A good parent is a national treasure and we need to make parents and families partners with
their children's teachers and principals in the process of education. [Riley 1994,12].
I charge each and every one of you ... to stand firm in your beliefs that every parent has
vested interest in our common goals of setting and achieving higher standards for mathematics
education. [Price, 1995, 51].
Hello Parents!,
My aim in this page is to provide you with information on how to make our children interested
in Mathematics. In addition to providing you with this information I have also provided you with
links to other sites on the Internet where you may learn this rather complicated but seemingly simple
task. It is indeed a combination of both your help and the teacher's help that the child will be
positioned for a better and more technologically challenging tommorrow. (since the children of today
are the leaders of tommorrow)
This Week's Tip - Do It Together!!
When parents have a better understanding of current mathematics instruction, they are better able to
assist their children with nontraditional mathematics activities. For example, children and parents
can go on a home scavenger hunt: If the answer is 12, what might the question be?. Searching helps both
children and parents see 12 in many different ways, from a dozen eggs in a two by six array to the twelve
buttons on the touch tone telephone in a four by three array. Understanding leads to quality family time.
The more that parents engage in a meaningful mathematics with their children, the more likely they are to
say "our project" or "we had fun solving that puzzle" rather than "my child's homework" or "the way the
teacher does mathematics." Doing mathematics then becomes a positive experience rather than a chore. Parents
who work with their children to solve, play with, or enjoy mathematical activities discover mathematics as a
family pasttime just like reading a book, baking cookies, going to the park, or watching a movie together.
Older siblings may even choose to play with their younger brother or sister because they enjoy doing a mathematical
activity that they remember. [Shool-Family Partnerships - Parents, Children and Teachers benefit!. by M. Ford, R. Follmer
and K. Litz.]
True to word, this is the best way by which the children can understand that Mathematics is indeed fun and something that
is more than some stuff at school. Make the children aware that you use it everyday by showing them. This may be done by
showing that grocery bills actually add up to the total and asking them to see if it is right [ for simple addition problems ].
Indeed, some may argue that some subjects do not truely map directly to everyday life. You as a parent can in such a case get a
book on the subject and work it through with your kids, or you may request that I feature it on this site, and then both you
and your child can then walk through it. This is the best way to make the kids feel that the learning is indeed not confined to the
classroom but also can be fun and done at home.
Links to other educational sites
Brain Teasers
Electronic games for education in Math and Science
Send me a mail (Suggestions for this site, questions or any other including a particular topic you want me to feature next week)