How could children not like it? If studying is made into a Niuhuang Jiedu pill, how could children possibly like it?
I have discovered that playing "opening a mini mart" with children is an excellent activity. Teaching children addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division through this game can effectively promote their mathematical calculation skills and is truly a learning method that integrates education with entertainment. When Yuan Yuan was around four years old, I spent some time teaching her arithmetic. Initially, we used the method of counting on fingers to solve problems like "2+3 equals what." She started off enjoying it, but after a while, she began to show signs of boredom.
So, I wondered, what method could make her both learn calculations and stay interested? At that time, community supermarkets had not yet appeared; generally, there would be one or two "mini marts" at each residential area. Yuan Yuan liked going to the mini mart with me to buy things. Each time, I let her tell the shopkeeper what to buy and hand over the money. At the time, I just wanted her to learn how to do things and naturally interact with people. Unexpectedly, this gave her a concept of money's role from a young age.
Once, after buying something from the store with me, Yuan Yuan looked at me with full eyes of envy and said she wanted to open a mini mart when she grew up. I asked why, and she said that we need to spend money to buy things, but people who open mini marts don't need to spend money. Later, I found out that she played the "opening a mini mart" game with her neighbor friends, taking turns playing as the shopkeeper and the customer. The person playing the shopkeeper always seemed quite proud. It seems that she really wanted to be a little shopkeeper, which led me to think about playing the "opening a mini mart" game with her.
Yuan Yuan became the shopkeeper, and naturally, my husband and I were the customers. We took some items and set up a "small shop" on the floor for her, placing various "goods" on display. Some goods were real, some were substitutes (for example, her favorite popsicle had to be substituted), as long as she understood. Then, we took turns visiting her shop.
We carefully browsed her merchandise, decided what to buy, and asked her how much it cost. Sometimes, we even bargained a bit. When paying, in most cases, we needed her to return some change. For example, if a chopstick costs 60 cents, we usually gave her one dollar, so she had to return 40 cents.
At first, she set her own prices. Children tend to set prices as relatively whole, simple numbers, such as 1 yuan, 200 yuan, etc. She generally didn’t use prices like "1.40 yuan" or "203 yuan" to complicate herself.
After playing a few times, we subtly guided her towards slightly more complex calculations.
For instance, if popsicles originally sold for 1 yuan each, we suggested that they had increased to 1.2 yuan each. We asked her if she wanted to raise her prices too, as raising them could earn her an extra 20 cents per popsicle. Then, we gave her two yuan or five yuan, making her calculations more complex.
Initially, Yuan Yuan didn't like these prices with decimal points because they complicated her calculations. So, when I took her to other mini marts to buy things, I let her notice that the prices of goods in those stores mostly had decimal points. Consequently, her "prices" also started to include decimal points.
As the complexity of the calculations in the mini mart game increased, the transition should remain natural to maintain the child's interest. Initially, we generally played within the range of addition and subtraction under 100. Later, we gave her some suggestions, thinking certain items should be expensive, setting prices up to three or five hundred yuan. In my memory, when Yuan Yuan was around four years old, she could mentally calculate addition and subtraction within 500, basically learned through "doing business."
The mini mart game continued roughly until Yuan Yuan was in second or third grade. When she was learning multiplication and division, I subtly added related knowledge into the game. For example, if a pencil cost 9 cents, I required her to buy 8 pencils at once. Or, if a pack of cookies cost 4 yuan and contained 10 pieces, but I only wanted to buy 3 pieces. Thus, she had to use her multiplication and division knowledge to calculate.
The process of "opening a mini mart" is essentially a continuous process of solving "application problems," which has a very good effect on math enlightenment for children. Math education should not immediately pull the child into abstract numbers, nor should it burden them with dry and tedious calculations. Instead, let the child feel numbers through games, allowing them to understand that calculations are not abstract concepts but useful elements present in everyday life, closely tied to our daily routines. When Yuan Yuan was in first or second grade, while other classmates struggled with abstract numbers, she could quickly see through every problem, finding them all too simple.
When Yuan Yuan finished second grade and directly moved to fourth grade, the school principal had some concerns. He mentioned that third grade was a relatively crucial year, with more difficult content, especially in mathematics. So, I got the third-grade math textbooks and studied them with Yuan Yuan for ten days. She grasped the material well, and after starting school, she scored the highest among some students who had already completed third grade.
It wasn't that Yuan Yuan had any special talent; rather, she had already used related knowledge while "opening a mini mart." Acting as the "shopkeeper" greatly enhanced her mathematical thinking ability, making her studies much easier. Children have a natural tendency to imitate adult life. I remember playing house when I was a child—it was incredibly fun. I believe Yuan Yuan’s experience of "opening a mini mart" felt the same way to her, though she didn’t realize she was learning calculations during the game.
Therefore, why must learning be "bitter"? Learning can also happen joyfully. Moreover, learning conducted in happiness allows children to learn better. We all hope that children will enjoy learning. If we turn learning into a chocolate liqueur candy, how could children not like it? If we turn learning into a Niuhuang Jiedu pill, how could children possibly like it?
When playing the "opening a mini mart" game, there are several issues to consider:
First, do not reveal your intentions to the child. Playing such games aims to help the child learn calculations, but if you tell them this purpose or if they sense it, they will lose interest in the game. Let the child feel that it's merely a game, done purely for enjoyment. Adults should approach the game with seriousness and simplicity, fully immersing themselves as if they were children. Avoid any preaching during the process, and definitely do not scold the child for making calculation mistakes.
Second, avoid causing embarrassment to the child. When we played with Yuan Yuan, initially, she had no sense of how much to price items, randomly assigning numbers. For example, she priced a small "cake" at 100 yuan, and her father exaggeratedly said, "Wow, that's so expensive!" Her father was trying to create an atmosphere based on his familiar market prices, but his tone startled Yuan Yuan. She felt that her pricing was too outrageous and became unsure of herself. When asked about the next item's price, she hesitated, timidly suggesting a number and waiting for the adults' reaction to confirm if it was correct. Continuing this way, the child's focus would shift away from playing, leading to tension and boredom over time. I quickly intervened, telling her father that the cake smelled particularly fragrant and was worth the price.
Afterward, I told Yuan Yuan's father that regardless of the child's pricing, he shouldn't react dramatically. Do not interfere with the child's thinking based on your life experiences. The child does not have a concept of market value. We aim for her to learn calculations, not how to run a business, so her pricing doesn't matter. She can price a kilogram of rice at 200 yuan or a gold ring at 40 cents.
Third, do not let calculations frustrate the child. Remember, this is a game, not a math class. You can develop the child's calculation abilities through "buying and selling," but do not rush. Prioritize the child's enjoyment in the game above learning. The difficulty of calculations can gradually increase, but do not let overly difficult calculations interfere with the fun. If the child frequently feels challenged by calculations during buying and selling, they will feel frustrated and lose interest.
Fourth, do not force the child to play. Do not repeatedly play the same game to make the child study. After discussing this game with others, some parents went home and played it with their children every day. Initially, the child showed interest, but after three consecutive days, they no longer wanted to play. Parents then tried persuading them to continue.
There are also times when, right at the start of playing, before completing a single transaction, the child suddenly doesn't want to play anymore due to some reason. In such cases, parents should not force the child. As soon as the child shows disinterest, stop immediately to avoid ruining their appetite for the game. If parents become too enthusiastic during the game, it might make the child aware of your intentions.
Fifth, use real money whenever possible. Initially, when playing with Yuan Yuan, I didn't want to use real money because it seemed unhygienic, so we used paper slips marked with denominations instead. However, we noticed that the child had no interest in fake money. Once children realize that money can exchange for desired items, they become fascinated by it. Using real money makes them more engaged during play, and they can wash their hands afterward. I thought that recording each profit the child earns and saving the earned money separately, using it specifically for purchasing items, might stimulate their interest in playing even further. We didn't do this when Yuan Yuan was young, but we guessed it might work better.
Sixth, increase the variability of the game, ensuring each session differs slightly. Generally, children prefer to be the "shopkeeper," especially at the beginning. To maintain the game's freshness, you can switch roles with the child, letting them return to being the customer. Regardless of who plays the customer, different roles or combinations can be introduced—sometimes elderly people, sometimes children, sometimes doctors or teachers. Different identities come with different matters and needs, generating many stories. You can also involve various toys from home, such as plush dogs and bears, having someone speak and pay for them.
Besides "opening a mini mart," Yuan Yuan and I also "sold vegetables." Sometimes, she liked to be a vegetable vendor. We drew pictures of various vegetables and fruits on small pieces of paper or used various substitutes to play selling vegetables with her. Specifically, I bought her a small scale from a pharmacy since vendors at the time commonly used handheld scales with bowls.
The insight from "opening a mini mart" is that integrating learning with life yields better results, and education rooted in life can be everywhere. Teaching a child does not necessarily require sitting beside a desk. With attentiveness, educational opportunities can be discovered everywhere. For instance, when teaching a child to count from 1 to 10, if you simply repeat the numbers orally, the child hears mere syllables without understanding what they represent. They don't grasp what these "1, 2, 3, 4" mean. However, if while carrying the child up and down the stairs, you count the steps aloud, or when opening a box of chocolates, you first count how many pieces are inside before eating, associating "1, 2, 3..." with specific events helps the child remember faster and build a concept of numbers.
I vividly remember when Yuan Yuan was two and a half years old, one time her father returned from a trip and bought her a set of six Wahaha yogurt drinks. After drinking one in the morning, I stored the rest. In the afternoon, she suddenly asked me, "Where are the five Wahahas?" She somehow knew there were five left, surprising me. At the time, she couldn't do addition or subtraction, so her concept of numbers likely stemmed from my frequent practice of counting various items with her.
Even after entering formal schooling, children can still learn lessons through "activities." I found that letting the child be a "little teacher" and teach parents is a good activity.
When Yuan Yuan first started elementary school, her teacher taught them phonetics. To help her master it quickly, I told her that mom hadn't learned phonetics well when I was young because we spoke dialects at home, and our teachers taught us phonetics inaccurately. "You've learned phonetics at school; could you teach mom in the evening?" I said sincerely, and Yuan Yuan happily agreed. Then, she came home every day to teach me what she had learned, and I listened attentively and learned earnestly.
While playing "little teacher," I noted the following issues: First, in designing such activities, empower the child, allowing them to take charge. Being a little teacher and running a mini mart are both ways for children to apply and learn knowledge in practice. Their common feature is that the child feels "empowered," which is why such games attract them. Therefore, in these activities, let the child be the main actor and initiator, avoiding making them feel passive or commanded by adults.
Second, choose things with relatively clear answers or content for the child to explain. Regarding language arts, I only let Yuan Yuan teach phonetics because language learning is open-ended, hard for children to explain, and explaining it holds little significance. I generally let her explain math because it has closed-form rigor. Additionally, note that this activity should not be done frequently. Usually, I observed her learning quietly and only asked her to teach me when I noticed she hadn't grasped something well. Similar to "running a mini mart," avoid making the child feel bored during the activity, and find ways to protect their interest.
Third, the way parents propose requirements should be natural, not always using the excuse that they didn't learn well when they were young. For example, sometimes I found a mistake in her homework caused by unclear concepts, and I pretended to be surprised, saying, "This question seems correct; why did the teacher mark it wrong?" Then I called Yuan Yuan over to check if she made a mistake or if the teacher judged incorrectly. During this process, I pretended to be confused while guiding her to think in the right direction. Yuan Yuan, wanting to figure out whether she or the teacher was wrong, carefully analyzed with me and rethought the concept. It turned out that she had made the mistake, but she at least corrected mom's "error," giving her a sense of accomplishment. Moreover, the previously unclear concept was now basically understood.
Fourth, do not criticize or mock the child's mistakes during the teaching process. Since parents act as students, they must genuinely listen to the child's explanations. Similar to running a mini mart, avoid letting the child perceive your intentions; otherwise, they may feel examined by their parents and lose interest. If the child's thinking or explanation contains errors, address them gently or guide them toward the right direction. Never let the child feel embarrassed due to poor explanations. Any hint of instruction or mockery during this process will make the child extremely disheartened, losing confidence in teaching. Ensure the child feels a sense of achievement throughout the process.
In 2004, I attended a speech by the renowned contemporary educator and then-principal of Beijing No. 4 Middle School, Mr. Liu Changming. Before becoming principal, he was an outstanding physics teacher at the school. He recounted that when he was a physics teacher, if any student made a mistake on a test question, he would ask the student to redo the problem and then explain it again to the entire class—"redoing" and "explaining" yield entirely different effects. To clearly explain something requires serious thought and thorough understanding, enabling the explanation to be delivered clearly. Explained content leaves a deeper impression on the brain—while "redoing" is merely another form of learning, "explaining" becomes a practice, an application activity that helps students grasp knowledge better.
This activity can also be applied in families. When parents want to tutor their children, instead of doing it yourself, you could let the child "tutor" you once. Of course, you need to devise clever methods to make the activity occur naturally without making the child feel tense or awkward.
I heard a parent say that when his son first entered high school, his math was poor, and he easily gave up on problems without delving deeply. The father reviewed his son's math textbook and realized the content had surpassed his own knowledge base, and he couldn't tutor him. Normally, one would hire a private tutor or enroll the child in extracurricular tutoring classes, but he considered the quality and convenience of external tutoring and decided it would be better to learn himself first and then tutor his son. Thus, he started studying his son's math textbook.
At the time, the son's math level was somewhat better than his father's. Whenever the father had questions, he would ask his son. There were many unclear areas in the son's explanations, so they would research together. If they couldn't figure it out, the son would ask his teacher or classmates at school and then explain it back to his father. The father acted as a genuine student, seriously learning. When he noticed significant improvement in his own math skills, his son's math grades also improved noticeably, and the son learned to investigate problems instead of waiting for others to tell him, achieving much better results than attending tutoring classes.
In summary, instead of worrying about exam scores, spending money and effort, and forcing the child to study alone, parents should put some thought into designing and creating activities involving relevant knowledge for the child to do, providing opportunities for them to apply their learned knowledge to solve practical problems. Practice is the best "extracurricular tutoring class." Besides the aforementioned "opening a mini mart" and "being a little teacher," there are surely many other ways. For example, when settling family financial accounts, pretend the calculator is broken and ask the elementary school child to help calculate with a pen. When an appliance breaks, use the knowledge learned in physics class to attempt repairs together. Especially, find the knowledge that needs to be grasped based on the child's interests and integrate their interests into the activity design—that's the best approach. The great educator Vasily Sukhomlinsky believed, "The reason for children's academic backwardness lies in their inability to think critically about various things, phenomena, interdependencies, and connections in the surrounding world, failing to become the source of their thoughts... Letting practical things teach children to think is an extremely important condition for making all normal children smart, quick-witted, studious, and inquisitive."
The core educational philosophy of the famous American educator John Dewey is that children should learn from life and through action, not from books. He believed that the eternally successful teaching method in education is "giving students something to do, not something to learn."
Thus, when parents want their children to improve academically, they should not rush to pull them to books or extracurricular classes. Instead, create opportunities for children to apply their learned knowledge to solve problems. Regardless of what they study, if we can create "opening a mini mart" practice opportunities for them, children will likely not suffer from learning troubles.
Special Tips:
When playing the "opening a mini mart" game, adults should approach it with seriousness and simplicity, fully engaging as if they were children, avoiding any preaching, and never scolding the child for making calculation mistakes.
In the game, prioritize the child's enjoyment over learning.
Mathematics education should not immediately pull the child into abstract numbers or challenge them with dry, tedious calculations. Allow the child to feel numbers through games, helping them realize that calculations are not abstract concepts but useful elements present in everyday life, closely tied to our daily routines.
Even after entering formal schooling, children can still learn lessons through "activities." Letting the child be a "little teacher" and teach parents is a good activity. When parents want to tutor their children, they can let the child "tutor" them once.
Parents designing such activities should find ways to "empower" the child, allowing them to take charge and become the main actors and initiators, avoiding making them feel passive or commanded by adults.