When You’re Not a ‘Math Person’ and Your Kid Needs Help

From the New York Times, by Abby Freireich and Brian Platzer. For the whole story including more detail, go here.

To help children in elementary and middle school grades learn to think and solve problems for themselves, you don't have to have all the answers. A positive attitude can go a long way. As teachers
and tutors who are also parents ourselves, here's our advice.

Avoid telling your kids how much you hate math/used to hate math/were a terrible math student. If kids hear your negative messaging, they are more likely to develop a poor long-term view both of math and of themselves as math students. Instead, emphasize that you understand the problem is tricky and that what matters is that they work to solve it. The focus should be on the process of figuring it out.

Pose questions to get your kids thinking for themselves. You don't need to know the answers Asking questions will lead kids on the right direction and allow them to take more ownership of their work...

Encourage specificity. Ask which part of the problem is confusing. Frustrated children may respond, "all of it." Start at the beginning of the problem and try to have them talk their way through the parts that are unclear...

Encourage your kids to:

Rephrase what the question is asking…When kids feel stuck, they should start off by restating the question by putting it into their own words.
Visualize and draw pictures...Especially when it comes to geometry and word problems, drawing a quick sketch labeled with relevant numbers and information can help students "see" what is happening in the problem in a clear way.
Walk you through the material...
Show work by recording each part of the problem...
Write neatly and organize information clearly...
Slow down. ..
Check work over.