1. Learn
some math yourself. You can make learning part of your family
culture by showing that everyone in your family is learning something
new. This doesn’t mean lecturing your kids on the virtues of
lifelong learning—it means modeling it yourself. There are lots of
free online resources (try edX, or Khan Academy) for learning (or
re-learning) mathematics. In addition to becoming more knowledgeable,
you will also grow in compassion for their struggles. As adults it’s
easy to forget how vulnerable it is to be completely clueless (and
possibly not perfect at something the first time around.) Putting
ourselves in the place of the student goes a long way in helping us
understand our child’s experience.
2. Connect
with their math teacher. Most schools have open houses or parent
information nights where parents can come and meet teachers. Show up
to these events and it will make a difference to your child and their
teacher. As a teacher, meeting a parent signals to me that my student
has a supportive home environment, and it’s helpful to get a fuller
picture of their lives outside of the classroom. Establishing a
relationship also makes it easier to reach out if there are questions
or concerns later in the year.
3. Make
sure they have clean, quiet place to work with the supplies they
need. Many of the students who struggle in my classes are highly
distractable, and environmental cues are helpful for signaling that
it’s time to focus and get to work. Most teachers provide a list of
supplies at the beginning of the year. It’s a good bet that for
math class they will need pencils, erasers, paper, and a ruler. Other
possibilities include a scientific calculator, and graph paper. Be
sure to check in every couple of months to see if they need refills.
4. Show
them real math at work in everyday life. To stay motivated, your
child will need come up with their own reasons why it’s important
to study math (and these are likely to change over the years.) We
work on this some in the classroom, but it’s extra effective if it
also comes from home. Statistics in news articles, measurement in
building and cooking, probability in decision-making are just a few
of the different kinds of mathematics in the world around us.
Practice looking and you’ll see more and more.
5. Offer
encouragement to build perseverance. Everybody struggles in math
at some point in their lives. Yet we seem to have this idea that,
“Either I’m a math person or I’m not.” The reality is that
there are a lot of different kinds of mathematics, and a lot of ways
to be good at math. Struggling with math one day does not mean that
you won’t find satisfaction or even joy in it later. Seeing
mistakes as an opportunity for growth is a mindset that will help
your child in math class and beyond.
