Math can be a tricky subject for many students. In fact, math anxiety is a common occurrence among many students and inhibits learning and confidence in the subject. Often, math is viewed as a difficult subject, that can sometimes feel impossible to many students. Math mentality creates an ideology that math is difficult which instantly creates a mentality of “I am not good enough” or “I cannot do math” among many students, especially as time goes on and math becomes more difficult. One way to ensure your child does not have math anxiety and help them succeed in math, is by properly preparing them. Here at Success Tutorial School, we have compiled a list of tips and tricks to help prepare your child for high school Math. Continue reading for a list of tips and tricks to support your child!
Review Past Concepts
One way to prepare your child for success, is to ensure that they understand math concepts that have been previously taught. In order to move forward successfully in math, it is important consolidate past concepts so that your child has a solid understanding before adding additional information to the concepts. This can be done by keeping past homework, assignment, quizzes and tests for your child to review. You can also review the math curriculum with your child to ensure they understand each concept thoroughly before adding new ideas and concepts.
Instill Studying Skills
Teaching your child appropriate and effective ways to study and review, will certainly help them in the long run when it comes to reviewing and preparing for math. Students do best when they have solid time maintenance skills. These skills allow them to carry out studying in a timely and effective manner. This allows them to focus during their study sessions as well as feel relaxed and prepared. One of the better ways to study math is to review questions in the textbook and to have your child ask themselves “why” while completing math tasks and applying formulas. By asking the “why” this allows your child to consolidate the information and understand which formula to use when.
Hire a Tutor
Hiring a tutor can help your child gain a better understanding of the math concepts at hand, especially as they become increasingly more difficult and complex. Not only, does this allow your child to gain a better understanding, but they become more confident in their abilities to understand and complete math tasks. If your child feels confident in the math tasks and concepts, you can also have the tutor teach the next steps for future and more complex math concepts with your child, giving them a leg up in school. Here at Success Tutorial School, we aim to meet your child where they are and provide them with the skills and the confidence that they need to be successful in high school math.
Review the Syllabus
Preparing your child for their years in high school math is important, one way to do so is to keep them one step ahead. This can be done by reviewing the syllabus provided by your child’s teacher. The syllabus is an outline of what your child will be learning throughout the year and when their assignments, tests and exams will be. Reviewing the syllabus allows your child to be prepared for what is coming next and refine their knowledge and understanding in certain topics before moving onto the next.
Growth Mindset.
As mentioned, math anxiety is a real struggle that many students face. Students often result to the mentality of being unable to do math, thinking to themselves that “this is too hard”, “I cannot do this” or “I am not smart enough for this”. This mentality sets students up for failure, where students often give up before even trying. A growth mindset is a skill to instill into your child. Growth mindset changes thinking from “I can’t do this” to “I can’t do this yet”. This allows students to feel as though with some effort, dedication and support, they are able to accomplish anything- including difficult math concepts!
Teach your Child Resilience
Teaching your child resilience allows your child to be successful in many areas, including math. Resilience is the skill where children persevere and continue, despite facing challenges and difficulties. Not all children are born with resilience and this skill needs to be explicitly taught. Provide your child with encouragement to continue and try new strategies when they face challenges. With developed resilience, your child will face a difficult math problem with a sense of curiosity as opposed to a sense of defeat. Resilience is a key skill to develop in order to prepare your child for high school math.
Encourage Your Child to Ask Questions
When your child is at school, they should be taking full advantage of their time in class in order to understand the concepts being taught. Encouraging your child to ask questions and seek support allows them to take full advantage of the lesson. As soon as they are having difficulties with concepts, they should ask the teacher right away. Some students who do not ask questions, are found to fall farther and farther behind, as the rest of the class moves on to new concepts and ideas. Asking questions as soon as your child does not understand, allows them to stay up to date and follow along with the rest of the class.
Attend Office Hours
Much like asking questions in class, going to teacher office hours is a great way to stay ahead in math. If your child still feels that they are struggling, attending office hours prevents them from falling further behind. Office hours are also calmer and more private than asking questions in the classroom, where there is often a lot of hustle and bustle which could make it more difficult to concentrate. Additionally, office hours are a great way to demonstrate initiative and developconfidence for your child to advocate for themselves and their needs. These skills will help prepare your child for high school math and keep them on track.
Peer Support
Although seeking support from adults is a great strategy, another great method is to seek support from classmates. Developing a study group is helpful as it allows students to comb through difficult concepts together. This creates a sense of community in math where this subject may sometimes appear alienating of those who understand vs those who do not. Not only can your child gain insight from other students, but they themselves can teach other students which further consolidates information and understanding in the subject.
Make Deeper Connections with Real Life Examples
Learning from textbook and in-class examples are some of the main forms of teaching and learning in schools. However, although these are useful for learning they may not always be practical for real world application. One way to support your child and prepare them for high school math, is to encourage them to make deeper connections with each math concept they learn. Instill math into their everyday life by having them measure and convert ingredients in the kitchen, understand dimensions of cupboard doors for a project, or calculate the time it takes to walk so many kilometers to the grocery store. Implementing real-life experiences into math allows students to make further connections and consolidate information.
Communicate with Their Teacher
One of the best things you can do to ensure success for your child is to keep open communication with their teacher. Teachers often provide insight of difficulties they are noticing in the classroom. This allows you to have an inside scoop as the parent on some areas of focus that your child should work on. Not only can the teacher provide insight, but you as the parent can provide insight to the teacher about your child, as you know them best. Providing information to the teacher about your child, can allow to teacher to know your child better and create strategies that help your child learn and increase their focus when learning. Parents and teachers are integral to student learning, therefore keeping open communication between home and school is important to set your child up for success.
Math can be a tricky subject, where students often feel behind and lack confidence in the subject when they arrive to high school. Providing your child with the necessary tools for success is extremely important when it comes to high school math. This could include developing advocacy skills, resilience and consistently practicing math outside of school. Here at Success Tutorial School we understand that many students benefit from additional academic support, especially when it comes to math. We pride ourselves on meeting students where they are at and developing their math skills to create confident learners. We have devoted ourselves to provide tutoring and lessons that support our learners, build their confidence and solidify their understanding. Our goal is to bridge any gaps they may have in their learning. We are also able to move students ahead in their learning to give them a head start before high school. Give your students a leg up by enrolling them into our Math tutoring program found at Success Tutorial School, where we aim to bridge any gaps in your child’s learning! With 29 years of experience we will provide your child the tools they need to succeed. You can ccall us at our following locations: SCARBOROUGH: (416) 412-3170 – RICHMOND HILL: (905) 709-9819 – MARKHAM: (905) 471-3131 for more information.
