Grandma’s Magical Math can be taught at any grade level or age, but it is designed to be started in kindergarten or early in first grade. Students are ready when they understand numbers - when they can count, read numbers, write numbers, and add and subtract up to the sum of 5.

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What drove Mrs. Hanson to search for a new and different way to teach math was the number of students who came to her, as a private tutor, because they could not learn arithmetic. She studied her students, and was surprised to find that they all had the same problem. They could not do repetitive counting. They could not keep counting long enough to finish a page of problems successfully. After years of working with these students, she came to some interesting conclusions:

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"Counting to find answers requires very young students to focus with intense concentration. Many children lack a long enough attention span and are easily distracted. When they lose their place, they must choose whether to guess at the answer or to start the counting over again. If they keep starting over, they will never finish. If they guess, they will miss many answers.

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Counting seemed to have a hypnotic effect on these students. That made it even more difficult for them to stay alert and think. This should not be surprising. After all, we are told to count sheep to help us fall asleep."

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These students had a painful experience of failure. Thus they came to fear and hate math. Mrs. Hanson looked for a way to change this negative attitude and make them fall in love with numbers.

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When someone is knitting a sweater, if they lose concentration, they drop a stitch. These little folks were dropping numbers right and left. "Grandma" found that she could teach them to work math problems only after she got them to stop trying to count.

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But you have to count to understand arithmetic. Yes, you do.  Students count with Grandma’s Magical Math, but they do it differently because they count for a different reason. They count to understand how math works rather than to find answers to problems. For that, students learn math family facts and how to use them, so they will know the answers.

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The pictures, songs, and rhymes help organize the information and make it easy to remember. Students are taught to recall math facts to solve each problem. Every time a problem is solved this memorization is reinforced, and it becomes permanent. Math facts are remembered because they are used.

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Addition and subtraction are taught at the same time. Multiplication and division are taught together as well. Not only do students understand math better this way, but teachers save a lot of classroom time.

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Pictures are used until they are memorized. This allows every student to practice getting the correct answers from the very first lesson. This experience of success creates a positive attitude toward mathematics. That can make a real difference in the future of each child.

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