Every parent wants to be a superhero in their kid’s eyes. Though some days, it may seem that you cannot get anything right, and even giving a hand with a home assignment becomes a challenge, especially when it comes to such a complex subject as math. Feeling helpless and unable to assist your schooler with mathematics can cause a lot of anxiety as no one wants to admit their weakness and incompetence.

The reaction of helplessness when dealing with math is entirely understandable, especially when you need to explain math for 4th graders that requires specific math knowledge. However, some ways to grow your confidence in helping your child learn math do exist. Moreover, there are plenty of various techniques and methods to shape your kid’s beliefs in their math skills. 

Check on these simple math tips for parents to assist you with evoking a math genius in your child.

1. Stay positive about math

Even if math has never been your cup of tea, don’t show this to your kid. Many parents are role models to their children, and your attitude may affect the mindset of a kid towards math. Psychology doesn’t recognize such a notion as “a math person”, which means that any individual can develop and boost their math skills. Instead of conveying some negative message about the complexity of math and the anxiety it brings to you, try to support your kid in their practicing process and turn studying into an exciting adventure, which can be quite rewarding provided you pay every effort. 

2. Showcase math as a real-world concept

Math is not about boring equations and challenging logarithms but about the world around us. When engaging your kid in learning math, help them notice it in every aspect of living. Start with simple operations such as counting houses on your street, guessing the height of the trees, or comparing the size of the cars. Such an approach will form a child’s proper attitude towards math as something exciting and crucial and develop positive thinking about math operations. 

With time, you will see that math can be incorporated into any topic of your daily routine. Talk about math when shopping, paying a bill at a restaurant, making savings, giving pocket money, etc. Demonstrate how math operations can be applied in your everyday routine. Let children learn math smoothly and seamlessly when discovering other aspects of the world. 

Games can be a perfect solution to practice math and contribute to your kid’s development. Various cards, blocks, puzzles to count, monopoly, and even outdoor activities are an excellent occasion to count items, compare their number, size, and volume, as well as practice addition and subtraction. Such an approach is a good opportunity to have quality family time and get some knowledge in an entertaining and pleasant way. 

3. Introduce innovative learning methods

Math is an exact science, but it does not stand still. The online world contains plenty of learning tools that can help boost your kid’s math knowledge. When surfing the Internet, you will definitely find various spreadsheets, math games, quizzes, and other exciting activities to take advantage of. As a rule, they are divided based on the grade, topic, and complexity level so that you can find necessary tasks in no time. Thus, you won’t have to waste time thinking about some creative approach for explaining math to your kid. All you need to do is include those valuable teaching resources for mathematics in your lessons and observe how your kid starts enjoying math more and more.

4. Make math an adventure

The school math curriculum is quite limiting as teachers must stick to definite topics and timeframes. Learning math at home is an excellent chance to go beyond the standard concepts and plunge into unrelated parts of math. Forget about grades and assessments for just a few hours per week – try to see math from an entirely different perspective. Find out what math aspects or topics interest your kid and focus on them in more detail. A brief research will let you collect enough material to discover something new about math that may evoke even more interest in your child and motivate them to keep exploring this magic science. 

5. Switch the roles

We learn best by teaching someone. It’s a standard rule which has proved to be really effective. Even teachers claim that once they start explaining the topic they know inside and out, they keep discovering something new and get a great chance to solidify their knowledge. 

When dealing with some math concept, pretend as if you don’t know the answer and have no idea how to solve the problem. Ask your kid for help and try to make them explain possible solutions to you. Even if a schooler cannot find a way out, the process of researching and analyzing will contribute much to sparking insights and motivating kids to learn more. 

6. Be consistent but take brakes

Math is far from being one of the easiest subjects. To build a proper kid’s attitude towards math, ensure it doesn’t affect their free time and hobbies. Everyone’s pace of learning is different,  and you need to consider your child’s rhythm and temper. Experiment with the lesson schedule: your kid may be active in the morning or, on the contrary, more eager to study at night hours. Adapt a schedule to your kid’s preferences to reach the utmost result – no need to hurry and sacrifice quality for speed.