Whether you think your son or daughter is struggling to keep up in class or you would like them to get a head start on upcoming topics, helping your child with maths at home is a great way to supplement the teaching they receive at school. However, the problem that most parents encounter when they want to give their children a little extra maths tuition is not knowing how to structure the lessons. You may be very good at maths yourself but unless you have teaching experience, putting together a 1-hour lesson plan could be something of a challenge. To help you get organised, we’ve put together 5 top tips for helping your child with maths.
Helping Your Child with Maths at Home: 5 Top Tips
Follow the tips below to make the most of the time you have to help your child with maths.
Obtain Details of Your Child’s School Curriculum for Maths – If your main aim is to ensure that your son or daughter can cope with the maths they are being taught at school, the first thing you need to do is get hold of a copy of the school maths curriculum so that you can follow along with their progress throughout each year.
Use Testing to Assess Current Level of Understanding – Age-appropriate tests that are designed to evaluate your son or daughter’s math ability can help you to establish how well your children are currently doing. At Kinetic Education, we use our Maths Doctor Assessment to identify what your child does and does not know about the Australian Curriculum. Most importantly, we will identify if any learning gaps are holding your child back. From there, we will be able to plug those gaps with personalised lesson plans and tutoring.
Utilise Online Resources – There are many online resources that you can use, whether you are looking for general help with learning math for toddlers or more structured online maths tuition for children of all ages. A structured course with assistance from a real maths tutor, such as what we offer, is a great choice for busy parents who would like to make sure their children get the help they need from qualified professionals. Wherever you are in Australia, you can take advantage of our programmes and you’ll be pleased to know they are designed to make child math learning fun, by presenting the material in a way that fully engages their interest.
Consider Using Rewards as an Incentive – Most children would rather be doing anything else than studying once they have finished school for the day but by avoiding extended sessions and offering small rewards for the effort they make, you can incentivise your kids to do their best. At Kinetic Education, we use a rewards system and real prizes which helps keep the children engaged and excited to complete their lessons.
Combine Learning with Practical Activities – An effective technique for parents who find that kids and math just don’t mix very well is to find ways to integrate learning with practical activities. These activities could take the form of trips to the local shops, where you let your children work out how much money you need to pay for your shopping, or perhaps preparing a meal and asking your kids to weigh out the ingredients.
If you would like more information on our online maths programmes, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with one of our friendly staff.