- How do you react when you see a math problem? Do your palms start to sweat, does your mind go blank, do you start to feel physically ill? Approximately one third of children feel anxious when doing math - and the scary part is, this anxiety has been found in children as young as 5 years old. We need to help children see that math is more than just right and wrong answers or sets of facts and rules, so they can find the joy and beauty in it.
Here are some tips for how you can help your child develop a positive relationship with math:
- Watch how you talk about math at home - when children hear adults talking about how hard math is or that they do not like math, they adopt these feelings and these can be really large obstacles to overcome
- Help your child see that math is an important part of everyday live
- Play games that promote math learning (see Resource for Supporting your Child)
- Encourage curiosity
- Avoid math tasks that involve time constraints (e.g., Mad Minutes)
- Help your child see that mistakes in math are not bad but are opportunities to learn
- Ask them questions that focus on the process and not necessarily have one right answer
Activity: Primary/Junior/Intermediate
Look at this picture with your child and discuss the following questions:
- What do you notice?
- What do you wonder?
From there, choose one question that they want to know the answer to, and work together to solve it.
To find out what your child will learn in math this year or to find other fun activities that you can do together as a family, please visit our Math page.
Be sure to also try our Problem of the Month.
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