Math Help for Your Children

I have an 8 year-old and we are heading into 3rd grade. Yikes, 3rd grade math, where they aren't allowed to count on their fingers anymore to help with math problems! To help prepare for this major move, we have instilled a few secret cheats that are helping us make major progress with our math problems! Hopefully some of these steps will work for you and your child, too.

The first thing I started doing was reviewing Tyler's homework. His teacher would send home math problems they had done in class and it was amazing for me to see how many of the same math problems Tyler missed over and over. I started making him sit down at the table with me when he came home from school and going over the math problems he got wrong. Often he misunderstood the entire math problem, but once I explained how they were done he was able to do all the math problems that he got wrong.

Flash cards are an easy way to help children remember math. We started with simple addition, from 1 to 10 plus 1 to 10. I made Tyler write all the flashcards himself as an extra layer of learning. At first, he struggled with almost all of the answers. He had a "right" pile and a "wrong" pile and he was very discouraged with how big his wrong pile was (I made him do the wrong pile over until they were all in the right pile). As time went on, he became better and better and soon had confidence and pride in the fact that there were fewer and fewer in the wrong pile! This is also a good activity your child can do by themselves with minimal supervision, perfect for busy times when you are distracted.

Use games to make learning math fun. Flash cards and repeating homework are great tools, but after a long day at school your child may rebel if you ask them to do any more math problems (believe me, I know!). So you have to find ways to "trick" them into learning math by having fun. A great way to learn math is to play family games that revolve around counting or adding. One of our favorites is Monopoly. We slow the game down and let Tyler add up the dice, then count out the spaces the token needs moved. Any game that involves money is great! Tyler counts out how much is owed and even works on subtraction when he figures out how much change he should receive. We also like Dominos and Rummy where you count your score by 5s and 10s. This is an easy way to make counting fun and at the same time spend quality time with your children!

Learning math doesn't have to be dreary, but it is necessary to help your children, especially if they are having a hard time grasping certain math problems. Focus on the areas that they are weak in and then cut lose and have some fun! Your kids will thank you and not even realize they are learning at the same time!