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MATHS AT HOME - TIPS FOR PARENTS
Helping your children to do Maths at home can be a positive experience.
Here are five tips to help you stay calm and carry on!
- LEARNING MATHS IS ABOUT STRATEGIES
Teachers value students using a variety of strategies to solve problems and develop thinking skills. The strategies that you would use to solve a mathematical problem are probably still current and used today and if they aren’t that’s okay too. Sometimes students like using one strategy over another so exposing them to multiple strategies is great. Talk about what strategy you used and ask your child to explain how they worked out a mathematical concept. There is a lot of learning that takes place during this time.
- ASK QUESTIONS
Help your child to unpack their learning (and thinking) by asking the following questions:
- What thinking did you use to get this far?
- What else could you try?
- Is there another way that is more efficient?
- What could the next step be?
- How could you find out more about what to do?
- Do you think others may do something different? If so, what?
- Can you show me another way of working it out?
- BE PERSISTENT, LEARN TOGETHER
Maths can be challenging and that is okay. Rather than saying, ‘I can’t do that,’ or ‘It’s too hard’ say ‘I can’t do that yet’, or ‘We will work it out together’. Research shows parental support is a major factor for student success at school*. Celebrate achieving small steps in solving a problem. Persist, be supportive and remember to focus on the thinking, not getting answers.
- SEE MATHS EVERYDAY
There is plenty of maths around you to develop numeracy skills, such as calculating, measuring, using numbers, interpreting data, asking questions for graphing exercises and recognising patterns. You can even ask maths questions when cooking, exercising, playing sports and the best time of all, when shopping!
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- STAY POSITIVE, KEEP CALM
Don’t pass on your negative experiences about maths learning to your child/children. Let your children experience maths positively. Remember we need maths for everyday life and studying maths has excellent career opportunities. Don’t say, ‘I was never good at maths’ or ‘I never liked maths’. Maths can and should be really fun and thought provoking!
I hope that I have left you with some ideas to consider.
Now, something to stimulate discussion in the home…
Look at the image below. Which ONE does NOT belong? Explain your reasoning.
Kind regards,
Eva Tomazos
etomazos@sktemplestowelr.catholic.edu.au