Math can be a major struggle for children – starting in Grade 1 and continuing throughout their high school years and beyond. Children who find the subject less intuitive than others can often face hours of frustrating homework, alongside equally frustrated parents, a loss of self-confidence and a lose opportunities later in life.
Many adults who remember facing similar challenges with math may recall thinking that they would simply never use those concepts later in life. The fact of the matter, however, is quite different.
Help With Math Homework With Educational Fun
Math skills open career options such as those that involve managing time and money, everyday situations (how much food costs, how to calculate percentage discounts, and so on). Experts also successfully argue that adults who understand fundamental math concepts are good at solving problems, making sound decisions and using calculators and computers to find answers. Universities and colleges also offer a wider range of career options for student who do well in math.
Math does matter but where do you turn when your child’s math marks are in a downward spiral? What if hiring a tutor is outside of your financial means?
Parents and caregivers have the tools right at their fingertips. Think about how best you can create a “math culture” in your home. Simple household items can quickly be converted into your best ally to turn your child on to math. At the same time, you can have some family fun.
Educational Math Games Overcome Problems With Math
Give your child your digital camera, or purchase a cheap disposable one. Assign your child the task of taking pictures of anything either inside or outside of your home with an interesting shape. You may be surprised with the results. Suggest some unusual items such as the family pet, (its head, eyes and tail) a brother or sister and the climber at a local park. In the process, your child will get the message that geometry is all around.
Problems With Math Resolved With Fun Homework Helper Approach
Need help learning area and perimeter? Give your son or daughter the plastic tape measure from your sewing kit with a request to measure the length of the walls in his or her room (or a smaller room such as a bathroom or laundry room). If your child enjoys the challenge, ask for a calculation of the entire square footage of your house or apartment.
Provide Algebra Tutoring, Math Tutoring At Home
Using a calculator for multiplication takes too long and your child will find math much more difficult than it should be. The fact is that students who have not mastered their times tables up to 13 will often fall behind in math – and risk losing their confidence in school..
One easy and fun exercise is to take a piece of bristle board or tape together several sheets of smaller paper to make a large poster. Ask your child to make an enormous grid with 13 rows across and vertically. Write the numbers one to 13 across the top and down the furthest left side of the grid. Give your child some bright markers or crayons and ask he or she to complete the entire grid by multiplying the numbers. When complete, this giant times-table board can be posted with honor either in your child’s room or in another highly visible location in your home such as the kitchen or dining room. For the next few weeks, randomly ask your child a times table question – he or she can jump up to check the giant grid or, soon enough, will have memorized the answers.
A Family Approach to Tackling Problems With Math
Ask your children about the probability of teeth being brushed, hair being combed or having a clean room for the next week. These shameless hints may not make your child neater however, hearing your child use effective math language like “highly likely” or “improbable” will not only improve mathematics literacy when it comes to understanding and managing data – it will give you a good laugh together at the same time.
Estimate the number of hairs on your child's head and ask your child for an opinion. Ask him to estimate how many steps it will take to walk to the corner store, to the bus stop or the school. Estimating things in everyday life will provide a greater understanding of measurement and a better grasp of such concepts as quantity.
Above all, be positive about math. Let your child know that everyone can learn math and that the subject is important and fun. Also, learning about math from you, other members of the family as well as teachers exposes your child to a number of different ways of learning. While you may never have enjoyed or done well in math during your school days, don’t focus on your difficulties with the subject. Encouraging your child to be persistent and offering praise for tenacity with math is the greatest lesson you can teach.
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