8 Ways to Help Your Child Remember Math Facts

As your child progresses from kindergarten through eighth grade, the knowledge and skill to be learned in math will not come become automatically unless your child is exceptional.

To acquire these skills require frequent practice and sustained effort. If you do not see your child consistently practicing the rudiments of
math, -- that is, working sets of challenging problems on a daily basis – then do not expect him or her to be particularly good math student.

Here are the 8 Ways to Help Your Child to Remember Math Facts: 

          

1.  Reward your child for improvement retention of math facts. Possible rewards include verbal praise (e.g. I am so proud of you for knowing five new math facts ” or a kiss on  the cheek.

2. Provide practice of math facts using a computer with software programs that provide immediate feedback for your child.

3.  Use daily drills to help your child remember math facts (e.g. written problems, flash cards, etc.)

4. Allow your child to keep basic addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division charts to use in solving math problems.

5.  Build upon math facts your child already knows, reinforcing facts your child has mastered. Add one fact at a time as your child demonstrates success.

6.  Have your child complete math facts and then have your child use a calculator to check and correct the problem.

7. Have an older brother/sister, an older friend, etc., work with your child each day on drill activities (e.g. flashcards.)

8. Review on a daily basis, those skills, concepts, tasks, etc., which have been previously introduced.

Overall, emphasize the importance of studying and the joy of learning through words and examples. Your children may acquire and keep this as a value for the rest of their lives.

What would like to add to these ways? Leave your comments below.

Rules for Teaching the ABC’s of Social Skills

My Playmate

Although you have a role to play in teaching social skills to your children, it is often best that you play it unobtrusively. 

In particular, you must guard against embarrassing your children by correcting them too publicly and against labeling them as shy  in ways that may lead them to see themselves in just that way. 

Children, then, acquire social skills not so much from adults than from their interaction with one another. They are likely to discover through trial and error which strategies work and which do not, and later to reflect consciously on what they have learned.                       

Children are much more comfortable when they know the guide rules for handling the social amenities. It’s no more fun for the child to be introduced to a strange adult and have no idea what to say or do than it is for a grown up to go to a formal dinner and have no idea what knife or fork to use.

How do you teach social skills to you children? Leave your thoughts below.

14 No Nonsense Ways to Help Your Child Read Better

As the former Secretary of Education William Bennett, once wrote, children learn to read by reading. Many American schoolchildren, however, read ten or fewer pages a day for school  and homework combined.

Your child will not become a really strong reader with such a limited amount of experience. He needs to be reading at home everyday. Especially if his homework is light, non-existent, or it's summer time, he needs to spend some additional time with books.

Here are the 14 No Nonsense Ways to Help Your Child Read Better:

1. Make certain your child’s reading material is appropriate for his or her level. If not, modify or adjust reading material to your child’s ability level

2. Have your child verbally paraphrase material just read in order to enhance his or her comprehension.

3. Teach your child to identify the main point in the material in order to enhance his or her comprehension.

4. Have your child outline, underline,or highlight important points in the reading material

5. Have your child read progressively longer segments of reading material in order to build comprehension skills (e.g.begin with a single paragraph and progress to several paragraphs, short stores, etc.)

6. Have your child list new or difficult words in categories such as people, food, animals, things that are hot etc.

7. When your child encounters  a new word or one whose meaning is not understood, have your child practice making up sentences in which the words can be used in the correct context.

8. Have your child identify one word each day that is not understood and require him or her to use that word throughout the day in various situations.

9. Make certain your child learns the meaning of all commonly used prefixes and suffixes.

10. Give your child time to read a selection more than once, emphasizing accuracy not speed.

11. Reduce the amount of material your child reads at one time (e.g., reduce reading materials to single sentences on a page, a single paragraph, etc.). Gradually increase the amount of material as your child experiences success.

12. Highlight or underline important information your child should pay close attention to when reading.

13. Make certain that your child learn dictionary skills in order to find the meanings of words independently.

14. Stop your child at various points throughout a reading selection to check for comprehension.



What would you like to add to this list. Leave your comments below.