Helping your child to comprehend math can be challenging, particularly if your memory of doing math as a child still causes you to break into a cold sweat. However, sometimes a math-challenged parent can be the best helper for a young child because you will naturally have empathy and patience. The early stages of learning math can be important for establishing your child's attitude toward this much-maligned subject. By presenting basic concepts in a fun, compelling way, you can help your child to enjoy math.
Step 1
Demonstrate mathematical concepts in an interesting way. According to FamilyEducation website, it's important for kids to understand mathematical concepts in a visual way that's meaningful to them. You could demonstrate addition, for example, by putting one, two, and then three toys or other objects in a pile, and have your child tell you how many are in the pile. If math isn't presented in an engaging, relevant way, reports FamilyEducation, it will become a drone of meaningless memorization.
Step 2
Embark on a gardening project with your child. Math.com reports that a garden is abundant not only in vegetables or flowers, but also in math and science lessons. You and your child can measure the distance between planting sites, measure the rows, count or divide the number of seeds to be planted in each hole and calculate how many tomatoes have grown on each plant.
Step 3
Teach your child to write her numbers clearly. FamilyEducation says that roughly 25 percent of computational errors in math are related to sloppy or unclear numbers. Have your child practice writing legible numbers by having him trace over numbers you've written down. Advise your child to use graph paper while doing computation, so the numbers will be aligned accurately, FamilyEducation suggests.
Step 4
Clear up confusion right away. According to FamilyEducation, learning math tends to be cumulative; each lesson builds upon the previous lesson. So if your child hasn't mastered addition, it will be all the more difficult to move on to subtraction. If you see your child struggling with math homework, don't wait for the teacher to clear things up the next day. Take the time to explain the concept until she understands it.
Tips and Warnings
- Do puzzles with your child. Math.com reports that puzzles help children to solve problems and develop visual spatial skills which can be useful in math. Use balls to illustrate physical concepts. Math.com says investigations of which ball bounces highest, which ball floats, or which rolls fastest down a hill engender a basic curiosity about the physical world that will lend itself well to math.
