11 Cool Ways To Help Your Child With Math [Updated 2021]

Is your child struggling with math? Do you help your child improve their math skills? Are you look for interesting and creative ways to build your kid’s confidence in math? Now, help your child overcome their fear of math through these amazing tips. You can use these tips in your everyday life to help your child succeed in math.

Children often have trouble with math and it is actually a common thing. There are many reasons why your child hates math. Many kids find math to be a difficult subject and develop a fear of math early in their life. Kids also tend to avoid math as much as possible because they fail to see the relevance of math in day to day life. However, mathematical knowledge is important and is beneficial for the child. Moreover, math finds its application in our daily activities even though we may not be aware of it. If we observe just a little carefully, we will find that math is everywhere. 

Many parents struggle as they have no clue how to help your child with math and get frustrated. If you are worried about your kid’s math abilities and want to help kids with math, you have come to the right place. With these amazing techniques, you will change your kid’s perspective on math and help them overcome any math issues they are having. Your kids will start loving math in no time!

We have provided 11 cool ways to help your child with math in this article.

1. Develop a positive attitude towards math

2. Include math in day to day activities

3. Play fun math games

4. Turn to technology

5. Utilize workbooks and worksheets

6. Build a solid math foundation

7. Reinforce math vocabulary

8. Identify the key areas your child has trouble with

9. Be flexible in your approach to math

10. Learn together with your child

11. Stay updated on current curriculum & new math methods 

Read on for more details.

1. Develop a positive attitude towards math

As a parent, it is very important for you to demonstrate a positive and happy attitude towards math. Children copy their parents and learn from them, and they will be very much affected by your behavior towards math. You should never say things like “Even I am not good at math” or “Math is difficult for all” as they may take the same attitude and may cause math anxiety . 

You should always provide encouragement to your child when they are faced with math difficulties. Teach your child to embrace obstacles as a challenge. Additionally, you can also assist your child if you are proficient in math. Even if you are not, you can always learn together with your child. You can also find out the specific reason why your child is struggling with math and work to solve the issue together. This will make a huge difference in your child’s attitude towards math and get your child interested in math. Try to talk to your child and let them know that you too are interested in learning math. You can also break the tension with some funny math jokes, which are actually great for remembering math facts.

2. Include math in day to day activities

When you are looking for ways on how to help your child with math, you need to understand that Math does not have to be learned only from textbooks. Math is an active and dynamic subject that is actually present in everyday life. By making your kids understand why math is important to learn, you will encourage them to see math in a new light and spark their interest in learning math. If your child has trouble with math, you can even do it during daily activities be it cooking, eating, shopping, traveling, or doing arts and crafts. 

For example, You can ask your kids to tell you the time and find out how many hours are left until dinner or you can ask them to read the number of items and practice the metric system during shopping trips. You can ask your kids to count the money after withdrawing from ATM or ask them to calculate the change to be received during any transaction or ask them to calculate the distance when traveling in a car. Opportunities for learning math is virtually limitless. You can also educate your children about various professions that require math like engineering, medicine, carpentry, designing, etc. By helping your kids’ transition from textbook learning to real-life applications, your kids will gradually change their mindset about math. 

3. Play fun math games

There are plenty of fun, light-hearted, and entertaining math games and activities you can play with your kids. Math games for kids come in many forms. Board games like Scrabble, Monopoly, Yahtzee, Checker, Dominoes, etc. help develop math skills. You can also use traditional playing cards, use dice for interesting math games, or solve math puzzles to enhance your kid’s math abilities. Playing math games is a great way to help kids with math and provide them with a hands-on math learning experience. 

It is no secret that kids love playing games and through these engaging math-based games, your kids will be learning math in no time. Moreover, you can turn these games into a family bonding activity and spend quality time with your kids. You can also turn these games into a competition and by providing small rewards, you will provide an incentive to your kids to learn even quicker. Soon, your kids will be doing calculations like a pro. 

4. Turn to technology

Technology is a valuable source for a host of math activities in the form of new-age math apps and games. Children nowadays spend a lot of time on their devices anyway. And by introducing them to amazing math apps and games, you will provide math help for kids and help them learn math effectively while they are having fun. 

There are plenty of excellent math apps in the market like Photomath, Khan Academy, and Brainly. Math learning apps have been receiving positive feedback from both parents and teachers. Some schools even employ them as a learning tool in classrooms and for assigning homework. The apps also make it a lot easier to trace your child’s progress in math by generating automatic reports. It also helps you identify the areas your child is facing math difficulties. You can also customize these apps according to your child’s current math level. Math games available today follow fantasy storylines and make use of interesting graphics and animation that will keep your child hooked. Some of the top math games in the market today are Prodigy, Math Blaster, Mathlantis, Dragon Box, and Twelve a Dozen. 

5. Utilize workbooks and worksheets

Math worksheets and workbooks are no longer boring and tedious. If you are looking for ways on how to help your child with math, there are plenty of innovative math worksheets available as hard copies and also online. Math worksheets are available as grade-wise, topic wise and timed worksheets Many schools have incorporated worksheets in their curriculum as well. These math worksheets can be a valuable learning tool to help kids with math, practice problems, and reinforce what they have learned in school. 

The advantage of worksheets is that they will help kids work independently and help them progress at their own pace. It will also teach them critical thinking skills and help them understand various math facts and concepts. The child will not be put off by worksheets as they are not like thick textbooks with multiple concepts. Worksheets also explain math concepts in a very simple and easy manner and help your child stay focused. It is also a great learning tool for developing mental math abilities.

6. Build a solid math foundation

It is essential for your child to have a solid grasp of basic math concepts and facts as math as a subject is cumulative in nature. If your child is having trouble with math, it may be due to a weak math foundation. When a child progresses to the next grade, the math problems in that grade is always built upon the math your child learned in the previous years. You need to make sure that your child has perfected the math skills of the current grade so there are no learning gaps in between. 

Without understanding the basics of maths, the child will definitely struggle with math as they advance and find it more and more difficult. They will not be able to simplify and solve math problems that are complex in nature. This will eventually cause your child to lose interest in math or fear it. If your child is struggling only with certain math problems, it could be that the child is lacking an understanding of a certain concept. You need to reinforce these basic math concepts. There are various ways through which you can help your child with math. You can tutor your child on your own or you can take the help of a math tutor to provide math help for kids. With a solid understanding of the mathematical foundations, your child will catch up to the current level with ease. 

Read about fun ways to remember math facts and employ math tricks to math easier and interesting.

7. Reinforce math vocabulary

Knowledge of vocabulary is essential to learning math just like any other subject. It is actually an essential component of math and one of the most effective ways on how to help your child with math. However, it is often taken for granted. Having a sound base of math vocabulary is crucial to developing a proper understanding of math questions. Lack of math vocabulary is one of the reasons why students struggle with math word problems. Math vocabulary is also important for understanding the relationship between numbers so the student will be able to formulate correct equations. Having a good base of math vocabulary will not only help kids with math and improve their math understanding capacity but will also help them discuss math issues or communicate math difficulties they are facing more accurately. It also improves reading and writing skills in math. 

Make sure to review math vocabulary with your child and integrate it in day to day lives. Take time to explain to your child if they forget something and always come up with creative ways to include math vocabulary in everyday conversations. For example, You are a foot taller than him, this packet has fewer cookies than the other packet, the table is round in shape with a diameter of 12 inches, this vase is shaped like a cone, this glass is one-third full, the distance to the park is 500 meters or our car is traveling at 30 kms per hour. 

8. Identify the key areas your child has trouble with

While helping your child with math, it is important that you pay crucial attention and identify the areas your child may be having difficulty with. Some of the reasons why your child is struggling with math could be because the child of lacking a basic math foundation, having math anxiety or it may be due to some learning difficulties.  

By identifying the key area your child is having trouble with, you can provide crucial mathematics help for kids and take proper steps to overcome math issues your child may be facing. Also, pay close attention to your child during home works and take note of if the child is taking all steps to solve a particular math problem. If your child is having a problem with homework, help them identify their mistakes, and encourage them to find other approaches. You can also turn to the math teacher for guidance to find out about your child’s performance in the class. Though this sounds simple, it will provide you with an insight into your child’s issues with math and can be highly beneficial in improving your child’s math abilities.

9. Be flexible in your approach to math

If you want to know how to help your child with math, you should make it a point never be rigid, repetitive, and monotonous, or focus on the one right method while teaching math to your kids. Instead, you should always encourage your kids to think about new ways to approach a problem during math difficulties. You can teach your kids different ways to solve the same problem and help them see the relationship between numbers. You can use different methods, concepts, and math tricks or even make use of visuals, mental calculations, graphs, etc. 

By focusing more on why or how than only the final answer, your child will be able to address their trouble with math. This approach will make math more engaging for the kids and help them develop intuition. It will also improve their logical abilities, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills. This way instead of memorizing math or following rules and formulas blindly to solve a math problem, the kids will try to understand the problem more. Math learned this way will be embedded in the child’s memory and they will not forget it. 

You can also read about how to help your kids study math effectively and make use of fun ways to make your child love math.

10. Learn together with your child

You may have seen many unfamiliar and new kinds of math problems in your child’s textbooks. It may have left you confused and unable to help your child with their homework. Math is evolving every day and you must understand that math has changed rapidly over recent years. Many of the old methods of solving math problems that you were taught during your school days are no longer used and have become rudiment. With new advancements in the field of education, these old methods been replaced by new and enhanced math teaching methods that focus more on a child’s reasoning skills. 

As much as your child, you yourself may be faced with math difficulties and have trouble with math. It can be overwhelming and frustrating but you have to take this as a positive challenge. Instead of getting disheartened, you can make use of this opportunity to learn together with your child. As much as you can teach your child, you can also learn from them. You can make utilize math apps. and solve math worksheets alongside your child.

11. Stay updated on current curriculum & new math methods 

As a parent, it is important for you to stay updated about the current curriculum followed in schools. This is important when you are coming up with ways on how to help your child with math. You need to understand what math skills need to be perfected in what grade. If you already have this information, it will be very easy for you to target the right areas where your child struggling with math and then incorporate these math skills into everyday life. It will also help you find appropriate and effective resources to help your child in the form of many math apps, math games, or math worksheets. 

Do not be shy about asking help from your kids’ math teacher if needed. Your child’s math teacher can actually provide you with valuable insight into your child’s performance in math and explain the math curriculum to you in a simple and easy way. They can also help point you in the right direction and save you much research work. There are also online forums to discuss with other parents whose children are facing similar math difficulties.

There are many new-age math curriculums followed in schools today like the Singapore method or Common Core Math that you can familiarize yourself with.

These are some interesting ways on how to help your child with math and make math engaging and interactive for your young kids. Try it out today!

Conclusion

You have to work in sync with your child struggling with math if you want to help them understand math. The most important thing is to encourage your kids to love math and utilize effective methods to teach math to your kids. You also need to work on helping your kids overcome their fear of math and help solve any math issues they may be facing. It is also equally important as a parent not to pressurize your children or make them feel they are not smart enough. With these methods outlined above on how to help your child with math, you will surely be able to get through math difficulties your kid is facing together as a team.

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