Most learning programs consider education as a line between two points – the teacher and the student, however, education is a triangle between teacher-student and parent. Parents play an important and decisive role in the educational process of a child. In infancy, children learn from their parents and people living in their proximity and that means that a child will also develop their learning patterns according to what they absorb from their parents.
In educational psychology, several studies show that the style of parenting predicts future learning disabilities and the capabilities of children in schools. For example, authoritative parents tend to care about the school performance of the child and not about the child’s developmental needs, hence the child will, later on, develop evaluation anxiety and behavioral issues.
Besides parenting, online schooling created additional pressure on parents to take the roles of teachers. Many parents had to aid their children with homework or assignments and that can be quite troublesome because of work and lost knowledge. Especially with mandatory disciplines like mathematics, which later on apply a small portion of knowledge in day-to-day life, it can be quite difficult to remember mathematical concepts, theorems, and operations as a parent or older sibling.
Even though the situation looks dramatic, there are several tips that parents can use in order to be able to assist their children in learning mathematics.
How Can You Help Your Children Learn Mathematics Easier?
- Adopt a positive and relaxing attitude: children are energetic sponges. If you as a parent welcome the learning process with tiredness and stress, the children will adopt the same attitude when it comes to learning: a stressful and tiring process. When parents are enthusiastic and positive about learning, their children will be more open to learning.
- Prepare a schedule and stick to it: creating a schedule offers a structure to which the child can get used. Once the child sets themselves to do homework or learn within a certain time frame, it won’t be such a stressful and unpleasant experience. Schedules are psychological tricks that enable us to stay focused within a certain period of time to receive our compensation like time-off, naps, or playtime.
- Partner up with your child: often when parents help children with homework, the child might receive additional pressure because they want to perform better in the presence of their parents or they are afraid they will disappoint their parents. If the parent will consider the learning experience as a learning opportunity for themselves, the child will perceive doing homework or being verified by the parent as a relaxing activity, like a game with their playmates. Also, a learning strategy is to ask the child to explain to you or “teach” you the lesson which enables them to develop critical thinking.
- Use games to memorize or test knowledge: a function of education that in the last decade has been criticized is the lack of practice of knowledge in daily life. Scholars have tried to introduce daily life elements into the educational process in order to make it more practical and useful. Parents can use games or family activities in order to either help children memorize mathematical concepts or test their knowledge. After all, practice does make mathematics better.
- Enroll them in additional learning programs depending on your children’s schedule, you can enroll them in extracurricular educational programs, be it a workshop or online class. However, you need to be careful not to overwhelm your child with activities. Children need sleep more than adults because they are still developing and growing up so their neuronal system must rest in order to work better.
- Combine school with sports: physical exercises and sports enhance the learning abilities of children, teach them social skills, and power up their health from the cardiovascular system to brain development.
All in all, parents need to be supporters of their children. They need to encourage them and guide them towards a natural and positive learning environment. Children have all the abilities in the world to perform well in schools, but they need the optimal parenting style in order to help them achieve wonderful things.
At Online Math Center...
…Our tutors combine curricular mathematical operations with fun activities. We thrive to create a stress-free and stimulating learning environment for middle school students or students that want to enter math competitions.
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