Chapter 11 2.Open a "small shop"

I found that playing "opening a canteen" with children is a very good activity. Teaching children addition, subtraction, multiplication and division through this game can effectively promote children's mathematical operation ability, and it is a truly entertaining learning method . When Yuanyuan was about 4 years old, I taught her how to calculate for a while. At the beginning, I used the method of doing "2+3" with my fingers.She liked doing it at first, but she got bored after a while.I just thought, is there any way for children to learn computing again and still be interested?

At that time, there were no community supermarkets, and there were usually one or two “shops” in each residential area. Yuanyuan liked to go shopping with me very much.Every time I asked her to tell the shopkeeper what to buy, and asked her to hand the money to the shopkeeper.At that time, it was just for her to learn to do things and learn to deal with people naturally.Unexpectedly, this made her have a concept of the role of money at a young age. Once Yuanyuan and I came out of the small shop to buy things, with eyes full of envy, and said that she would open a small shop when she grew up.I asked why, and she said that we need to spend money to buy things, but those who run a small shop don’t need to spend money.I later found out that she played the game of opening a canteen with the children in the neighborhood, playing each other as the shopkeeper and the customer, and the person who played the shopkeeper was always very proud.It seems that she wants to be a small shopkeeper, so I thought of playing the game of opening a canteen with her.

Yuanyuan became the shopkeeper, and her father and I were of course the customers.We took some things and built a "small shop" for her in the underground, and put all kinds of "goods". Just understand, and then we take turns patronizing her shop. We carefully browse her merchandise, choose what to buy, ask her how much, and sometimes haggle.When paying, usually you need to find some change. For example, if you buy a chopstick with six cents, we usually give her one yuan, so she has to find forty cents. At the beginning, she set the price by herself, and the child set the price, regardless of the size, it was a relatively whole and simple number, such as 1 yuan, 200 yuan, etc.She generally does not embarrass herself with pricing such as "1.40 yuan" or "203 yuan".

After playing a few times, we secretly led her to slightly more complicated calculations. For example, ice cream used to sell for 1 yuan a piece. We suggested that the price of ice cream has increased these days, and each ice cream is 1 yuan and 2 yuan. Do you want to increase the price here? If the price increases, you can earn 20 cents more per piece.Then we give her two yuan or five yuan, so her calculation is more complicated. Yuanyuan didn't like this kind of pricing with fractions at first, which made her calculations troublesome.When I took her to the canteen outside to buy things, I asked her to notice that the prices of the products in the canteen were basically a fraction, so her "price" became a fraction.

When the computational difficulty of opening a commissary rises, the transition should be natural so that the child's interest is maintained. We usually play addition and subtraction within 100 yuan at the beginning, and then give her some suggestions, thinking that something should be expensive, and we can set the price to three to five hundred yuan.In my impression, when Yuanyuan was about four years old, she could add and subtract within 500 in her head, which was basically learned through "doing business". The game of opening a canteen was played until Yuanyuan was in the second and third grades of school.When she was learning multiplication and division, I secretly added relevant knowledge into the game. For example, a pencil cost 9 cents, and I asked to buy 8 at once; I want to buy 3 yuan.In this way, she has to use her knowledge of multiplication and division to calculate.

The process of "opening a canteen" is the process of children doing "application problems" non-stop, which has a good mathematical enlightenment effect on children.Mathematics education should not pull children to abstract numbers at once, and do not embarrass children with dry and boring calculations.Let children experience numbers in the game, let him realize that calculation is not an abstract thing, but a useful thing that exists in the surrounding life and is closely related to our daily life. When Yuanyuan was in the first and second grades of elementary school, when other students were struggling with abstract numbers, she saw through every question at a glance, thinking that those questions were too simple.

Yuan Yuan went directly to the fourth grade after finishing the second grade. At that time, the dean of the school was a little worried.It is said that the third grade is a relatively critical year. The learning content of this year is difficult, especially mathematics.So I found two math textbooks for the third grade and studied them with Yuanyuan in ten days. She mastered them very well. It's not that Yuanyuan has any special talent, but that she has already used relevant knowledge when she "opened a canteen".Being a "shopkeeper" used her brains, which greatly improved her mathematical thinking ability, and it was very easy to learn the lessons.

There is an instinct in children to imitate adult life.I remember that when I was a child, I played house-setting, and it was very happy.I think that Yuanyuan's feeling of "opening a small shop" must be the same as that of me when I play house, but she doesn't know that she has learned calculation in the process of playing. So, why does learning have to be "bitter"?Learning can also be done in joy.Moreover, learning in joy will make children learn better.We all hope that children like learning. If learning is made into a wine chocolate, how can children not like it; if learning is made into a bezoar detoxification pill, how can children like it?

Pay attention to several issues when playing the "open a small shop" game: The first is not to tell the child the intention. Playing such games is for the parents to let the children learn to calculate. If you tell the child this purpose, or if he notices it, the child will lose interest in the game.Let the children feel that this is just a game, just for fun.When adults are playing with children, they should show a serious and pure attitude, and play as if they were children. Don't preach in the process, let alone reprimand children for miscalculations. The second is to avoid embarrassing the child.

When we were playing with Yuanyuan, at first Yuanyuan had no sense of setting prices for things, and just quoted numbers at will.For example, when she priced a small piece of "cake" at 100 yuan, her father exaggeratedly said: "Ah, it's so expensive!" Yuanyuan was frightened.From her father's tone, Yuanyuan felt that the price she set was too outrageous, and she was a little at a loss.When asked about the price of the next item, she was a little timid and uneasy when quoting, she hesitated to say a number, and then waited for the adult's response to test whether it was right or not.Playing like this, the child's attention will not be able to concentrate on playing, and he will feel nervous and bored after a long time.I hurried out to smooth things over and told her father that the cake was so delicious that it was worth the money.

Afterwards, I told Yuanyuan's father that no matter how much the child is priced in the future, don't make such a fuss.Don't use your life experience to interfere with your child's thinking. Children have no concept of market value.We just want her to learn to count, not to teach her to do business, so it doesn't matter how she sets prices.She can set a catty of rice at 200 yuan, or a gold ring at 40 cents. The third is not to let calculations embarrass children. Parents, remember that this is a game, not a math class.Parents can develop their children's computing skills through "buying and selling", but they should not be too hasty.In the game, children's fun should be put first, and learning should be put second.The difficulty of the calculation can be gradually increased, but don't let too difficult calculation interfere with the fun.If a child repeatedly finds it difficult to calculate in business, he will feel frustrated and lose interest. The fourth is not to force children to play. Don't play the same game over and over in order for your child to learn.After I talked about this game with some people, some people went home to play with their children every day.At first the child was still interested, but after playing for three days, he didn't want to play anymore, so the parents talked and persuaded him to play. There are also times like that when the child suddenly doesn’t want to play for some reason before a deal is concluded at the beginning of the game, parents should not force them at this time, as long as the child shows that they don’t want to play, they must stop immediately, so as not to spoil the child Appetite for games.If the parents are too active in the game, it is easy for the children to detect your intentions. The fifth is to use real money as much as possible. When I started playing with Yuanyuan, I didn't want to use real money, because I thought it was unhygienic, so I used some pieces of paper to write the value on.But I found that the child is not interested in fake money. Once the child realizes that money can be exchanged for what she wants, she will have a soft spot for money.Using real money can make her more involved in the game, just wash your hands after playing. As I write this, I think that if the child records every "profit" and saves the money she earns, and uses the money when buying things for him, it may better stimulate his interest in playing.We didn't do this when Yuanyuan was a child, we just guessed it would be better. The sixth is to increase game variables and try to make each game slightly different. Generally speaking, children are willing to be "shopkeepers", especially at the beginning.After playing a few times, in order to keep the game fresh, you can switch roles with the child, and let the child return to the identity of the customer.No matter who plays the role of customer, they can play different roles or form different combinations, sometimes they are grandparents, sometimes they are children, sometimes they are doctors or teachers.Different identities have different things and needs, so many stories will be produced.You can also let various toys at home participate, such as plush puppies and bears, etc. to buy things, of course, someone will speak and pay for them instead. In addition to "opening a small shop", Yuanyuan and we also "set up a vegetable stall".Sometimes she is also willing to be a vegetable market vendor, so we use small pieces of paper to draw various vegetables and fruits, or find various substitutes, and play with her selling vegetables.For this reason, I went to the Chinese pharmacy and bought a small scale for her, because at that time the hawkers in the market used portable scales with weights and poles. The enlightenment given by "opening a small shop" is: the learning effect combined with life is better, and education derived from life can be ubiquitous. Teaching children to learn does not necessarily require sitting at a desk. As long as you have the heart, you can find educational opportunities everywhere.For example, when teaching a child to count from 1 to 10 at the earliest, if you just repeat these numbers verbally, what the child hears are only syllables. "What is it.If you are carrying your child up and down the stairs, you count the steps every time you walk; when you open a box of chocolates, you must count how many pieces are inside before eating.In short, whenever "1, 2, 3..." is said, it is always connected with a specific thing, and the child will remember it faster and establish the concept of number. I clearly remember when Yuanyuan was two and a half years old, once her father came back from other places and bought her a set of 6 Wahaha milk yogurts.After she drank one in the morning, I put the rest away.In the afternoon she suddenly asked me: "Where are the five Wahahas?" She actually knew there were five more, which surprised me a bit.At that time, she could not do addition and subtraction. Her concept of counting at this time should be derived from my frequent "1, 2, 3, 4..." counting various things with her. After children enter school education, they can still learn homework through "activities".I found that it is a good activity for children to be "little teachers" to teach parents. When Yuanyuan was in primary school, the teacher taught them pinyin. In order to let her master it as soon as possible, I told her that my mother didn’t learn pinyin well when she was a child. My hometown spoke a dialect, and the teacher taught us pinyin was not standard.You learned pinyin at school, can you teach your mother when you come back at night?I said it very sincerely, Yuanyuan was very happy when she heard it, and said yes.Then she would go home and teach me what she had learned every day, and I would listen to what she told me and study hard. When playing "Little Teacher", I noticed the following problems: First, "empower" when designing such activities and let children "take power". Being a small teacher is the same as opening a canteen, it is to let children apply knowledge and learn knowledge in practice.They also have a common feature, which is to make children feel that they have "rights", which is one reason why such games can attract children.Therefore, in this kind of activities, let the child become the protagonist and initiative of the activity, and don't let him feel passive and instigated by adults in the activity. Second, choose those things with relatively certain answers or content for children to talk about. In terms of Chinese, I only let Yuanyuan teach pinyin, because Chinese learning is open-ended, and it is difficult for children to speak, and it is meaningless to speak.What I asked her to talk about was generally mathematics, because mathematics has closed rigor.At the same time, it is also worth noting that it is not suitable to do lectures frequently. Generally, it is to secretly observe the child's study. Only when she finds that she has not mastered it well for a period of time will she be asked to give me lectures.This is also like "opening a canteen", don't let children get bored in the activities, find a way to protect their interests. Third, the way parents make requests should be natural, and they can't always use the excuse that they didn't learn well when they were young. For example, sometimes I find an error in her homework, and this error is caused by her not being clear about the concept, and then I pretend to be surprised and say: "This question seems to be done correctly, why did the teacher mark it up?" Wrong?" So I called Yuanyuan to see if she made a mistake or the teacher made a mistake.In this process, I have to pretend to be confused and guide her to think in the right direction. In order to find out whether she is wrong or the teacher is wrong, Yuanyuan will seriously analyze and rethink concepts with me.Of course, it turned out that she did the question wrong, but at least she corrected her mother's "mistakes", which also gave her a sense of accomplishment; at the same time, she basically grasped the concept that she hadn't grasped before. Fourth, don't find fault with your child's lectures in the process, let alone laugh at his mistakes in lectures. Since parents are students, they must show sincerity and listen to their children's lectures carefully.Just like opening a canteen, don't let your child know your intentions, otherwise he will just feel that his parents use this method to examine him, and he will not be proud and interested.If the child's thinking or statement is wrong, tell it tactfully, or use inspiration to guide him to think in the right direction.Don't make your child feel ashamed because he didn't speak well.In this process, as long as the parents show a little lesson or ridicule, the children will be very depressed and lose their confidence in lecturing.Be sure to let the child experience a sense of accomplishment in the process. In 2004, I heard a speech given by Mr. Liu Changming, a well-known contemporary educator and then the principal of Beijing No. 4 Middle School.Before becoming the principal, he was an excellent physics teacher in the school.He said that when he was a physics teacher, if any of his students made a mistake in a question in the exam, he would ask the student to do the question again, and then tell the whole class again—” The effects of "doing it once" and "telling it again" are completely different.Something that can be said clearly must contain serious thinking and has been clearly understood before it can be clearly said; what has been said will be more deeply imprinted in the brain-if saying "do it again" is just Learning again, "telling it again" has become a kind of practice, which is also a knowledge application activity for students, allowing them to master it better. This activity can also be applied in the family. When parents want to help their children with homework, you might as well ask the children to "tutor" you with homework.Of course, you have to find a way to do things cleverly, so that this activity can happen naturally without making the child feel nervous and awkward. I heard a parent say that his son was not good at math when he first entered high school, and he easily let go of problems and refused to delve into them.He read the children's math textbooks, and felt that the content was beyond his own knowledge, and he couldn't tutor him.According to the thinking of ordinary people, it is better to hire a tutor for the child, or enroll in an after-school tutoring class, but he considered the level of tutoring and convenience of others, and felt that it would be better to tutor his son after he had learned it.So he started chewing on his son's math textbook.His son's math level was better than his at the time, so he asked his son if he didn't understand.There are also many things that the child is not clear about in the process of speaking. They will study together. If the research does not make sense, let the child go to school to ask the teacher or classmates, and then explain it to his father when he comes back.A father's being a student is not just pretending, he is studying seriously.When he found that his math level has improved greatly, his son's math scores have also improved significantly, and the child has learned to investigate the problem, and no longer has problems like before, waiting for others to tell him, which is more effective than cram school much better. In short, instead of worrying about their children's test scores, spending money and effort, and unilaterally forcing their children to study; it is better to use some thought, design and create some things that contain relevant knowledge for children to do, so that children have the opportunity Apply what he has learned to solve some practical problems.Practice is the best "extracurricular cram school". In addition to the above examples of "opening a small shop" and "being a teacher", there must be many ways to find.For example, when a parent settles the family financial accounts, the excuse is that the calculator is broken, and the children in elementary school are asked to calculate it with a pen;In particular, it is best to find the knowledge that needs to be mastered from the child's interests, and design his interests and activities together. The great educator Suhomlinski believes that "the reason why children lag behind in their studies is that they have not learned to think. The various things, phenomena, interdependence and interrelationships in the world around them have not become the source of children's thinking... …let practical things teach the child to think—a very important condition for making all normal children intelligent, alert, studious, and inquisitive.” The core educational idea of ​​Dewey, a famous American educator, is that children should learn from life and learn from doing things instead of learning from books.He believes that the teaching method that will always be successful in education is "to give students something to do, not to give them something to learn". Therefore, when parents want their children to make progress in learning, they should not be too busy pulling their children into books or extracurricular classes. Instead, they should create some opportunities for children to use the knowledge they have learned to solve some problems.No matter what to learn, if we create practical opportunities for children to "open a small shop", then most of the children will not worry about learning. ●When playing the game of "opening a small shop", adults should show a serious and pure attitude, and play as if they were children. Don't preach during the process, let alone reprimand children for miscalculations. ●Put children's fun in the first place in the game, and put the learning in the second place. ●Mathematics education Don't pull children to abstract numbers all at once, don't embarrass children with dry and boring calculations.Let children experience numbers in the game, let him realize that calculation is not an abstract thing, but a useful thing that exists in the surrounding life and is closely related to our daily life. ●After children enter school education, they can still learn homework through "activities".It is a good activity to let children be "little teachers" to give lectures to parents. ●When parents want to help their children with homework, you might as well ask the children to "tutor" you with homework once. ●Parents should find a way to "empower" when designing such activities, let the child "take power" and become the protagonist and initiative of the activity; don't let him feel passive and instigated by adults during the activity.