My six year old daughter isn’t like most kids. She has ADHD and has a difficult time staying focused on her homework. An assignment that takes an average child 15 minutes to complete takes my daughter at least 30 minutes. It’s not because she isn’t as smart as her classmates. She is actually very bright (and no, I’m not just saying that because I’m her mother). To put it quite simply, my daughter’s brain is wired differently. She gets distracted by everything. (If I am not monitoring her and making sure she is on task, she will literally spend ten minutes playing with her pencil, because “It’s just so sparkly and pretty!” Understandably, if she is already bored with the subject matter, she is not going to be focused and will definitely not be breezing through the assignment. Math in particular is not her strongest subject at the moment, so she tries to dodge it as much as possible. You know what she doesn’t dodge though? Dodgeball. And kickball. And foursquare. And jumprope. The girl loves games. All kids do. So when she came up with a way to make her math homework fun for her, I thought I’d share it with other parents and kids that are struggling as well.
The game is called Hand Slap Math and it is very simple.
How To Play: All you need is one sticky hand. You whip the sticky hand onto your math worksheet and shout “Hand Slap Math, Go!” Then you complete the math problem that the sticky hand lands on (or closest to). If it lands on a problem that you have already completed, then you complete the math problem closest to it. Easy, right?
Because of Hand Slap Math, my daughter actually loves doing her math homework now, which is something I thought I’d never say. She said she looks forward to doing her math homework, because she feels like she is playing a game instead of working. It also helps her complete her homework a lot faster too, which is awesome (for both of us). Those math worksheets can be overwhelming for kids and they may think “This is going to take forever to get done,” but Hand Slap Math makes the time go by so much faster for them. Don’t let the word “Math” in Hand Slap Math limit you too. You can play this game with homework assignments in other subjects as well. With homework games like Hand Slap Math, Homework Time doesn’t have to be so stressful and time consuming. Get creative and encourage your child to make up similar games they think they will enjoy. Have fun!
