Top Tips for Helping Your Child with Maths

*This is a collaborative post

Maths is a core subject that is taught at school which has a reputation that precedes itself for being difficult and boring. In this particular subject, it can be difficult to get children to engage and knowing how to help as a parent can be even trickier, especially as curriculums change. We have teamed up with a private school in Beaconsfield to share a few top tips for helping your child with maths.

Make Maths Fun

Replacing the squared textbooks with unconventional resources can help your child to learn about maths through means that make sense to them. This might be fruit, toys or even sweet treats. You can use them to reframe typical questions into word problems with resources that they can physically move and count to help them. This method can be used for topics such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, ordering, ratios and even fractions.

Be Patient and Avoid Jumping In

Patience is essential when it comes to helping your child with their maths. While the answer might be on the tip of your tongue, waiting for your child to complete every step of their number problem can help to ensure that they understand and feel confident. Unintendedly jumping in can suggest to your child that they aren’t capable of working things out for themself, deprive your child of the opportunity to practice and confuse them further.

Display a Positive Attitude

A positive attitude to learning and maths in your personal life can help your child to see how important it is and develop an optimism to learn. To do this, refrain from saying that a maths question is too hard or that you give up and demonstrate an eagerness to try.

Maths in the Mundane

Highlighting different everyday activities that involve maths can help your child to see just how important it is. You can do this by setting your child a budget on how much they can spend on toys or sweet treats. This will encourage them to use their maths ability to get the most out of their allowance.

Learn About the National Curriculum

The national curriculum outlines the basic lessons that children should be taught and where they should be in their academic performance. Reviewing this can help parents to identify areas of importance to focus on with children in order to get them back on track or ahead of their studies.