SUPPORTING YOUR CHILD’S LEARNING in MATHEMATICS
- Mathematicians take time to think about problems and ideas. Make sure you give your child thinking time when solving any maths problem . You might say: "Have a think about what this problem is asking you".
- Encourage your child to use the strategies they’ve learned. Ask: "Which strategy would you use to figure this out?" and "Can you show me how you did that?".
- Remind your child that they can also draw pictures and create models and use objects to solve problems.
- Praise your child’s effort and thinking rather than praising correct answers.
- Find a quiet place to work with your child away from distractions such as mobile phones, TV or other siblings. Setting these boundaries demonstrates the importance of homework.
- Stay positive. Saying "I was bad at maths too" can actually lower your child’s expectations of themselves. Instead try "We’ll get there" or "We can figure this out together".
- Incorporate maths into your everyday life such as making up problems and investigations, measuring when cooking, counting money, calculating the distance when walking, or the speed when driving in the car.
- Automatic Recall of Multiplication facts is a vital part of most Maths concepts. It is important that your child knows their facts. You could help them by quizzing them, skip counting with them, singing multiplication songs, timing them etc.