Maths is a crucial part of your kid’s education and an essential life skill. Mathematics helps us to make sense of numbers, patterns and shapes and it also encourages us to think of new concepts and ideas.
Many parents lack confidence in their own math skills, or worry that their teaching methods will be different to current school techniques; however what many parents don’t realise is that they can teach their child maths by simply applying it to everyday activities.
Read on for some great tips from Parsons Green Prep School on how parents can teach their kids maths in fun and practical ways…
Everyday learning
Parents can help to develop their child’s maths skills by practicing together at home. This doesn’t mean text books and calculators; simply teach them how they can apply numbers to everyday situations. For example, counting money, playing games and measuring objects.
Encouraging your child to explore maths in everyday life will greatly enhance their numeracy skills and help to make learning fun.
Online learning
There are many online resources that can help your child to improve their maths skills, including educational apps. These are great because they can be downloaded onto a smart device, such as a phone or tablet. Many of these apps are free and often include games, which will help to make maths more fun. Download a maths learning app onto your family tablet and see who can get the best score!
Times tables
If your child is learning their time tables it can be helpful to display them on a poster at home. Find a large poster that clearly displays the times tables from 1 to 12 and pop it up somewhere they will see it every day. Regular revision from this poster will aid their memorisation and their understanding of multiplication.
Playing games
Finally, spend some quality family time together playing board games. Board games are another great learning tool for teaching maths because they get kids practicing without even realising it. For example, Snakes and Ladders and Monopoly are both great games for practicing counting, saving and spending.
This is a collaborative post.