are placed by the children around the home in different locations. The locations and memory sheets are then revisited on many occasions in order to learn the tables. More difficult tables are put in more unusual places, often somewhere that will cause children to laugh, for example the toilet. This makes the tables more fun to learn and they are therefore more memorable. Fun and learning maths!   When you test your children if they are not sure of the tables, they just go back and have a look again.   So in the process of walking around the home and having a look at the tables; your child is moving, having fun, being motivated and this makes learning maths much easier.   Remember, motion creates emotion.  If you use this principle linking motion, movement and having fun to maths, then the end result is instant learning of maths and in our example the tables.   Other areas of maths can be learned in a similar way using movement to motivate.