Dont Forget to Add Math Skills to the Back-to-School Shopping List

Aug 24, 2017 | Cambridge

The “back-to-school” signs throughout stores these days remind parents and children to stock up on school supplies. As you pick out lunch boxes and folders together, it is a good time to start a conversation about how your children feel about the upcoming school year.

Buying School Supplies Brings Up Many Emotions.

Children experience a variety of emotions when thinking about the new school year. Some students feel excited about making new friends, trying a new activities, and learning new skills. Other students mourn their carefree summer days. Many feel anxiety about changes and an increased workload. Children who have struggled in math in the past to keep up often feel anxious. Children not being properly challenged in math often feel bored.

As you shop, ask your children “How are you feeling about next year’s math class?” If they respond using words like, “hate,” “boring,” “stupid,” “too easy,” or “too hard” they don’t feel engaged in their math education. Those feelings and attitude will impact their effort and achievement in math.  If they say “I’m just not good at math” it’s a crisis. If you agree, and say “I was never any good at math either,” you should declare your house to be in a state of math emergency. https://www.youcubed.org/think-it-up/parents-beliefs-math-change-childrens-achievement/

How to Turn Negative Math Emotions into Positive Ones

You can’t buy a box of “math confidence” or a bag of “math enthusiasm” like you can buy a calculator (Back-to-School Shopping for Calculators), but enrolling at Mathnasium of Cambridge is a great way to increase math skills, confidence and achievement. 82% of parents with children attending Mathnasium report a positive increase in their children’s attitude and confidence (Mathnasium Results).

Your child may not think math enrichment is as cool as the trendiest tennis shoes, but as parents you know math confidence will have a more lasting value. Plus, kids actually like coming once they recognize the benefits and start earning rewards. Confidence and enthusiasm does increase a child’s cool factor- -maybe even more than cool tennis shoes!

Perhaps you are thinking about hiring a traditional math tutor for your son or daughter. If so, consider these benefits of our math center over most math tutors:

  1. Effectiveness:  We provide a customized learning plan and tutoring to address any gaps in foundational skills (Mathnasium Methods). Sometimes students need to go backward to work on skills like multiplication and division before they can tackle percentages (5 Essential Qualities to Look for in a Math Tutor).

Tutors rarely trace difficulties back to the root cause of the problem. Just like you can’t fix a foundation built on sand, you can’t help a student struggling with math without identifying their learning gaps. Our assessments ferret out any foundational weaknesses and then we target our instruction to address them. Plus, going to a center dedicated to math instruction really sets the right tone for concentrating.

  1. Value: Tutors cost more per minute of instruction than our center charges (FAQs about Math Tutors)
  2. Convenience: Your children can come at the hour that best fits your family schedule (Mathnasium of Cambridge Schedule). Our instructors are qualified to help young students and high school students. Parents with multiple kids love being able to take care of everyone’s math supplemental education at the same time. 
  3. Quality: Mathnasium students get access to our proprietary math curriculum that can be customized for different learning styles and learning rates. We help children go beyond grade level to reach their potential.

Who Benefits Most from Adding Mathnasium to their Back-to-School Shopping Cart?

  • Students taking algebra or calculus.
  • Students entering middle school or high school, especially if they lack study skills.
  • Students feeling anxious or bored in math at school.
  • Students who are fighting with parents about math grades, homework, or placement.
  • Students whose math teachers were not able to meet their educational needs.
  • Children with math gaps
  • Anyone wanting to reach their full potential in math!!!

So when you write your back-to-school shopping checklist, don’t forget to include math confidence on it. It’ll be the most important thing on the list. If you want to learn more about us, give us a call to set up a no-sales-pressure 5 minute tour, 519-893-0808.