Tips to Offer Parents for Helping Their Children with Math

You’ve heard it before from parents: “I can’t help my child with math…I’m not good at it either!” Remind your students’ parents that they don’t have to be mathematicians to help their children through math homework. Here are a few ways parents can be effective:   

• Have their child walk them through homework problems. Math is a subject in which it is easy to make careless mistakes. When children get answers wrong, parents should have them work through the problems step by step aloud.  

• Encourage writing down questions. If math becomes too advanced for Mom or Dad to help, they can still serve as a sounding board and nudge their child to write down what exactly they don’t understand. Then, the child can bring those questions to you for a more productive and focused conversation.   

• Ask about other strategies. In math, there are often multiple ways to solve problems. When their child is working on a math problem, a parent should have them explain how to do it and any alternate ways to solve it. This creates an opportunity for the child to think through what they discovered when attempting the problem the second way.   

• Use other examples. Parents can have their child refer to examples that you went over in class when struggling with their homework. If a worksheet was based on problems covered in a textbook, it might help the child to show their parent how those problems worked and use them to figure out the ones they’re working on.    

• Suggest calling a classmate. Especially for middle and high school students, sometimes the best way to get help is to call a classmate. Parents should encourage this when it makes sense and their child feels comfortable doing so, as it can be a quick way to get help.   

As math becomes more difficult, many parents feel concerned when their children struggle because they’re not equipped to help. If you have a student who needs outside-the-classroom instruction and is also missing skills, refer them to Huntington. We’ll design a customized tutoring program to get them back on track, no matter what level of math.