Top Tips for Helping Your Child with Maths

Maths can be difficult for a lot of young children who will be having multiple lessons a week on sums, maths equations, counting and times tables. But it’s a very essential skill children should learn to have, as it becomes a part of handling daily requests and being able to think on the spot. 

You may find that maths is a struggle for your child after receiving a poor score on a test or feeling reluctant to enjoy maths lessons. Having a chat with your child’s teachers can confirm this if you’re unsure or they’re not willing to share with you.  

Whether it’s giving your child support with their homework or motivating your child to get involved in their maths work at school, here are some top tips to help your child with maths from one of the best girls schools in Surrey. 

Reassure them that it does get easier 

The first thing you should address is the difficulty. For some children it’s just much more of a chore for them, so have a chat with them and explain that maths is made a lot easier through repeated study. Your child has plenty of time to work on their studies and shouldn’t feel bogged down over one test or one area they struggle with.  

Praise them for the effort they’ve already done, not just for good performance, and make conscious steps to improve their math skills through regular conversations and check-ins to see how they’re doing. 

Try different ways to practice 

The standard ways of practice involve regular sums and reciting equations and so on. These days children can get their maths revision in a number of different ways, such as online games and apps. 

Maths is actually all around us, so use the environment to your advantage. For example, if you go out for dinner, ask your child to calculate the final bill using their mental math skills. When shopping, get your child to estimate the total of the items in the trolley. Cooking is also another great way of building a child’s maths skills through fractions, using different measuring systems and how long something needs to be cooked in the oven for. 

When it’s time to do homework, break down the work together 

While every effort should be made for the child to figure out what’s required by themselves, there’s no harm in overseeing what they’re doing and how you can help them further. Start by looking at what the maths homework is asking your child to do. From there, you can break down the questions into smaller chunks.  

Next, in pencil, show your thought process by adding your sums and equations down to help you – something that’s encouraged throughout your maths studies. This can help children visualise exactly what they need to do for the next question, where you can oversee them. Try not to intervene too much as they’ll need to learn for themselves eventually, but never leave them stuck on a question for a long time. Motivate them to move onto the next question that might be more manageable for them.