As parents and educators, we all want our kids to succeed in school and in life. Teaching kids math can help set them up for success now and for the rest of their lives.

But let’s be honest — teaching kids math isn’t easy. It can be hard to know where to start, what resources to use, and how to keep your child engaged.

Don’t worry, we’re here to help. This ultimate guide will give you everything you need to teach your kids math, from tips and tricks to the best resources and games (including math apps like HOMER). By the end of this guide, you’ll be a math teaching pro!

Why Is It Important To Learn Math?

Math is one of the most important subjects for kids to learn. Not only does it help them excel in other subjects, but it also prepares them for future careers. In fact, many jobs these days require strong math skills.

Math is also a vital life skill. Being able to do basic math calculations, like addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, can help kids manage their money and solve everyday problems.

How to Teach Kids Math: 19 Tips for Parents & Educators

1. Use math apps to make learning fun

Let’s face it — most kids love playing on tablets and phones. As parents, we’re not always happy with the idea of our kids having screen time, but there are ways you can make that screen time very productive.

The best math apps can make it fun for your kids to master basic math skills while playing fun, engaging games.

HOMER is a great app based on early years educational techniques to help kids understand mathematical concepts in a fun way. With the help of HOMER, parents can structure the math teaching of their children in fun and engaging ways.

HOMER primarily teaches kids everything from reading to foundational math concepts. Songs ( i.e audio) & visuals are effective ways to learn and reinforce conceptual learning. Skills like sequencing, counting, and motor skills are effectively promoted in multi-sensual activities as well.

For parents who want to teach their kids mathematics. Get yourself access to the HOMER app which has a verbal instructor and visual prompts to guide you through the path of teaching your kid mathematics in a fun and engaging way.

2. Avoid discouraging your kid. Stay positive!

This is one of the most important tips that can be given to teachers and parents. If you discourage your child and doubt his capability to be competent in something, either through words or action, your child will have the same perception about himself, and this perception will greatly hinder his capability to learn mathematics and face challenges with head-on confidence in life.

It is one of the integral steps to solve your kid’s math learning difficulty concern, that is, affirming him and giving him confidence and faith that he can learn. This will relieve his anxiety about mathematics learning.

3. Look for opportunities to problem-solve in everyday life

Math is all around us, and it’s a skill we use all throughout the day without realizing it. This gives you tons of opportunities for teaching kids math in a practical, engaging way.

For example, go grocery shopping with children. Ask your children to come up with the list of groceries needed for a trip and to help you calculate the cost as you pick items out at the store.

Or if your kids are younger and are just learning their numbers, you can have them read the numbers on speed limit signs while you’re driving from place to place.

Here’s a good list of ways to show your kids math in their daily lives.

The possibilities are truly endless.

4. Use open-ended questions

Allow for opening up such questions that allow solving problems in more than one way.

Create an if-then scenario and ask; for example, how much they would have saved if they would have spent a share of what they receive per day, in a year.

Such activities will engage math in real day activities for kids and slowly math logic and abstract will penetrate their subconsciousness with continuous practice.

5. Talk about Math

Inculcate math talk in your normal discussion around the house and outside of it. Talk math in a way such as counting objects around the house, help him identify shapes of objects such as counting clouds, fruits, guessing measurement, heights, and so on.

Ask questions like:

• How many these would be if I add x number of more?
• What would be half or one-third of it?
• How would you predict this pattern and recurrence?
• What is the chance of happening of x?
• How can you make that more abstract?
• How would you split this one into an equal portion?

6. Frame this moment to explore whatever math question interests them

Assessment and standardized syllabus & exercise are important aspects of learning, but the system does not and cannot cater to deep-seated curiosity residing within children, hence instructors and parents might feel they seem to take more time on application and grasping of concept and may come up with the new question as they begin to develop an interest in mathematics and abstraction.

To cater to your kids’ full math potential direct them to additional teachers or online math educators on social media so they may explore on their own.

Moreover, connect mathematics to objects your kid loves. Be it cars or animals, surround math-related concepts with that object to make abstraction more real and understandable for your kid.

7. Let your child teach you math

Having your kids try to teach you math concepts can make learning fun and it can help them better understand the concepts.

When you have to explain something to someone, then only you get to know how much you know versus how much you think you know. It helps in filling in the loopholes of understanding, clears confusion, and opens, new perspectives in that thought.

When stuck in a problem, explain to your kid you are also having difficulty in grasping your mind around this, and explain what you cannot understand and what you can.

This will increase the engagement of your children and he will take it as a challenge & problem to be solved rather than a passive form of learning.

8. Try the new math

Try new math. This may sound intimidating at first, but it is not. New math introduces new ways, and perspectives of single concepts across equations and diagrams, applying multiple mathematics functions over one problem which traditionally is explained through the single function method. If you multiply 6 *3 & extends it to 60 × 30, 1/6 × 1/3, and 0.6 × 3,000,000. This way, they will be capable of grasping the concept of multiplication in many ways.

9. Try An Abacus

This is one of the coolest gadgets to give your kid, it has the coolest beads, wire. It gives freedom for your kid to explore making it quite an interesting object to teach math to kids in a fun way. It familiarizes kids with the basic operations of mathematics such as multiplication, addition, subtraction, and division.

10. Ask estimation questions

These sorts of questions are a great tool to help your kind in learning not just the basics of mathematics, but in helping him develop his problem-solving abstract capabilities through mathematical problems. If I say this is the reason we teach kids mathematics, that won’t be wrong. This tip would be helpful to both younger and older kids.

Estimation questions can be such as:

‘How much water do you think this pitcher could fill up?’ or ‘Let your child measure water after he takes a guess.

For older kids, time-bound math questions would be more challenging and fun for them.

Ask questions such as “How many minutes it would take for this bathtub to fill up”. After your kid finds out how much that took, you can ask him to take out the average per minute and ask him questions related to water fillup in the bigger and smaller tub and containers, so that he learns to estimate the volume size and time it takes to fill up the liquid volume in containers.

It is necessary to show your kids how much-connected math is to the physical world around them, to spark their interest to seek & manipulate and influence the world around them.