Mathematics is one of the least liked subjects for kids across the world. Intimidated by math from an early age, many young learners dread the subject and this continues all through their school years. Unfortunately, this phobia – or “Math Anxiety” – doesn’t allow children’s natural problem-solving and reasoning abilities to flower as they should.

Here are five quirky ways to drive the fear out of Math and foster genuine love for the subject in middle school kids:

1. Put a Personal Spin on it

Like everyone else, kids will naturally take a liking to what they can relate to at a personal level. Try substituting names in math puzzles with student names or explain sums using statistics from sports or include preferred food references in math problems like cookies, chocolates, or any seasonal fruit. Children could also be encouraged to create math problems for their classmates and friends to solve. 

2. Play Math Games

It’s time kids knew that math can incorporate more games than any other subject. Turn regular board and card games into math games – Yahtzee and War are good examples. Encourage students to solve Sudoku and Kakuro puzzles. Put a math spin on the classic game Bingo or Tambola by having students solve math problems in order to find out what number to mark off their sheet.

3. Teach Practical Uses of Math

Encourage kids to become involved with their mothers’ grocery shopping lists and calculate how much discount on various items resulted in how much saving. Additionally, pre-teens and teens could be given a ledger to write down their savings and expenses, manage their birthday allowance, and get rewarded with interest – which they must calculate – if they can manage to keep a certain amount in their piggy banks.

4. Integrate Math into Other Subjects

Math can also be made more engaging by weaving it into other subjects. In History, students could be asked to calculate the number of years between events. In Geography, they could be tasked with identifying places on a map through the use of latitude and longitude. In social studies, they could be instructed to draw bar graphs comparing populations, population density, etc. of different countries. You could really get creative here!

5. Embrace Technology

The virtual world is teeming with free math games – such as Prodigy, Mathville, Sushi Monster, and Math Cats – and encouraging kids to play these could help change their approach to math, while making sure time is spent constructively. Kids could also be introduced to math websites like Kahoot!, math apps, and math-learning video games. 

There’s more…

Middle school kids can also enroll in math classes conducted by big educational technology platforms such as Unacademy. With immersive live online classes in which kids can freely interact with the educator, answer polls, and get instant solutions, math learning can become a fabulously fun, lively experience. Unacademy also conducts classes to help students in CAT, IIT JEE, UPSC, and NEET preparation, among others.