Helping Your Child With Math

I know it can be hard to support your child as they work through Think Math. It is very different from my experiences learning math, I'm sure it's different from yours as well. However, there's still a lot you can do to create a math-friendly atmosphere at home. For starters you can display a positive attitude towards mathematics - even if you find it difficulty or unpleasant, or think you were never good at it.

A math educator, lecturer, and workshop leader says, "One of the most significant things parents can do is to help their children understand the normalcy and the value of struggle in mathematics... Learning math ultimately comes down to one thing: the ability, and choice, to put one's brain around a problem -- to stare past the confusion, and struggle forward rather than flee." People who struggle with math assume they just don't get it and never will. Those who do not struggle believe their success is the result of ability, but then may lose their confidence the first time they hit a stumbling block. You can help your child expect, cope with, and work through the mathematical difficulties and frustrations they encounter.

You can also explore math together as a family. Just like you read to your child each night, you can find ways to include everyone in the family, without focusing on the stressful parts - speed and memorization. Here are some ideas to get you started:

1. Your child can practice rounding at the grocery store. If you are trying to keep track of the running total you can ask them to round each item to the nearest dollar. If an item costs $6.27, your child can figure out that rounds to $6.00

If your child is ready for more of a challenge they can do the rounding, and keep the running total in their head.

2. Your child can help you figure out the cost of your items after you apply your coupons. Give the amount of the item and show them the coupon. They can estimate the cost.

3. Challenge your third grader to track the number of minutes they spend watching television, reading, doing homework or eating. They can graph their data and compare the results on different days.

4. Play 20 questions with numbers. Think of a number - you can adjust the number based on your child's skill level. Ask your child to figure out your number by asking questions that can be answered with yes or no. For example, a child might ask, "Is your number odd?"

5. Play with math in the car. Challenge your child to find license plates whose digits add up to a certain number. Or you can skip over the letters and read all the digits as a large number. If the license plate read, '6G1 T43' the number would be 6,143.

6. Challenge your child with math riddles. For example:

I have 6 coins in my pocket. They are worth 30 cents. What coins might I have?

Again, you can adjust this game based on your child's skill level.

Have fun with math! :o)