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Helping your child: show interest

Show genuine interest in your child’s math program: Try these questions with your child.

Show genuine interest in your child’s math program!

Try these questions with your child:

What could you buy with 300 quarters? How many potatoes could you fit in a shoebox?

Bill and Marty dry the dishes and Marty dries half as many as Bill. How many dishes did each person dry and what’s the total?

Make math fun and show interest in your child’s math program.

Practice basic math facts 10 minutes every day.

Talk with your child about their math class. Find out specifically what they did and what they were working on. What did the teacher talk about? What did the teacher show them? Did they work in groups? What was fun or interesting? Was anything confusing?

Communicate/meet with the teacher regularly about the math program. What is the math focus for the week, the month, the term? Visit the classroom. Volunteer! Too often, parents only meet with the teacher on parent night and often have limited knowledge about their child’s progress.

Review the textbook with your child. You can learn more about the content of the math program, brush up on your own math skills, and you will be able to better help your child if difficulties arise.

Review the BC Ministry of Education math curriculum documents. (www.bced.gov.bc.ca › irp). You will know exactly what the math expectations are for your child’s grade.

Practice how to solve word problems. Have your child read the problem out loud. Underline important words. Have them draw a picture to help. Substitute smaller numbers for larger ones. What do you have to find out? What do you need to do to find the answer? What is the first step? Is your answer reasonable? Can you solve it another way?

Children will feel more confident when their parents show genuine interest in their math program. We can all do that!

For any questions, comments, suggestions or open-ended problems, please email: gregsparks50@hotmail.com