Math is a creative and flexible subject!
Math skills can be developed. Math ability is not something some people have and some people don't. Your math understanding can be strengthened most quickly by doing more math and MAKING MISTAKES! Your brain develops most new pathways for math while making mistakes, learning from those mistakes, and perserving through any difficulties. I will ENCOURAGE mistakes! Really! This is not an empty gesture, brains really do learn more math while mistakes are made.
"The only way to get at the truth about our imaginations
is to use our imaginations, and that is hard work."
That’s what math is—
wondering, playing, amusing yourself with your imagination.
Paul Lockhart’s: A Mathematician’s Lament
Saxon Math believes that all of mathematics is about PROBLEM SOLVING.
Math Background Relationship of Standards
Meanings of Operation
Word Problems Problem Solving Skills Problem Solving Strategies
Problem solving is more than word problems. Word problems cannot be successfully solved without an understanding of the meanings of operations and the relationship between
the numbers in a problem. Teaching through mathematical thinking is the foundation for helping students become successful problem solvers.