How can you help your child with maths at home?

We shared the article below with parents last year and have decided to publish it again following a recent conversation with several parents about supporting mathematics at home.

For many parents and carers, supporting their child's learning of maths at home can be challenging. It may have been some time since their own schooling or they may have negative memories associated with the learning of maths at school. An article was published in The Age last year called, “Helping your kids learn maths at home doesn’t have to be daunting”. Peter Saffin, the CEO of the Mathematical Association of Victoria and former teacher, shares his personal experiences of supporting his own 7-year old son through home learning. He highlights the need to make learning a positive experience.

Here are his top tips to help parents get through:

1. Use strategies: Learning maths is about reasoning and using many different strategies to solve problems and develop thinking.
2. Ask questions: Even if you do not know the answer! As mentioned in a previous article on Effective Feedback, questions can help prompt student thinking. E.g. What thinking did you use to get this far? What else could you try?
3. Be persistent and learn together: When things get challenging, adopt the growth mindset of “I can’t do that YET” and celebrate successes, however small, together.
4. See maths everyday: Take advantage of the maths that is all around us in activities such as, cooking, sport and shopping.
5. Stay positive and don’t pass on your baggage: Avoid statements such as, “I was never good at maths" or "I never liked maths".

“Helping your kids to do maths at home should be a positive experience for everyone.” Peter Saffin - CEO Mathematical Association of Victoria

This year, Assistant Principal, Joel Snowden and Teaching & Learning Specialist, Heather Jenkins plus several classroom teachers have been attending ongoing professional learning conducted by the Bastow Institute of Educational Leadership focused on the Teaching of Mathematics. 

Keys learnings which are shared with all of our teachers include:

• Effective Mathematics teaching and learning focuses on 3 main areas:
  • Mathematical Content,
  • Mathematical Proficiencies (Problem Solving, Reasoning, Understanding & Fluency)
  • Mathematical Dispositions
• School’s should use a range of assessment strategies to support student learning in Mathematics, not just traditional testing 
• One of the biggest shifts in Mathematics education is from closed tasks to open tasks and extended investigations
• Mathematics is as much about making mistakes and learning by doing as it is about recalling the right answer

Steve Meade

Principal

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