Even your fourth grader can become a Mathematical Wizard with these addition Tips

Mental mathematics is a skill that is easy to acquire – if you layout these techniques to your child.

Maths can be scary if your child doesn’t grasp numbers, carryovers and large number addition as fast his peers

But with these three easy tricks addition will become easy peasy

TRICK 1 – ADD ALL THE NUMBER FROM 1 THROUGH 10

Lay out flash cards in front of your child.

On these cards make them write down the basic addition of each numbers from 1 all the way through 10

You will have 10 groups of flash cards

The first group will have the number one as the main additive and you will add all the numbers from one to ten with the number one as the group leader

Example – The group of flashcards with one as the leader will contain,

Flashcard 1 – 1+1 = 2

Flashcard 2 – 1+2 = 3

Flashcard 3 – 1+3 = 4

Flashcard 4 – 1+5 = 6

Flashcard 5 – 1+6 =7

Flashcard 6 – 1+7 = 8

Flashcard 7 – 1+8 = 9

Flashcard 8 – 1+9 = 10

These will be the flashcards for the one’s group

Next for the two’s group – you will have;

Flashcard 1 – 2+1 = 3

Flashcard 2 – 2+2 = 4

Flashcard 3 – 2+3 = 5

Flashcard 4 – 2+4 = 6

Flashcard 5 – 2+5 = 7

Flashcard 6 – 2+6 = 8

Flashcard 7 – 2+7 = 9

Flashcard 8 – 2+8 = 10

Flashcard 9 – 2+9 = 11

And so on…until you have replicated this process all the way through the number 10.

The Flashcards with 10 as the group leader would be

Flashcard 1 – 10+1 = 11

Flashcard 2 – 10+2 = 12

Flashcard 3 – 10+3 = 13

Flashcard 4 – 10+4 = 14

Flashcard 5 – 10+5 = 15

Flashcard 6 – 10+6 = 16

Flashcard 7 – 10+7 = 17

Flashcard 8 – 10+8 = 18

Flashcard 9 – 10+9 = 19

Flashcard 10 – 10+10 =20

Onward

TRICK 2 – HELP THEM GET USED TO CARRY OVERS

Let’s Say they have to solve the problem 29+65 = 94

First make them refer to the Flashcards they made above. Ask them add 9+5

On a separate paper let them write 9+5 =14

Now bring them back to the problem and ask them to place to place the extra 1 ( from 14 ) above 2+6=8

   1 ( Carry Over )
2
+6
—–
9
——

TRICK 3 – REVISE REVISE REVISE

The technique laid out above may be time consuming – at first – but the goal here is to build mental math abilities in your child’s mind.

So when your child sees the above problem ( 29+65 ), they immediately hear a mental voice that says;

“ 9+5=14, Carry over the one, So 6+2+1=9. Therefore 29+65 = 94 “

Help your child practice these techniques. Below you find downloadable links to Free Two Digit AdditioN worksheets – designed to help your child practice their addition powers.