I always like to share a list of parent tips for math at home during our back to school night, parent teacher conferences, and math nights. Math is taught differently now than when many parents were in school. There’s more focus on the basics, which is excellent. But that can feel incredibly frustrating when they try to help their child understand their math homework. I also encourage them not to say, “They aren’t a math person” or “I hate math.” I want math to be a positive experience; using fixed mindset messages will not help anyone.
☀Download this BONUS Guide with everything you need to create a growth mindset classroom and positive classroom community.
➕Includes definitions, lesson ideas, mindset surveys for students and teachers, and printable posters.
🧠💪Research shows a link between a growth mindset and math success. Kids with a growth mindset about their abilities perform better and are more engaged in the classroom.
👉Includes everything you need to start cultivating a more positive math classroom and students who love math. Download and get started today! Click here to download the Mindset Guide & Survey.
I often hear from parents how we are doing “new” math, and they can’t help their children. This is not true. Math is still math. We are just teaching it differently so children better understand the concepts. We need to help parents stay positive about math and support them in helping their children.
What Are The Best Math Tips for Parents?
Math can be a daunting subject. It covers a vast range of skills and is one of the few subjects where a strong understanding of the fundamentals is essential for future learning. So how can parents help? Here is the list I share with parents.
Be Positive
Many kids (and adults) feel anxiety when presented with a math problem. Math is a skill that takes practice, just like any other. If something is confusing, it just means they don’t understand it yet. Use a growth mindset approach, and you’ll both be amazed at what you can learn.
Be Aware of What They Are Learning
If your kid’s homework is confusing for you, ask them to explain their process. Math teaching today is all about student’s understanding of the skill, not memorizing rules.
Be supportive, and if you need help, there are a lot of online math resources.
Show Math in Everyday Life
Math is everywhere. You are doing math all the time. Find places to use math around your house to help your child’s math abilities come to life. Find these math moments and help your child see the value in math.
Ask Questions and Encourage Communication
When possible, try to open up some judgment-free conversations about math. Ask how it’s going and if they feel good about their new lessons. Ask questions and talk about the math you see in your everyday lives. Try to use math vocabulary.
Additional Parent Tips For Math You Can Share With Parents
Be Patient and Take It Slow
Math builds on itself, but it can be tricky to keep up if your child needs help with a new concept. When this happens, slow down and back up. Don’t keep pushing new ideas until they understand the old ones.
This same advice works for you, too. Be patient with yourself — it’s been a while since you’ve learned 4th-grade math, and the work may look a lot different now. But with some time and perseverance, you can help your child succeed.
Practice and Refine Math Vocabulary
Math vocabulary is all around us, but that doesn’t mean we’re very comfortable with it. Try using math vocabulary in everyday language; it will slowly start feeling less intimidating. Bring up percentages when shopping a sale, or talk about parts of a whole while cooking.
Show Math in Everyday Life
I have said it before, but it’s worth repeating — math is everywhere. Pay attention, and you’ll catch these math moments. When you do, share them with your child.
When kids are young, just counting or sorting is a great start. As they get older, look for math lessons while baking, shopping, playing games, or talking about money. Budgeting is a significant life skill that uses so much math. Find these practical math moments and help your child see the value of a math education.
Get Your Child to Teach You Math
Math looks a little different now. If your kid’s homework is confusing for you, ask them to explain their process. This is an excellent connecting moment to share with your child.
Use Online Math Resources
If you don’t understand a concept, there are plenty of websites and videos to help you. I had no idea how to do my son’s precalculus homework the other night. Thankfully, I was able to find a great video on YouTube to help us.
In addition, plenty of online games and resources help create a love of math.
How Parents Can Help With Math At Home
Math is everywhere. That’s great news for parents because we can talk with our kids about math in fun, natural ways. And that kind of math talk is crucial.
Provide activities that enrich and relate mathematics to daily life
- Talk about how many bowls to put out for dinner
- Fold napkins in different shapes
- Have your child count similar items as you put away groceries
- Have your child help measure ingredients for recipes
- Give your child change to count out to pay for small purchases at the store; have older children calculate the change
- Ask your child to compare prices of items by asking things like, “Which can costs more?”
- Allow your child to weigh the fresh produce; have older children calculate the price by multiplying the price per pound by the number of pounds.
- Read the days and dates on a calendar, talk about the number of days in the month, the number of days remaining until a special event, etc.
- Draw a scale map of your home and determine the best escape route in an emergency.
Math Nights
Many elementary schools host family math nights now. These events are opportunities to highlight what schools are doing in math classrooms and get buy-in from parents. In my experience, parents want to help their kids succeed in math, and changes they don’t understand can be daunting.
Family math nights can help them understand the motivation for those changes and give them ways to support their kids at home. With families on board, you’re way more likely to improve mathematics education at your school!
Math Night at School
Providing families with tips and activities is a great way to support parents. Parents want easy and effective ways to help their kids.
Math Night Activities Elementary School
Check out the Family Math Night Company, which will sell kits for your math nights.
Family Math Night at School
- Each person rolls the dice and adds, subtracts, or multiplies the numbers
- Dice and Money. Each person rolls a die and gets the number of pennies as dots shown. When someone gets five pennies, they trade it in for a nickel, dime, and so forth until they’re trading for a dollar.
- For two people, give each person 13 cards from a deck of cards, have each person flip a card, and then have your child decide whose card has the higher value to determine who wins the set of cards. Place three additional cards face-down in a tie, then turn the last card up; the higher card wins all the cards on that turn. Play until one person has all the cards in the deck.
- Newspapers and Magazines. Find numbers in print and cut them out, then glue them in the correct order onto a larger sheet of paper.
- Keep empty containers, write different prices on them, then play store using a calculator to add up the costs for different purchases.
What Are The Best Tips For Parents to Help With Math By Skill?
Computation Practice
- Count orally by twos, fives, or tens
- Count and pair objects found around the house and determine whether there’s an odd or even number of items.
- Review math facts at home, in the car, waiting in line, or during other downtime.
- Provide your child with verbal math problems. “Take the number five; add six; multiply by three; subtract three; divide by five. What’s your answer?” Speak slowly at first until your child gets better at solving these mental problems
- Encourage your child to read nutrition labels. Have them calculate the percent of a specific nutrient in each item.
Geometry
- Fold a sheet of paper in half and have your child draw a shape along the fold; cut out the shape and unfold the paper to create a symmetrical shape.
- Look around the house for geometric shapes like triangles, squares, circles, and rectangles.
- Use everyday household items, such as toothpicks, marshmallows, empty toilet paper rolls, twist ties, sticks, and paper, to construct shapes.
- Help your child recognize and identify real-world examples of right angles (e.g., the corner of a book) and parallel lines (e.g., railroad tracks)
Measurement
- Draw an analog clock face with the hour and minute hands showing eight o’clock. Ask your child to write the time displayed.
- Use a standard measuring tool to measure objects located in your home
- Review equivalent names for measurements. For example, “How many cups are in a pint?”
- Encourage your child to incorporate terms such as “whole,” “halves,” “thirds,” and “fourths” into their everyday life.
Statistics, Probability, and Graphing
- Open a pack of Skittles or M&M’s and make a bar graph showing the number of each color found inside the container.
- Find the coordinates of places on a map.
- Watch the weather report for a week, write down the temperatures for each day, and then graph the temperatures.
- Track the scores of games your favorite team plays, then graph them for several weeks.
Problem Solving
- Encourage your child to figure out answers to real-life situations: “We have one can of tuna, and we need five. How many more do we need to buy?”
- Ask questions that involve equal sharing. For example, “Seven children share 49 baseball cards. How many cards does each child get?”
Tips for Parents for Parent Teacher Conferences
We want to show parents we are partnering with them to educate their children. By providing tips and resources parents can use at home, we empower them to support their children.
Parent Teacher Conferences are another opportunity to share these tips and resources.
Additional Resources for Parent Tips
Tips for Math for Parents
Try sharing at back to school night, parent teacher conferences, and math night tips for parents to help with math. This will remind parents we are in a partnership and must work together to create a love of math.
☀Download this BONUS Guide with everything you need to create a growth mindset classroom and positive classroom community.
➕Includes definitions, lesson ideas, mindset surveys for students and teachers, and printable posters.
👉Includes everything you need to start cultivating a more positive math classroom and students who love math. Download and get started today! Click here to download the Mindset Guide & Survey.
Research shows a link between a growth mindset and math success. Kids with a growth mindset about their abilities perform better and are more engaged in the classroom. Share these positive parent tips for math at home, and let me know what other tips you like to share with parents.
