Parents, have you ever wondered why teachers spend so much time early on in your child’s schooling teaching them about place value? Or maybe you’ve never given it a second thought.
Either way, understanding place value is critical for your child’s mathematical development. Here are three reasons why:
1. Understanding place values helps students more accurately add, subtract, multiply and divide.
It helps them do mental math. The concept of place value is relatively straightforward: it’s the value of a digit based on its position in a number.
For example, the “2” in “25” has a place value of 2 (it’s in the tens column), whereas the “5” has a place value of 5 (it’s in the ones column).
However, things can get more complicated when you start dealing with larger numbers. That’s why it’s important for students to understand place values—so they can correctly manipulate numbers, no matter how large or small they are.
2. It prepares students to learn decimals and other base systems.
In our everyday lives, we use a base 10 number system—meaning that there are 10 digits (0–9) that we can combine to create any number imaginable. If you understand place values, then it’s not too difficult to wrap your head around other base systems, such as binary (base 2) or hexadecimal (base 16).
Knowing about different base systems can come in handy later on when students encounter computer science concepts like coding.
3. Place values help learners to be able to better understand the difference in the meaning of $1 and $100 and other similar real-life applications of place values.
Many kids have trouble grasping the concept that 100 pennies are worth more than one penny—but if they understand place values, then this won’t be a problem.
Integral place values also come into play when kids are learning about measuring tools like capacity (i.e., quarts, gallons).
All of these concepts may seem daunting at first glance—but if you break them down by place value, they become much easier to digest!
So there you have it—three great reasons to make sure your child understands place values!
Next time your little one is struggling with their math homework, take a step back and see if they’re having trouble with place values.
A little extra practice now with our free place value mats will pay off dividends later on down the road!
