This mental math idea comes from a retired public school teacher who said she used to do this with her entire class daily. You can use this method with your own kids and adapt it to the math level they are on. My kids love doing this because it’s like solving a puzzle. You can do it once, or even a few times in a row or a day… and it’s not a worksheet! You can also do it at any time of the day. You can do it before your formal math lesson, at breakfast, driving in the car, whenever works for you.

Here’s how it works: You say a sequence of math problems slowly, allowing time for your child to do the math in their head, and then you continue adding to the sequence. When you are done, you ask for the answer and you see if your child’s answer is correct. For younger grades, you’ll just be using addition and subtraction with smaller numbers. But for the older kids, you can add in multiplication and division and larger numbers. You can even speed up your pace of speaking. Here’s a few examples below:

A First Grade Example

You say to the child: “You have zero apples. I give you two. Think about how many you have but don’t say the number out loud. Then I give you three more apples. Now think about how many you have. Then a dog comes and takes one apple away from you. Think about how many you have now. Tell me the answer.” (Answer: 4)

A Fourth Grade Example

Say: “Thirty plus twelve, minus seven, divide by five, times by three, plus nine, minus sixteen, divide by two. What’s the answer?” (Answer: 7)

Tip: If you have multiple children doing the problem, have them write their answer down and show it at the same time instead of saying it aloud. You could even make it a game by letting each child who gets the answer correct earn one point.

So, there you go–a quick, simple way to get them to do a multiple-step mental math problem each day!

The Importance of Mental Math

• Mental math keeps our brains quick and sharp and the more we practice with it, the stronger the skill will get.
• We use mental math a ton as adults: shopping, measuring, calculating, using money, comparing, etc..
• Mental math improves our ability to understand the relationship between numbers

Your Homework:

What’s a homeschool blog without a little homework?

• Try doing this game at least once a day for one week and see if it improves your child’s mental math abilities.