Helpful Hints

Here are some helpful tips for supporting your student's learning in Math:

· Keep a positive attitude. Instead of saying “I was never good in math,” or "I just don't know," say “Let’s try to figure this out together” or "We just don't know it YET, and that's okay!"

· Be aware of and share times when you need to use math in your day to day life (estimating or rounding prices at the grocery store, estimating the area of a new rug, calculating the perimeter of a room, figuring out miles per gallon, etc. Math really is ALL around us!)

· Ask your child to explain their thinking when they solve a problem.

· Use flash cards to help your child learn basic math facts.

· Skip count by 2’s, 3’s, 4’s etc. This will help with multiplication.

· Practice counting money and making change.

· Cook together and have your child measure or double ingredients, even half the ingredients.

· Fractions: talk about parts of a whole. "How many pieces in this pizza? What fraction is that?" "How many boys are in our family? What fraction of our family is girls?"

· Practice telling time and figuring out how much time has passed. "How many minutes until our favorite TV show?"

· Play games together: cards, rummy, Monopoly, chess, checkers, Uno, Battleship, Yahtzee, Dominoes, Connect Four, Farkle, Chinese Checkers, Tic Tac Toe, Life, puzzles, card games etc.

· Play number games in the car: Add or multiply #’s on license plates, , count red cars, practice math facts with numbers you see, find factors of the speed limit (speed limit is 30, factors would be 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 10, 15, and 30).

· Sports: keep track of scores and statistics.

· Math surrounds us; encourage your child to experience math in the world around them!