MATH-COMMUNICATING WITH YOUR CHILD

Communicating with Your Child... about Math

If you’re like many parents, you may feel uneasy talking with your children about math. But you can learn to communicate in a positive and natural way about mathematical concepts, and thereby boost your child’s chances of success. Start by noticing if your communication style reflects "math anxiety." For example, if your child needs your help with math homework, avoid expressions like "I was never good in math" or "I don’t understand the way they do things today." Take a positive approach by saying, "Yes, math is hard but we can figure this out if we try. And if we need to, we can call Dial-a-Teacher for help." This shows a child that the struggle involved and the need for help are both normal and acceptable, not reasons to give up or to feel like a failure.

Math will seem more natural if you find opportunities to explore mathematical thinking in the course of ordinary activities. We use math daily - to get the right change, measure windows for new curtains or comment on Roger Clemens’ earned run average. Involve your children in such everyday problem solving and be sure to ask them to explain their reasoning. Also, estimating the answer in advance will help your child judge whether his solution seems reasonable.

Here are some suggestions:

For children in grades 4-8, more complex math projects are possible:

  • Have your child plan a budget for her allowance.
  • If you are taking a trip, encourage your child to plot the best route based on time, distance and cost. (A toll road may be faster and shorter but more expensive.)
  • Use sports to interest your child in such math processes as rankings and percentages.
  • Dice and card games can lead to talk about probability.
  • Build 3-dimensional models of buildings, airplanes or boats starting with cutout flat shapes.
  • Enlarge or reduce a picture using ratios or scales.

**Remember, abstract numbers are just a shorthand language for communicating about real-life situations. So make math part of your daily conversation.


Recognizing a Quality Math Program

If you visit your child’s class, you may be surprised by what good math instruction looks like. The teacher may still use drills and group responses, but may also have students writing what look like essays (actually, explanations of their solutions), talking in small groups about a problem, working with calculators or "playing" with instructional objects called "manipulatives."

That’s as it should be as math instruction moves toward the New Standards. Here are some other unexpected things you may see:

  • Learning in a mix of individual, small group and large group structures.
  • Problems presented in a context, with exploration, estimating and educated "guessing" encouraged.
  • Fewer "examples" to calculate.
  • Many strategies to solve one problem.
  • Use of technology to enhance concept development.
  • Doing mathematics through journals, stories, and observations.
  • Linking math to other disciplines like music.
  • Homework connected to what happened in the classroom that day.
  • Less solitary work in workbooks.

Parents can help improve their school’s mathematics program by making sure school budgets are providing things like manipulatives, calculators and other technology.