Teaching kids a school subject of any kind takes patience, experience, and an ability to relay the information in a way that they’ll comprehend the material.
Teaching them math is especially difficult because there are so many different aspects of it to understand.
They can’t learn any other material until they understand each step. For example, your child won’t understand multiplication and division without a firm comprehension of addition and subtraction.
Fortunately, there are several hacks that you can use to help them study and learn mathematics. Here are several tips for teaching children mathematics. Consider how all of these recommendations will cater to your child specifically.
1. Teach Them the Process
In order for a child to fully understand how math works, they need to be given the “why” behind each solution.
That’s why it’s especially helpful to take a few steps back in order to help them understand. By expanding upon the solution a bit more, you’ll help them retain the information better.
For example, simply telling them that 2 x 4 = 8 isn’t enough. You should explain to them that multiply the 2 by 4 is the same as adding 2 together 4 times.
Look for any opportunity to dive a bit further into how the mathematics work and they’ll take tremendous strides as a result.
Getting your child involved in a math curriculum will ensure that they’re given a definition of each process as they learn.
2. Keep a Positive Attitude
You might’ve hated math as a kid, but it’s vitally important you don’t reiterate that to your child. If you do, you’re only justifying them becoming more frustrated and having more resentment towards mathematics themselves.
Instead, try to keep a positive attitude and look for any opportunity to work math into your everyday events.
Maybe you’re counting the items in your grocery cart, reciting your numbers out loud, or sitting them down with you to count out money as they get older.
You have to keep this facade up for as long as they’re in school. It will be something you both can laugh about years later after they’ve graduated from school.
3. Integrate Color When Possible
Different colors have different effects on each child, but they all help stimulate the mind and improve memory retention.
For that reason, it can be a great exercise to use different colors when working out math problems. This will also help them to organize the numbers as they go through more advanced equations in later grade levels.
Not to mention, it adds a bit more fun to a subject that may not be all that appealing to them. If the math doesn’t come naturally to them, it’s up to you to find different ways to liven things up.
Be sure to stock up on colorful gel pens or crayons (depending on their age) to do some problem-solving.
4. Understand Your Child’s Grade Level Standards
No child will automatically understand things such as multiplication or long division overnight. However, there will come a point where they’re expected to understand it enough to move on to the next phase.
As their parent, you should take the time to familiarize yourself with the mathematics standards of each grade that your children are in.
Knowing this can help you remember what math problems you can be helping them with at home.
By simply being aware of these standards, you can ensure your child is putting the info they’re learning in the classroom to use in the real world!
5. Use Items to Count
Some of you might have a younger child that’s having an especially hard time counting out their numbers. If you don’t help them improve on that now, they’ll struggle with it for the rest of their life.
Sometimes all you need is to just cater to their learning patterns. Your child is either an auditory learner (hear), visual learner (see), or tactile learner (do).
If you’d consider them to either be a visual or a tactile learner, then laying out different items to count can help them improve.
Use things such as cookies, crackers, toys, cards, and other household items to let them count out loud and gain the confidence they need.
As they improve, you’ll notice that they will start to count the items in their head rather than needing to count them aloud.
6. Proofread Your Child’s Homework
This should be prefaced by saying that you shouldn’t proofread your child’s math homework every night.
Doing it every night would make them too reliant on your approval to think for themselves. Therefore they’ll have less confidence in their work when you aren’t around to give them the thumbs up.
However, if your child is expressing difficulty with one aspect of their homework in particular, such as square roots of algebraic equations, then you can give it a glance after they’re finished.
Try out the first few math problems with them to provide pointers and help them get the hang of it.
Once they have a better understanding of the process, it’s time to let them figure out the rest for themselves!
Use These Tips for Teaching Children Mathematics
Math is a strength for some people and a weakness for others. No matter which it is for your child, you can use these tips for teaching children mathematics to help them.
Remember, keep a positive attitude and help them understand the bare essentials for each math problem, then let them figure out the rest.
Be sure to browse our website for more helpful information on teaching children, as well as other helpful topics!