How to make Maths interesting for your child?

Have you as a mother of a school going child feel that your child is scared of maths or gets anxious whenever Maths come into talks? Why do children fear the one subject that is quite interesting and one of the most scoring subjects in the school? I too had this fear of maths during my childhood; however, my parents didn't know these hacks so the fear remained until I had a child of my own.

Why Do Children Develop Fear Of Maths?

Why do most of the children have Maths anxiety? Is it a scary subject? To be honest I too suffered with the same anxiety during my childhood times which was remained with me even in my higher classes. So much was the fear of the subject that I opted for subjects without mathematics. But now I realise the importance of the subject when I saw my son struggling with the subject initially. My parents might remain futile to offer me the exact visualization of the mathematical problems, which drifted my interests. But I was determined that my son will not suffer from the same fear and anxiety. So let's start with how to get rid of the fear.

How To Deal With The Fear Of Maths?

There is a relation between learning and maturity which needs to be perfect for understanding the basic mathematical operations like addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. First of all, we as parents should be able to conquer our anxieties/ fears about mathematics, which our child catches from us. So how did I deal with it? Well I started examining maths closely, and understanding what it is made of. When we are able to execute it, you will soon find the fear goes away.

How I Helped My Child Overcome His Fear Of Maths?

Evidence based research says that there are six major factors which makes children to avoid maths. I being a mother of 10.8 year old child started practising these factors into my own child and to my surprise he became much comfortable in understanding mathematical operations than ever before. I kept evaluating/ re-educating him with the basic arithmetical operations on regular basis which brought confidence into him to confront the things that caused him to avoid maths before. So what are those important factors?

What Are The Important Factors To Combat The Fear Of Mathematics?

Let us share these six important factors to combat the fear of mathematics.

1. Empower visualization: The major drawback is lack of innovations in our conventional system of teaching, which makes maths a dud and boring subject. Students fail to visualize the concept taught by the teacher, and hence their confidence level gets down. Timely removal of this disassociation towards the subject from your child can improve their maths performance to your surprise. I always acknowledge my child's chronological age with his mental age while giving him mathematical problems which facilitated me eventually in understanding his abilities to visualize a problem. Every day I fill him with confidence by saying if he is smart at any skill that proves he can equally be smarter at maths. This constant feeding has incredibly taken away his fear of the subject
2. Never cut corners: The legitimate cause for this unexpected fear about the maths is when we have ignored maths in our lower classes and even didn't pay much attention during our middle school; our foundation remained weak enough to carry it for the further. And we better know sky scrapers can never be made on weak foundations. I skimmed out this problem by giving my child arithmetic problems lower to his current class. Initially, I got surprised how much he knows, finally there are only few skills which he needs to master before he is ready to catch up with his current syllabus. And gradually he learnt those skills. I made him realize that he is not as far behind as he thinks! It's never too late to catch up. We can brush up even our never acquired skills also
3. Command over tables: I use to give my child dodging tables to practise till the table of 9 almost on daily basis, which made him confident in his maths class. As most of the children rely on finger counting, or if a multiplication sum is given they follow the complete multiplication steps to get the answer which takes more time and even the simple problem seems difficult for them to crack due to lack of command over the tables, which prevents them getting attached with the subject
4. Avoiding rote learning: Sometimes due to the overburden of other home works, we tell our children to just have an oral glance over the problem which is never a right way of developing logical skills. It is better not taking up that day, than making rote learning, which will surely demonstrate its influence in the answer paper of maths. There is never a day in my home without making him understand the importance of time management, which is really leaving a positive effect on him in understanding the division of time for each subject
5. Interaction with the subject teacher: If a Maths teacher does not enjoy mathematics, then how can we expect children to develop a liking towards the subject? Mathematics is abstract. Children cannot see it. They need to visualize properly for solving a mathematical operation. Visualization comes from the everyday experience and relating mathematics with it requires a very strong subject expert. So, when the academic session starts I meticulously take a watch for few days at the maths teacher in order to realise whether my child is in appropriate hands or not. And if I find that the teacher is teaching fundaments without much of illustration I do the following.
   • I approach the teacher first in an ethical manner rather approaching school authority first
   • A real teacher should be abble to convert maths classroom into a real life challenges that can be amazingly gratifying to conquer
6. Breaking down the complex formulas: I teach my child how to smash his real life problems into parts, which is exactly to be done to the mathematical problems or formulas. When he comes across any complex formula or a problem, I tell him to first isolate it, break it down into little parts. Since because every formula is made up of little parts which he has already learnt in the lower grades. Even, if I find him little weak on any of the step which is making up the whole formula, I just tell him how to go back and work on your building blocks. While concluding my writing i must emphasize the joint efforts of parents and their subject experts can help in improving their performance

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