Please don’t give your child an excuse to dislike math by making comments about your own school experiences with it or your distaste for it. It is important for parents to be positive, active supporters of
learning process to help encourage a child. A parent’s attitude can and will influence that of their offspring. Don’t undermine your child’s potential by exposing them to your prejudice toward subjects in school that may have given you difficulty.Parents need to be aware of and consider following five areas that relate to mathematics in today’s schools. Giving these ideas some time and thought can provide an overview of current situation and role that parents can play in assisting their children in becoming successful in mathematics.
1) Think about how mathematics has changed over past few decades. Think about how there has been, and rightfully so, a greater emphasis on mathematics and science. In our technological world there is an ever greater need for students to graduate in those fields, and that need will not go away. In fact, future top careers will call students being prepared with skills that they learn in their math and science classrooms. Guidance in career direction from parents into those fields can be encouraging to youngsters.
2) A parent does not have to be a "math wiz" to help a child become interested in mathematics at an early age. The many things that parents can do at home include following general categories that lend themselves to games and activities: counting games, using common household items; rhyme songs about numbers, helping to reinforce prior knowledge; grocery store shopping adventures; trip planning, exploring distance and gas mileage, coin counting, helping to recognize value and basic facts; probability, as in heads/tails predictions; and making flash cards to reinforce basic math facts. There are many more categories and dozens of activities for each category that can be easily done at home. Parents can learn of these many activities from classroom teacher, parent booklets, and internet.
3) If parents visit a math class in today’s schools, they will see some differences in math instruction compared to when they attended. The approach to mathematics has undergone some positive changes that parents should be aware of. There is an emphasis on following: different ways in which a problem can be solved; skills concepts, using mathematical language and knowing why; students as risk takers, participating without fear; talking and writing about mathematics, keeping math journals; working in groups or with a partner; more frequent formal assessments; mental math, reinforcing need to be able to do math without paper and pencil; and more use of computers and calculators to support math.
