| My children are like me in many ways, one of | | | | Every time he played a scoring shot I would |
| which is their love of sports. I have | | | | then ask him how many runs he now had, for |
| utilised this love of sport as a way of | | | | example eight plus two. Obviously at the |
| helping them to improve their maths and will | | | | start he made quite a few mistakes when |
| explain how I do this in this article. | | | | adding up the scores but he soon picked up |
| Playing the sports themselves is also very | | | | how to add either two, four or six to any |
| good for them as a way of keeping them fit | | | | given number. |
| and away from the television, which most | | | | |
| children watch far too much of in my opinion. | | | | I then thought about which other sports that |
| | | | I could also use to help him with his maths. |
| I will use my five year old son as an example | | | | I am sure there are many sports out there |
| of how I use different sports to help him | | | | which would have been suitable but the other |
| with his maths. I will never forget the first | | | | two we used were snooker and rugby. |
| time I thought about including maths in a | | | | |
| sport. I basically did it just by chance, for | | | | Snooker is actually the perfect sport to use |
| example it was not exactly planned. My son | | | | as the different colours are worth different |
| loves playing cricket and originally we would | | | | points and this gives many more options than |
| take a bat and ball to a local park and use | | | | just two, four and six. These are the values |
| the dustbin as a wicket. When he was about | | | | of the different balls in snooker, the red is |
| four I decided to introduce the concept of | | | | worth one point, the yellow two, the green |
| runs into the game for the first time. If he | | | | three, the brown four, the blue five, the pin |
| reached the tree with one of his shots he | | | | six and the black seven. |
| would score two runs, if he reached the fence | | | | |
| he would score four runs and if he reached | | | | I am sure that many other parents could use |
| the fence without the ball hitting the ground | | | | these same ideas to help their own children |
| he would score six runs. | | | | to develop their adding up skills in maths. |
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