Helping Your Child Learn Mathematics

by U.S. Department of Education, Office of Communications And Outreach

We know from research that children are more likely to be successful learners of any subject when parents actively support their learning. Today, helping children to make the effort to learn, appreciate and master mathematics is more important than ever. Our increasingly technological world demands strong skills in mathematics, not only in the workforce but also in everyday life, and these demands will only increase over the lifetimes of our children. To ensure that our children are ready for high school and on track for success in college and the workforce, parents must become involved early—and stay involved over the school years—to reinforce children’s skills in and positive attitudes toward mathematics. Starting in elementary school, children should be learning beginning concepts in algebra, geometry, measurement, statistics and logic. In addition, they should be learning how to solve problems by applying knowledge of math to new situations. They should be learning to think of themselves as mathematicians—able to reason mathematically and to communicate mathematical ideas by talking and writing. Through the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, President George W. Bush has made clear his commitment to the goals of raising standards of achievement for all children and providing all children with highly qualified teachers and instruction that is based on scientific research. Helping Your Child Learn Mathematics is part of the president’s efforts to provide parents with the latest research and practical information that can help them both to support children’s learning at home and to understand what they should expect from their children’s schools. This publication includes a range of activities for families with children from preschool age through grade 5. These activities use materials found inside your home and also make learning experiences out of everyday routines, such as grocery shopping and doing laundry. The activities are designed for you to have fun with your child while developing and reinforcing mathematical skills. We hope you and your child will enjoy the activities suggested in this publication and develop many more of your own.

Genres: Nonfiction

84 pages, Paperback

First published May 22, 2013

Reviews

[Denis · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a booklet that is put out by the US Department of Education as part of the "No Child Left Behind" program. This book contains a lot of neat tips on how to get your child engaged in Mathematics. The bottom line to it as you can guess is for the parent to become involved. They stress that the more involved the parent is with helping the child look at every day situations mathematically, the less the child will fear dealing with math. Making math fun for the child early, helps them develop an aptitude for math.

I get the feeling that not many people have read these booklets put out by the government. Upon reading it, I found myself just basically agreeing that everything contained within it, is really just common sense. The booklet also has a very good list of additional resources where parents and children can go to get further engaged in math.

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Part of No Child Left Behind was the publication of Helping Your Child Learn Mathematics and I have read it several times during my teaching career, used it to encourage parents to help their children and be more involved with their education and the school. Most of the ideas are simple things for parents to do to help elementary age children with lots of resources listed for references to more ideas. I found that doing a presentation, like at a parent-teacher meeting improved the percentage of parents that used the book and increased the parents' participation in school activities including helping with homework.