Education

The Trouble with Math
Tips for Tackling Math Homework with Your Kids

By Rosanne D. Parry

Of all the subjects students bring home from school, math homework is the one that most often leads to conflict and frustration. Children typically need more help with math than other subjects – and parents typically feel ill-equipped to offer it.

There are many reasons for this unfortunate dilemma. One is that, over the years, teaching methods for math have changed more often and more dramatically than other subjects. It’s not just that your children are not learning the “new math” you studied as a child, they aren’t even learning from the text older siblings used five years ago. Another difficulty involves the sequential nature of math. It doesn’t matter in English if you study Mark Twain before or after Shakespeare, but you’d better understand fractions if you’re going to tackle algebra. If students miss even a small amount of instruction, they run into trouble later. A third problem is that students need to know if their answers are right or wrong on a math problem immediately after working through it. Without knowing if their approach is correct, they may end up doing all of their homework using the wrong premise.

All of these difficulties are intensified by increases in class size and math content and a decrease in the length of the school year. Fortunately, there are some simple things a family can do to increase students’ chances for math success. Here are some possibilities:

Handling Math Homework

1. Set a regular time for math each day. Just like music lessons, math is best learned by practicing 20 minutes at a time. One marathon session a week is simply not as effective. Choose a regular time and try to cultivate a pleasant atmosphere for study. Serve a snack. Play your child’s favorite music. Stress impedes memory, so setting a good tone will pay off in better work.

2. Use lots of paper. Collect a stack of scratch paper and encourage your student to write out each step of every problem. Many students leave out a step in the problem solving process, not because they don’t know it, but because there is no room to show it. Encourage them to write out all the steps on scratch paper. Don’t let them erase mistakes. When they run into trouble it helps both you and the teacher to know what strategy they have already tried. Don’t forget to staple the pages together and hand them in.

3. Keep math materials close at hand. A handful of pennies, seeds, grapes, M&Ms or game pieces are perfect to use as math counters. Many children need them to work out equations well into third grade. Older students may find counting tools helpful when learning a new concept such as fractions or variables. A ruler, measuring cups and a kitchen scale are also great math tools for a primary student. Older students should have a calculator, compass and protractor handy.

4. Try using the classroom method to solve the problem first. Look at the book or your child’s notes and see if you can figure out what to do. Even if you learned a way that seems simpler to you, give the classroom method a try.

5. If the classroom method isn’t working for your child, try a different approach. Make sure you show your work, so the teacher can follow your method. If both you and your child are unable to figure out the problems, write a note to the teacher on the assignment and arrange for some extra help the next day.

6. Correct the assignment as you go. Immediate feedback is very important. It prevents a student from memorizing a mistake and is particularly motivating to math students who lack confidence. Some math books have the odd number answers in the back of the book. If that’s the case, do the odd problems first checking the answers as you go. If the book doesn’t have answers, have your student show you her work every two or three problems when she’s working on a new problem type. If she makes a mistake, help her retrace the steps until you find the error. This will help her learn and remember the correct method.

Solving Math Problems Before They Start

There are a number of things parents can do to head off problems in math before they develop. The biggest help is to give your child extra practice in basic calculation. Katie Redden of the Hillsboro Sylvan Learning Center says, “The computation side of math is almost always the biggest issue for students who come to us for help.”

There just isn’t time in the school day for math drills but practicing with flashcards is easy to do at home. There are also workbooks and computer programs to help with drill and practice in addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.

It also helps to show your child how you use math at home, in daily living. Doubling a recipe, budgeting for a trip, calculating square footage of carpet or lawn, and figuring out gas mileage for your car are all useful skills that relate to math concepts they learn in grade school. Involving your child in these tasks reinforces their math skills while demonstrating the importance of studying math.

Some children have trouble in math due to their handwriting. Extra practice at home in tracing and writing numbers quickly and accurately can make math assignments more readable. If your child struggles with handwriting, try having her do her work on lined scratch paper or graph paper.

Make sure you see every corrected math test. Celebrate the problems your child got right and make sure he has a chance to review problems he missed. Some teachers will allow a student to retake a test and most are willing to go out of their way to help a hard-working student.
Pay attention as your child moves into more difficult math around the fifth grade. “Nine out of ten students that come to us for math tutoring claim that they need help in fractions,” according to Redden. Fractions are introduced in the fifth and sixth grades and are essential for progressing to algebra.

Perhaps the most important thing a parent can do is to maintain a positive outlook about math. Children are quick to pick up negative attitudes and insecurities. Your appreciation of math and of your child’s efforts in learning it will be rewarded.

Preschool Math Readiness

Here’s a checklist of skills your child should have before entering kindergarten.

___ 1. Count from 1 to 10 out loud.

____2. Name 8 to 10 colors and match objects of the same color.

____3. Name 5 or 6 shapes and match objects with the same shape.

____4. Sort objects according to their size.

____5. Count a group of up to 10 objects.

____6. Copy a pattern of up to 5 things.

All of these skills are easy to work on at the grocery store. Give a child an apple at the beginning of the trip and ask her to find five more things of the same color. Search together for the longest and shortest loaf of bread, the biggest and smallest box of cereal, the heaviest and lightest bag of flour. Hand a preschooler a post-it with a number on it and encourage him to look along the price tags for matching numbers. Count together how many eggs there are in a carton or how many bananas in a bunch. (An added plus for parents of preschoolers: I used to call these activities the “Grocery Store Mission,” and discovered, to my relief, that a preschooler with a mission is almost always a better-behaved child in the store.)

Finding A Math Tutor

There are dozens of tutoring options available from well-established learning centers to private individuals who will come to your home. For those with limited resources, here are five low or no cost options for math tutoring.

1. Talk with your child’s teacher about receiving extra help before or after school.

2. Many schools have a homework club staffed by one or more tutors after school (sometimes before). This gives a quiet setting, often supervised by teachers familiar with the school’s math curriculum.

3. The local middle or high school may have a list of students who will tutor in math. Some will do it for free as a part of required service hours; others will charge about what you would pay for a reputable babysitter.

4. Some public libraries have a room set aside for teenagers with a tutor present during after school hours. The Beaverton City Library, for example, has a math tutor in the young adult room Monday through Thursday from 4 to 6 p.m. The Multnomah County Library has an online tutor daily from 2 to 10 p.m.

5. Look to the Internet. There are numerous online math tutoring services, many of which at least claim to be free. Google “free math tutoring” to get started.

Rosanne D. Parry is a Portland freelance writer, mother and Study Skills instructor for Saturday Academy.

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