Math Parenting: 5 Tips on How to Help your Child Study for Math
If I had to sum up these tips into ONE MAJOR SUPER AWESOME TIP, it would be EXPOSURE.
The more your child is exposed to a variety of sample problems, variety of strategies that can be used and a variety of explanation styles. THE. BETTER.
However, it’s important to know WHY exposure works. I think you, as a parent, should be knowledgeable about your childs’ education. Below are the tips that breakdown the reasoning behind my super-major-awesome tip.
1. Attendance
Yes, this one is obvious but I don't want to leave anything out. Everyone learns differently, and the more modes of information input your child is exposed to, the better.
MODES OF INPUT USED IN CLASS:
they will listen to their teacher (auditory input),
see the teacher (visual input) explaining the examples, and
they might do an activity in class (tactile input) and ask clarifying questions (verbal inputs). Sometimes students don’t ask questions because they’re shy, afraid to be judged. This is why a small group or 1:1 is so beneficial.
Modes of learning: Each type of learning style makes use of different areas in the brain. Multimodal learning leads to different pathways in the brain to become stimulated which improves memory retention.
This shows that learning does not only occur with ONE assigned “best” learning style because we are dynamic social learners.
Your child is capable of making all types of connections when exposed to different techniques and strategies to learning. There is more than one way to solving a problem, making use of tools in their toolbox they’ll come up with something.
2. Note-taking
They need to be in class to take the notes (kinesthetic input),
How do you use the notes you took?
Use them for Homework, to do Homework problems. Use them to study for tests, like the concept) (vocabulary words, processes via examples + the steps given from teacher)
3. Concept
Some concepts are inter-linked or stacked. This is why I like to start at the very basics because that’s the root of where concepts are built from.
DO NOT USE TRICKS to memorize generic actions.
Just memorizing a formula will not guarantee a child will know when to use it or what variables represent.
Your child needs to know not only the details of a topic, but also its relationship across other topics. When your child is able to make connections across topics, then that’s when its committed to long-term knowledge. They’ll have this information in their tool box for all kinds of uses.
4. Know the rules / formulas
What are the rules? The rules are the procedures and directions used to formulate an answer. Concepts and formulas (when applicable) go hand-in-hand. Like, properties of addition, multiplication…so on.
Example: Switching the numbers of an addition sentence will give you the same answer but this is NOT the rule for subtraction or division.
5. Peer learning
Peer learning (verbal input). Sometimes friends are able to explain how THEY understand the topic. Other times, they will make a connection from the new topic covered in class to something more relatable to THEM. Sharing this information makes it easier for the friend group to grasp. This is majorly helpful!
There are many benefits to having a partner or a small group to rely on. The most obvious is that two things occur: you get to learn in the group from others and you get to teach to others in the group. It promotes kids to be more inclined to participate because of the informal, comfortable and safe setting different from a classroom environment (Read: 6 Peer Learning Benefits for Your Childs’ Math Success).
If you want to see greater improvement in your child with math, let’s chat about how I can help you by taking a look at our services HERE.
