Every time Jill drives to her favorite grocery store, she turns one street too early and has to go around the block. As soon as she makes the wrong turn, she wonders why she makes the mistake every single time. Jill’s problem is that she has “practiced” the long way of going to the store so many times that she has perfected the behavior even though she knows there is a better way.
Practicing with Bad Habits Perfects the Bad Habits
Ask any athletic coach or music teacher about learning new skills correctly. Will they say the learner should learn the skill quickly and possibly imprecisely and then spend months practicing the skill in a sloppy fashion? No! It may take longer to learn the initial skill when so much emphasis is placed on getting every detail right, but the payoff is perfect practice. And perfect practice leads to mastery.
Perfect Practice Makes Perfect
In math, just like sports and music, perfect practice takes more time. It takes time and perfect practice to truly understand a concept and apply it correctly in a variety of situations. This is especially important with foundational skills like, counting, number sense, understanding wholes and parts, and proportional reasoning. When math students practice foundational skills perfectly they are set up for success in advanced math.
How Does Mathnasium Ensure Perfect Practice?
Is Your Child Practicing Math Perfectly?
If you aren’t sure, ask us about our no-risk assessment or free trial lesson. Just give us a call or fill out our online form. When your children grow into adults they will thank you for investing in their future.
This article was written by and owned by Cuttlefish Copywriting, www.cuttlefishcopywriting.com . It is copyright protected. Mathnasium of Littleton has permission to use it. Other Mathnasium locations should contact Heather at [email protected] before using it.
