Don’t succumb to hysterical fox-wing fear-mongering. The Core simply strives to advance students to a deeper understanding of mathematics, rather than rote memorization of algorithms. Dr. Jo Boaler from Stanford explains the how and why:
Tag: middle school
Suggestions for Making Math Real for your Elementary and Middle Schoolers
Here are some suggestions for things you can do to help your child with math outside of school.
Every night during dinner or after, have a math minute: ask your child what they learned in math class that day. Was it fun? Give your child a mental math problem based on what they learned that day.
Make sure the mental math problems aren’t too hard. If necessary, make the problems easier – but never be negative or display disappointment. Just be excited when they get one right. Always praise the effort, regardless of the results.
Additional suggestions:
- Make a point to praise your child’s effort in math, regardless of the results
- Ask if class was fun today, was the test fun?
- If you cook, have your child help you with the measurements, especially if you have to adjust the recipe.
- If you don’t know the meaning of a word on the homework, don’t be afraid to look it up, but don’t use yahoo answers, wikipedia is fine, or a math website.
- Have your child re-teach you what she learned in class today
- Take your child shopping and compare prices in differently sized bottles. On your smart phone show her how to check the price per ounce (before you show her that it is often written on the shelf) to decide which one to buy.
- Shopping: if something is on sale, have her figure out the discount and the price.