Multisensory math is something we love here at ShillerLearning. Counting, learning place value, exploring geometric shapes, and all types of mathematics become more engaging when paired with interactive activities. Children not only learn math more effectively with a multisensory approach, they enjoy learning and become lifelong learners. Multisensory learning engages visual, tactile, kinesthetic, and auditory pathways all at once.
7 Ways to Incorporate Multisensory Math into Your Homeschool
🧰 Building
Using blocks and other building materials, children can create clear visual representations of the problems they are trying to solve, build shapes, and explore spatial relationships. Classic building blocks are among a child's first encounters with mathematics and remain one of the best ways to make math concrete and fun.
🧰 Touch
Handling manipulatives, tapping out numbers, and creating tactile points for numbers are all excellent ways to incorporate the sense of touch. It is also fun to create manipulatives from materials with interesting textures, such as modeling dough, quinoa, or putty.
🧰 Counters
Unit cubes (included in Math Kit I and Math Kit II), small pieces of food, blocks, beads, or any other small object can be used as counters. This is especially beneficial for younger children learning one-to-one correspondence, solving math problems, and counting. When learning place value, unit cubes are paired with ten rods, hundred flats, and thousand cubes. As students advance, unit cubes can also be used in geometric modeling and creating numeric modeling plans. Never underestimate the power of a counter.
🧰 Music
Some children learn remarkably quickly through song. Music like the ShillerLearning math songs helps reinforce concepts through catchy tunes children genuinely enjoy. Music is not just for math either: there are over 50 language arts songs, including a song for every letter of the alphabet with fun activities to accompany them. Learning to play and read music can also strengthen math skills as children grow older.
🧰 Movement
Incorporating math into outdoor games, using dice, dominoes, or a ball to practice math facts, dancing to math music, and counting steps or objects while walking are all ways to get the body moving while grasping math concepts. Sometimes even a simple movement break between lessons helps reinforce a concept and improve focus.
🧰 Drawing
Drawing out a problem (such as 5 stars plus 2 stars equals 7 stars), making shapes, and illustrating word problems engage different parts of the brain and build different neural connections. This approach is especially powerful for visual learners.
🧰 Images
Using visual materials such as pictures, graphs, tables, and diagrams reaches visual learners and reinforces concepts through an additional channel. Pairing a visual representation with a hands-on activity is one of the most effective combinations in multisensory math instruction.
If you find yourself presenting a concept that a child seems to be struggling to grasp, try approaching it from a different angle using one of these multisensory techniques. A fresh modality can make all the difference.
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