Dr. Irvin Miller believes that the best way to understand numbers is to play with them. Find out how teaching 5- and 6-year-olds addition can be easy and fun using Miller’s method. First, make sure the child can count to nine.
- Then, teach the child to “count backward from 9 and then from 19.”
- After that is mastered, teach the child how to visually and orally add 10 to a number.
- Then ask the child “what number comes before a given number.”
- Show the child this list of numbers, 9 2 8 3 7 4 6 5, and have them repeat the numbers.
- Continuing with the previous list of numbers, have the child add ten to each number.
- Lastly, have the child say the number that comes before the number they got by adding ten.
According to Miller, the center’s program is sophisticated enough to be able to teach fifth grade children how to take square roots and raise numbers to a decimal power.