Importance of Developing Math Skills

You may have heard (or used) the phrase “another day, and I didn’t use math,” but actually, math is apparent in everything we do!

While it may not be every student’s first subject of choice, its importance in everyday life is evident. From financials to language, here are just a few of the reasons why developing math skills are so vital for your child’s future.

How Math Impacts Development

Math Teaches Problem-Solving Skills Through Reasoning

One of the first things you learn in math is to identify a problem and work towards a solution. Though anyone can memorize a mathematical question and its answer, when you learn the reasoning behind the answer and how you got there, you are developing critical problem-solving skills.

This can then apply to everything in life! For instance, have you ever needed to carry a ton of groceries into the house? Figuring out what to put where and how to balance it all is just one everyday example of problem-solving. If you don’t take a second to consider the issue, you’ll likely drop something and be left with a broken grocery bag.

Math Encourages Critical Thinking Skills

Beyond problem-solving, sometimes there’s more than one solution to a problem, as we learn in advanced math. There may be a few ways to get an answer or several different answers for a solution, but knowing what to use to get there involves critical thinking. Back to our grocery example above, for some, they may decide to make several trips back and forth to the car. Others might find themselves balancing bags on both arms. Neither solution is wrong, but both did require a critical plan to get there.

Math Helps Communication Skills and Language

Your language skills as a whole depend on listening, speaking, reading, and writing. All of these are applied when studying math. To succeed in math, you must read the problem. You then write and practice it to get the concept correct. Once you do understand the idea, you’ll have to express your reasoning and how you came to the solution at hand. A good life example is when you pay for your groceries at the store, you must listen to the total given to you by the cashier, and the cashier must count and explain your change, if any.

Math Teaches Financial Skills

As an adult, you rarely go through your day without paying for something. Whether it’s a tank of gas or a gallon of milk from the grocery store, you’ll need to know how to manage your money. As a kid, this can start early on by counting cash and saving it in a piggy bank. It then becomes more complex as you age, such as paying taxes and balancing your checkbook. Either way, math and financial skills go hand in hand.

Discover Engineering For Kids

Here at Engineering For Kids, we understand that math is more than just numbers — and those with mathematical knowledge have a greater advantage in the real-world. EFK was created to provide kids with the opportunity to learn about this important subject in a new way, expanding on what they’re already learning in school!

From after school programs to birthday parties, experience the difference our enrichment programs can make. Contact your local EFK today!