5 Ways to Help Your Child Progress in Maths
A lot of children experience difficulties when it comes to Mathematics. Aside from poor interest in learning, it could be caused by the availability of technologies that perform quick math operations like calculators and computers. If you notice that your child is having difficulties in his/her maths lessons, the following five ways could be of help to improve your child’s number skills. But these techniques are not only beneficial to struggling students. They can also be used for further progression and mastery of the subject.
1. Ensure that your child masters the fundamentals of Mathematics
When your child knows the fundamentals or basics of mathematics, equation or problem solving would be an ease. What are these fundamentals? For young children, these are the concepts of counting and basic math operations like addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Either you or the Maths tutor should explain the rules involved in these operations. If necessary, do the operation using actual examples like sticks or toy blocks. Memorizing is also helpful but ensure that your child understands the concepts he/she needs to memorize.
2. Apply mathematics in your everyday life or your child’s daily activities
Related to the idea of letting your child understand math concepts is the idea of incorporating problem solving in his/her daily activities. In every human activity, there is math involve so this should be an easy thing to do. Let him/her count your ingredients when cooking, calculate your grocery expenses/receipts, estimate time, count his/her toys, etc. Another good alternative is make problem solving a daily challenge or game. You can also ask your child to recite the multiplication table every now and then.
3. Seek the help of a Maths tutor
If you don’t have time or are not familiar of the best methods in explaining maths lessons to your child, you can just delegate the task to a personal Maths tutor like those offered at First Tutors. The tutor will serve as your child’s teacher outside the school. And because of the one-on-one dedication, the tutor can identify your child’s weaknesses and try to improve them.
4. Train your child to do math mentally
Of course, maths lessons are first learned using the fingers or pen and paper. But if you want your child to progress on his/her math skills, teach your child to do math mentally. Being able to solve math problems on the head alone has several benefits like faster completion time during the exams, quicker calculations when buying or selling items, etc. The best way to do this is to ask your child to picture the mathematical operation which should have been written on the paper. Instead of pure numbers, you can also ask your child to imagine and substitute numbers with fun characters.
5. Introduce advance maths lessons
Finally, how could your child progress when he/she is stuck with the old and same lessons or mathematical operations? If you can see that your child has already mastered previous lessons, it’s now time to introduce the tougher ones. For example; you can move on to algebraic equations once your child is already perfecting pure and decimal numbers. If your Maths tutor fails to notice and do so, suggest it to him/her.
