Parenting Information

5 Ways To Help Your Kids Do Math


Uh oh.

Your kids arrive home with their school reports and it's poor marks from the math department. Now what do you do?

You may not be a math teacher, but thankfully there are ways you can help your kids improve their grades.

Studies have shown that children are much more likely to perform well in a subject that interests them.

So here are 5 ways to get your kids excited about math and actually looking forward to the next math class:

1. Inspire them.

Some kids don't enjoy math because they just can't see the point of it. Unlike reading or painting, all those mathematical symbols and numbers don't seem to mean anything.

What you need to do is show them how important math is in the real world.

Tell them stories about the great engineering feats throughout history. From building the great pyramids of Egypt, to the Hoover dam, to the latest space missions to Mars, nothing would have been achieved without mathematics, and mathematicians.

2. Get practical.

Involve your kids in some real world math away from the classroom. Find something your child is interested in and relate it to math in some way.

For example, do they like baseball? Terrific. During a game, ask them how many points the losing team has to score to beat the other one. And how many games do they need to win before they have enough points to win the league?

If they enjoy helping around the home then let them do the "clever stuff". Ask them to work out the sizes for that wood you're going to cut. Or get them to measure out the ingredients for the cake you're about to bake.

When you're in a store, ask your kids to add up the prices and keep a running total while you shop. Then ask them how much change you should expect at the checkout.

3. Take life "step-by-step".

Success in math - as in life - is largely about breaking large projects down into manageable, bite-sized pieces.

Many kids feel overwhelmed when they see a list of math questions, and it's at this point they may decide that math is "boring" or "hard".

Show them the magic of taking one question at a time, and breaking it into tiny steps that make it easy.

4. Encourage creativity.

Kids may become mentally "stuck" on a topic because they're only looking at it in one way. Perhaps they need to step outside the box and see it from a different angle.

Show them the beauty of alternative viewpoints. Help them to see situations from other people's perspective.

Get them into the habit of exploring different ways of solving a problem. Even something simple like tidying up a room can have several possible "solutions" or ways of approaching it.

Crosswords and lateral thinking puzzles are good for this kind of flexible thinking.

5. Be positive.

Eliminate negative statements like "math is hard" (even if you thought of yourself as a math dunce at school!).

Explain how everyone has a natural ability to do math and that solving math problems isn't so different from solving other kinds of problems in life.

Above all, inspire confidence in your kids. Teach them persistence and how there's always a solution to every problem.

We all perform better when we enjoy what we do, and getting kids interested in math is the real key to success.

They may not turn into mathematical geniuses, but they'll thank you in later life when they enter the world of work and start counting their salaries.

Now who said your kids couldn't do math?

'Fun With Figures' shows anyone of any ability the easy way to do mental math. Visit the site today and find out what you didn't learn in the math class. Click here ===> http://FunWithFigures.com

  


MORE RESOURCES:

Us Magazine

Charlize Theron on parenting son Jackson (minus her potty mouth)
Los Angeles Times (blog)
We've always loved Charlize Theron for her sleek blond beauty. And the way she talks like a sailor. Think of her beautifully executed turn as Mavis Gary, the foul-mouthed lead of last year's "Young Adult." While Charlize isn't actually evil, ...
Charlize Theron Not Too Hard On Herself As A New MomMTV.com

all 16 news articles »


'Facebook parenting' is destroying our children's privacy
CNN
Editor's note: Aisha Sultan is a parenting columnist at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and recent Knight Wallace Fellow at the University of Michigan. Follow her on Twitter: @AishaS. Jon Miller is director of the Longitudinal Study of American Youth in ...

and more »


The parallel universe of parenting
Fremont Tribune
One, is that parenting baby ducks is a difficult task. And two, some parents are better (or luckier) than others. Case in point is the current crop of ducklings that call this small, old sandpit home. The first batch that we noticed was a darker, ...



PsychCentral.com

Parenting Tips: Yelling vs. Choices
Eastern Arizona Courier
If you yell on occasion, you won't damage your kids, but still, it is not a good parenting strategy for creating good behavior. A screaming adult can activate a child's fight-or-flight response, which in turn shuts down his ability to think something ...
Respectful Child Discipline Starts with the ParentPsychCentral.com (blog)

all 2 news articles »


National Post

Apodaca: Don't listen to parenting naysayers
Daily Pilot
The photo was a provocative lead-in for an article on the latest controversy over the issue of child rearing, the practice of what's called attachment parenting. Now the subject is all over the news, providing fodder for talk shows, ...
Crying over (breast)milk: Muddling through in spite of the mothering absolutistsNational Post
Attached at the NipPatch.com

all 3 news articles »


Positive parenting – raising children into successful adults
DI-VE
by di-ve.com - editorial@di-ve.com Parenting techniques based on love, encouragement and discipline are more likely to encourage children grow up secure, disciplined, well-behaved and with high self-esteem than criticising them and using incorrect ...

and more »


Jo Dee Messina's Parenting Blog Featured in The Tennessean
Great American Country (blog)
By Sarah Wyland | Leave a Comment Jo Dee Messina's humorous parenting blog, The Fumbling Mom, will be featured in The Tennessean. Debuting May 24 and periodically going forward, the paper will share content from Jo Dee's blog in its Family section.



Parenting group bans unvaccinated adults
msnbc.com (blog)
By Diane Mapes The recent whooping cough (pertussis) epidemic in Washington state has prompted the parent support group PEPS to issue a new policy regarding participation in their groups. "Because of the pertussis epidemic in Washington, ...

and more »


TabTimes

This week in tablets: For devices, publishing and even parenting, simplicity ...
TabTimes
by George Jones May 26 2012, 1:10 am Comment Also inside: Cisco bids sayonara to the Cius, and Yahoo does the same with LiveStand. Validation for tablet devices, users, and developers came this week across multiple categories, industries and lifestyles ...

and more »


Quigg: Much of parenting is reactive
Herald & Review
Some of parenting is proactive: planning ahead, laying out positive expectations and being ready with knowledge and resources. But much of parenting is reactive: helping our children learn to deal successfully with whatever comes their way.


Google News

Article List | Index | Site Map
All logos, trademarks and articles on this site are property and copyright of their respective owner(s).
The comments are property of their posters, all the rest is Copyright © 2006 CanadaSEEK.com - All Rights Reserved.