Have you ever found yourself going round and round in circles when trying to help your child with math? Believe it or not – I’ve been there! Yes – I’m a math teacher – a lover of math
Hello, this is Caroline from www.mathsinsider.com and I’m going to talk today about a question that a Maths insider reader asked which was,” How can I help my child with their maths if I’m not a math person?”
I understand where you’re coming from
So to start off, I’d just like to say that I obviously…I really like maths, I love sciences, I like geography, history I like most of the subjects, but one of the subjects that I don’t feel completely confident in supporting my kids in is English or Language Arts. I kind of like reading sometimes, I don’t like fiction, most of what I read is nonfiction and the whole kind of grammar and constructing sentences is just not my kind of thing. I obviously like to write a bit, hopefully if you’ve looked on Maths Insider you’ll see that, but I can feel you when you say that you feel as you’re not a maths person, I feel as though I’m not like a languages kind of person, and to make things more interesting, I am actually home schooling my 9 year old, so I need to support his English learning, his writing and his grammar.
This is my advice based on my knowledge of maths and my experience as a home schooling mother who has to support her children’s English learning.
1. Research math education tips
No. 1 is to do lots of research, Maths Insider obviously, is a good place to start, I’ve got lots of articles about how to help your child with maths, but also look in other places, there are some good Facebook groups you can have a look at, or school support Facebook groups and also some home school groups. There’s lots of information in home school groups about how to help your child with maths. Often you can get drawn into a political discussions about, is Common Core good or is this method bad, but it’s best to just research, just have a look at the different kinds of ideas.
2. Pick suitable math resources
My 2nd tip is to pick resources that suit you and your child, because you’ve got your different strengths and weaknesses, your child has different strengths and weaknesses and preferences, so if your child has been at school all day, where they are likely to have done lots of writing, and they come home, don’t let them do lots and lots of worksheets. Maybe pick something that’s an app or a printable board game or just some oral questions. So try to tune any resources that you use, try to tune into what resources will work for you and your child.
3. Learn the math with your child
The last tip is to learn with your child, so for example if you need to help your child with addition of fractions with different denominators, then learn how to add fraction with different denominators with your child. So Google adding fractions with different denominators. Australia year 4 for example, if that is your country or Common Core grade 4 or UK year 4 or year 5 and have a look to see what videos are available, if there are images available, if some examples are available and sit with your child and show them, “Look I’m not really sure about this, but let’s learn this together,” and that is actually going to help your child feel better, because it’s not okay sort of, you know everything and they know nothing and you’re going to put the information their heads, it’s, “So okay, there is a problem here let’s figure this out together.”
So if I go back to the beginning:
No. 1 is to research, look at Maths Insider, look on Facebook groups (the Maths Insider Community FB Group would be a great place to start!) and another good tip for researching, I forget to say this earlier on, is actually go to the book store, get a workbook and maybe have a look at the book for younger than your child’s grade level for your child’s grade level and have a look in the contents page because then you’d likely find a list of the topics. So flip through the books and you’ll be able to see, “Oh yes, my child does know this, this, this and this, but maybe this they don’t know.” So that’s a good way of trying to figure out exactly what kind of topics you are going to need to support your child in.
- Number 1 is do your research
- Number 2 is pick resources that suits you and your child’s learning style and teaching style
- Number 3 is learn with your child
