Top Tips for Helping Your Child with Maths

Maths can be a tricky subject for children to get their head around, and an even trickier one for parents to teach. Nevertheless, it plays a vital role in preparing children for the future which is why it’s a compulsory subject at school. For children to make progress in the area, as with any subject, it’s crucial that they do work outside of school to practise and improve on what they’ve learned in class. To help parents we’ve paired up with a prep school in Hertfordshire to share some of our top tips for helping children with their maths.

Practice Makes Perfect

The first thing to remember is that you don’t need to be a maths whizz. You can simply help by implementing a good study routine and making sure that their homework is done. Its importance can’t be stressed enough. Not only does the independent learning help, but it also gives their teacher the chance to see how they’re getting on and whether further support is needed.

Use Examples

One of the main reasons as to why children struggle with maths is because they can’t really relate to it as they can with their other subjects. Problems involving numbers are harder to conceptualise. To help children in understanding the logic behind the various operations, it’s a good idea to use examples. As maths is all around us this shouldn’t be hard to do. Everything from journey planning to totalling your grocery bill involves numeracy. You can use situations like this to also practise maths when you’re out and about and highlight its importance. 

Make Maths Fun

Another factor is a general disinterest in maths. Whilst it’s not the most exciting subject, there are fun ways in which it can be taught and practised. Interactive games do an excellent job at keeping children engaged and their brains active. There are lots of cool activities that you can find online, like maths penalty shoot-out games and more. You can also have a go at creating your own materials, like a card sort that can be used for a game of snap. 

Private Tutoring

Confidence may be another issue. Children are unique and have their own interests and things that they are good at. If maths is not their strong suit, they may benefit from tutoring sessions with a qualified tutor who can get them up to speed. As they become comfortable with topics, their confidence and willingness to participate in class will improve along with their ability.

Don’t Slate the Subject

Children are quick to pick things up and look up to their parents, so the way you look at maths will affect their attitude towards the subject. If you perceive it to be hard and difficult, they will too.

Find Out Which Learning Style They Have

We all process information differently to one another. Knowing which learning style your child has can help them dramatically in their understanding of topics. There are three main types – the visual, auditory, and kinaesthetic learning styles. Depending on which they have, you can tailor your home-schooling efforts and help them to take on board new information easily. If you can’t really decipher which learning style your child has from your general observations, you can complete a short VARK survey to find out. They are personality questionnaires which must be answered truthfully.

If there’s one point to take away from this post, it’s that practice makes perfect. The way you choose to go about that is entirely up to you and your child’s individual learning needs.  We hope that this post offered some insight and inspiration. For more content like this, be sure to stay up to date with my blog.