Q&A for How to Teach Your Kid Adding and Subtracting

Start teaching addition and subtraction with items the student can touch, like rubber insects, bouncy balls, puff balls, or any other item that you have plenty of. You could invite the child to grab 4 rubber ants from 1 container, and then grabbing another 5 so they have 9. Or, you could give the child 15 bouncy balls and ask them to put 7 back into the container.

Invite your students to use visuals. For instance, if they're solving a problem like 6 + 4, they could draw 6 blue circles and 4 red circles to visualize the problem. Then, then could count all the circles together and write down their answer.

A number line helps students understand the relationship between different numbers. Let's say you have a number line going from 0 to 20. Invite your student to start at 6, and then "jump" 4 more spaces, which brings them to 10. Encourage them to count in their head as jump to the next number—this helps get them more comfortable with mental math.

Use visuals and manipulatives to make sure your students understand the relationship between place values. Then, make an anchor chart at the beginning of a lesson that says "place value, so your students can review what the term means. In general, make sure they understand the different vocabulary of addition and subtraction—this way, they can explain how solved math problems instead of saying "I figured it out in my head."

Yes, it is possible. If your child recognizes numbers, you can start introducing him or her to simple arithmetic.