如何教出一个数学天才?

The site posts a playful math question each day related to daily life and current events, such as the Olympics, and pushes 'kids to wrestle with it in their heads, while talking with their parents about how to do it,' says founder Laura Bilodeau Overdeck of Summit, NJ, a former high-tech strategy consultant.
这家网站的创始人劳拉?毕洛多?欧文德克（Laura Bilodeau Overdeck）曾是新泽西州萨米特市（Summit）的一名高科技策略顾问，她说，睡前数学网站每天都会发布一个好玩儿的、与日常生活和时事相关的数学问题，像奥运会之类的，然后促使孩子们一边动脑筋想办法解答，一边和父母谈论解决方式。

Baking in the kitchen, Ms. Cameron explains fractions while having each of her children crack half the eggs. Filling muffin cups becomes a subtraction problem: 'If we fill eight muffin cups and there are 12 in all, how many more do we have to fill?' Thanks to this 'stealth math' approach, her kids are having fun solving problems, she says.
在厨房烘焙糕点时，卡梅隆让两个孩子将鸡蛋敲开一分为二，在这个过程中，她向孩子解释了分数的概念。而给玛芬纸杯蛋糕加馅儿也演变成了一个减法问题，“如果一共有12个玛芬纸杯蛋糕，我们已经给八个加了馅儿，我们还需要再加几个？”卡梅隆说，多亏了这种嵌入式数学教学法，她的孩子在解决问题的同时也收获了快乐。

When kids start bringing math homework home, many parents have to break old habits of emphasizing good scores and grades, and praise them instead for trying hard and using multiple approaches to figure out problems. In Dr. Levine's study, 9-year-old children were more eager to tackle new math challenges if their parents focused on the process of problem-solving, rather than correct answers.
当子女将数学作业带回家做时，许多家长必须冲破分数和排名至上的窠臼，鼓励孩子努力尝试、用多种方法解答问题。莱文博士的研究发现，如果父母将关注的焦点放在问题解决过程中而非正确答案上，九岁的孩子会更有热情去应对新的数学挑战。

Struggling alongside your child can actually be helpful, says Suzanne Sutton, a Rockville, Md., math consultant and founder of NewtonsWindow.com, a website to help parents and students with math. A parent who is comfortable with trying and failing can teach a child how to look up things and grapple with challenges.
马里兰州洛克维尔市（Rockville）的数学教育顾问、NewtonsWindow.com网站（一家帮助父母和学生学数学的网站）创始人苏珊娜·萨顿（Suzanne Sutton）称，父母陪在孩子身边一起钻研其实很有用。那些在尝试中失败、又能从失败中站起的家长能教会子女这样一件事情：凡事往好的方面看、竭尽全力去应对挑战。

If you haven't a clue how to help, Ms. Crowder says, avoid voicing your anxiety or frustration. Instead, tell your child your time together would better be spent in other ways, and offer to get a tutor or another person to help.
克劳德说，如果你还是不知道该如何出手帮助孩子，那起码不要朝他们表达出你内心的焦虑和沮丧。相反，你需要做的是告诉孩子，你会在别的时候换种方式陪伴他们，那样会更好。而在学数学的时候，你该为他们找一位家教或别的什么人来指导。

Another option: Hire your child to tutor you in math. A parent asked Ms. Sutton years ago how to help her teenage son tackle a tough algebra course when she couldn't even understand the syllabus. Ms. Sutton told her to pick the toughest topic and offer to pay her son for writing a report on it and teaching it to her. The mother picked logarithms.
还有一种选择：花钱雇你的孩子来教你数学。多年前就曾有一位家长问萨顿，在自己对教学大纲都无法理解的情况下，该怎样帮助她青春期的儿子学习艰深的代数课程。萨顿告诉这位家长，让她选出最难的问题，然后花钱雇儿子就此写一份报告并教会她。后来，这位妈妈选了对数这一章。

When her son gave her only a superficial explanation, Ms. Sutton says, the mother told him, 'You didn't meet the terms of our agreement. I don't understand what it means.' The teen dug deeper and tried again, and finally got the concept across to his mom, Ms. Sutton says.
萨顿说，当这个儿子只给出了流于表面的解释时，他妈妈回应道，“你没有履行我们的协议。我不明白对数的含义。”儿子又深挖下去，再试着讲解了一次。终于，在儿子的辅导下，这位妈妈弄清了对数的概念。

Secure knowing that he had already mastered one of the toughest topics in the course, the teen went on to do well in the class.
在确认自己已经掌握了代数课程中最艰深的章节后，这位少年后来的学习一直都不错。