Math can often be the hardest subject for kids. Indeed, many child development specialists have dubbed this difficulty ‘math phobia.’ It is characterized by stubbornness and fits of anxiety about math homework and math tests. If this sounds like your child, you want to be sure that you take some measures to reduce this anxiety. Indeed, if you want your child to improve in math, you want to find a way to make math fun. Part of this requires teaching your child to love math early on. The earlier your child enjoys math, the better he or she will do later in life and they will have less anxiety about the subject. Here is how to help your child boost his or her math test scores.
- Make math a fun experience – the more fun math becomes, the easier it will be to study and to boost grades. One of the best ways to make math fun is to turn study time into an adventure or a game. Indeed, the more fun your child has studying math and doing his or her math homework, the less anxiety there will be about math, which should translate to better grades.
- Make sure that your child sees a tutor – visiting a math tutoring center, like Mathnasium, can be a huge help. Indeed, visiting a tutor, especially a specialized tutor will greatly improve your child’s grades. A tutor will have unique skills to make sure your child retains more information.
- Make sure that you talk to your child about his or her math phobia – sometimes talking about it can reduce the fear of math. Ideally, you want to start the conversation off slow – you don’t want it to be an interrogation. The more interrogative you become, the worse your child’s math phobia will be. When it comes down to it, you want to be calm, collected and you want to be sure you don’t have a negative tone.
- Make sure that you reward your child for good grades in math – the more rewarded your child feels, the more motivated he or she will be to continue doing a good job. One of the best ways to reward your child for a job well done in math is to take your child out to his or her favorite restaurant. You could also get your child a gift for doing well on a final quiz or test. Indeed, the more your child associates math with positive rewards, the better his or her grades will be.
- Make sure that you review your child’s homework – in most cases, math is about catching mistakes early. Ideally, you want your child to get in the habit of letting you know when his or her homework is done – you want to take a look at the final answers to make sure everything looks good. If you don’t sign off on your child’s homework, he or she may continue to make the same mistakes. In the end, catching mistakes early is imperative when your child is learning math.
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