textbooks

Maths may be a difficult subject for many children and a source of fear for many homeschooling parents.

As a child, I was terrified of Maths and I failed miserably all through high school and needed extra classes with a maths tutor to pass my Matric exams. When I was a student teacher on my 2nd teaching practice, I was given Grade 7 Maths classes to teach. I was appalled. In order to adequately prepare, and so that I wouldn’t be caught out by any student’s questions, I covered the topic using every textbook I could lay my hands on. And you know what? I discovered that I was an outstanding Maths teacher!!! I knew how to approach the concepts from many perspectives and I had a slew of different examples to practice and demonstrate with my learners. I made the lessons fun and relatable. My students enjoyed their lessons and mastered their maths.

So, with this experience, I homeschooled and tutored my daughters’ Maths lessons all the way to graduation. When fear is taken out of the picture, Maths is fairly simple. Maths concepts and applications are straightforward, simple and logical. If you can find the right “fit” for your child in the pace and application, you will be able to help them conquer their Maths battles. I describe 12 successful Maths principles I used in What Works – Maths.

Here are 5 R’s to help when you or your child are struggling with Maths lessons ~

Review
Repeat
Replace
Restart
Refuse

Review Usually struggles in Maths lessons occur when your child has not fully understood a concept. Revise, re-visit, and review the concept. Make sure that your child understands the basic Maths concepts and principles. If there is any hesitation, doubt, or uncertainty, repeat the Maths principle with physical objects, Maths manipulatives, other examples, or relatable applications. Practice previous examples and lessons. Practice is vital before moving on.

Repeat Similar to review, repeat practice lessons using other examples until the Maths concept “clicks”. You may need to look for additional textbooks, worksheets or online lessons to repeat the concepts until your child fully understands and successfully applies the concepts. Take your time! Rushing on will only make the fear and uncertainty worse.

Replace Find alternatives that may be better suited to your child’s learning style. Replace your textbook or practice the Maths lessons with a different book or with online lessons such as Khan Academy. Every author and publication has a unique approach, style, pace and application. You can use a combination of different books and lessons. Don’t feel bad if the Maths curriculum you initially purchased doesn’t meet your child’s requirements. Tailor-make your children’s education and find something else instead.

Restart Start again with the basics. Leave the books and worksheets aside for a few days or weeks and focus on fun activities such as skip counting, multiplication and addition. I discovered that Mental Maths worksheets, drills, songs, card games, manipulatives and activities helped with my children’s speed and confidence. Once these basics are re-established, start again and your child may find the Maths work much easier. This will boost his confidence which will help him conquer his fears.

Refuse Do you need to refuse to teach your child Maths? May I encourage you to consider a Maths tutor when your relationship with your child is harmed by the tension and struggles over Maths lessons? Maybe Dad, a high school student, a kind neighbour or a co-op mom can help teach your child without all the interpersonal battles. Often a 3rd party person doesn’t receive the backlash and resistance and refusal that a child gives a parent. May I also add that a high school child can choose to do Maths Literacy instead of Pure Mathematics? Maths Literacy goes beyond academic focus and aims to give students basic Mathematics skills they can use and apply in their everyday lives. Just check with your high schooler’s career options and tertiary education requirements first.

Maths struggles have a way of getting right in and messing with our souls! Please, please, please … be compassionate to yourself and your child during this phase. Gently put the “offending” book on your bookshelf and offer yourselves time to consider what will work. It is tough to be gracious to yourself and others when you are afraid or offended. Grace for grace. Pray for guidance and grace.

You can find all my Maths freebies here. Feel free to share your experiences in the comments below or or write to me on the contact form on my About & Contact page.

Blessings, Nadene

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Here’s this week’s practical tip ~

Text-mapping is an excellent technique that helps a child to differentiate and identify areas of a text using highlighters. Textmapping guides the child to circle, underline or draw boxes around sections, headings, text, illustrations, dates and important vocabulary. This provides the child with an overview of all the text and reinforces pre-reading skills.

Copied pages of a textbook chapter or relevant pages are pasted together to form one long scroll.

Drawing of a scroll that has been marked with highlighters and colored markers. Shows margin notes and certain key features circled, colored and otherwise marked.

Textmapping is excellent for all non-fiction books and textbooks.
This method emphasizes pre-reading skills. They haven’t read the text itself yet, but have navigated the entire article.
Textmapping is a very effective tool for special-needs/ remedial students or weak readers as it helps the student identify different areas of the text and isolate smaller sections where they can use pre-reading skills to break down the text. Colors define specific areas and they can easily isolate a heading with its accompanying passage and ignore the rest of the text.
This skill is particularly important for middle schoolers who are suddenly faced with longer chapters or several pages of their books, textbooks.
It is also good for high schoolers who need to summarize large sections of information or review work for tests or exams.
Textmapping helps students break down into manageable sections to summarize, or plan, or prepare for projects and presentations.
This method is excellent for group work.
Textmapping enables teachers to clearly and explicitly model reading comprehension, writing and study skills using a model scroll or on an example on a smartboard.
The complete layout of a scroll gives the child an excellent overview ~ great for global learners.
Because of its length, the child must move (crawl on the floor or walk along a row of desks) along it, zoom in or out, to interact with the text ~ excellent for kinesthetic learners.
Marking is very physical and hands-on ~ wonderful for the tactile learner.
The colored markings are very clear and everything can be seen at a glance ~ fabulous for the visual learner.
Scrolls and text mapping provide a better fit with the learning strengths of ADHD individuals ~ helps children who have learning disabilities or attention deficits.

Because this method involves printing out several pages in color, I have adapted the method to work directly in the book and we use colored post-it tabs and colored sticky notes which we map areas and sections without marking expensive books or library books. I have also experimented with plastic page protectors cut open down one side to slide over a page and we use colored whiteboard markers.

Please read Textmapping.org for textmapping basic and see all the examples in my original post Textmapping. Download my Text Mapping notes on textmapping.