Top Tips For Helping Your Child With Maths

 

Maths can be a tricky subject for children, but the good news is that maths ability is not set in stone and there are ways you can help your child improve. A lot of it comes down to confidence, so it’s important to work on boosting your child’s self-esteem as much as developing their cognitive skills. Here’s some advice from a senior school in Kent on how you can support your child with their mathematical learning. 

 

Nip problems in the bud

 

It’s a good idea to monitor your child’s progression in maths so you can spot any areas of weakness or potential problems as early as possible; this means you can address them before your child loses too much confidence or before it starts to affect their other mathematical skills. If your child is struggling with foundational skills such as counting, addition, and subtraction, and they aren’t given the support they need to overcome these struggles, they might find it difficult to progress to different areas of learning. Identifying problems quickly will allow both you and your child’s teachers to support them appropriately. 

 

Practise in everyday life

 

You can bring maths to life by pointing it out in everyday activities and using them as a chance for your child to practise; for example, when you’re out shopping challenge your child to add up the items in your shopping basket as you go round the supermarket and see if they’ve got it right when you get to the checkout. You could also ask them to count out the right change to pay for your shopping. When you’re driving, use it as an opportunity to talk about distances and speed and baking with your child can help them understand measurements and timings. They’ll soon see that maths is all around us and so it’s important for them to get to grips with it. 

 

Talk positively about it

 

It’s important to discuss maths in a positive way and emphasize that with hard work and determination your child can overcome any stumbling blocks and develop their maths ability. Try to avoid suggesting that people are either good at maths or they’re not, as this sends the message that there’s no point working on weaknesses or surmounting difficulties. It might be better to explain that maths is a skill which can be developed, not an ability which is determined at birth. 

 

Adopting these strategies will help build your child’s confidence in maths and help them realize that it’s something which can be worked on and which will get easier over time.