Just like that, summer is over. Next week, most kids will start their new school year and are getting ready for it. Backpack? Checked. New shoes? Checked. Stationeries? Checked. New haircut? Checked. But what’s more important than all those tangible things? How about your child’s math readiness? Nah .. you can just wait until the first report card .. or the first parent-teacher interview. Hmmm .. you think so?
Being successful means being proactive, being on offense and not defense. It’s comforting for a child to start a new school year knowing that they have a strong support system behind them. They know where they can ask for help when they do not understand math at school; they know they can rely on someone to teach them the math foundations that they missed to grasp.
In a typical summer, a student loses 2-3 months of their skills and concepts they learned the previous year. So, if they were also having some gaps in learning (and even worse: too many gaps) from last year, how will they cope with new concepts? At school, teachers need to follow the curriculum in a timely manner; so when your child misses a math concept (especially when they already have some gaps since the start of the year) while the class keeps moving forward, they can easily get overwhelmed and this could lead to having math anxiety.
Most children who come to us for math help are actually children with lots of potential. It’s just because at one point in the past they missed some math concepts and the effect of that snowballed over time. The sad thing is that it could impact their confidence. A mother told us that after a few months with us, her son said, “Now I know I’m not stupid”. It’s just so unfortunate to think how many kids misunderstood themselves, when actually what they need is someone to unlock their potentials, and that is, someone who can find for them the right way to learn.
So how to get them ready for the new school year and beyond?
- Check how their math readiness is; you can use these questions to roughly understand how well their math is (For answers & explanations, go to mathnasium.ca/answers).
- You can also take your child to the expert to assess their math ability; this would give you more accurate and impartial diagnostic feedback about where their math skills are.
- If you find your child has some fundamental gaps, give them the support they need; depending on how big the gaps are and what your expectation is, maybe it’s time to take them to the math expert who can guide them step by step to reach their full potential.
- Your goal is not necessarily for them to just doing well at school; to keep them engaged with math, it might also be a good idea to give them more challenges and ‘nudge’ them to go beyond their current grade level so they will have a deeper understanding of topics, and are always curious about math. We have a straight A student who loves our approach and having eureka moments, and he excitedly says, “Oh I love this!! I want to do it again at home!!” 😊
- You should consider your long-term goal as well. To illustrate, we have a grade 9 student who’s doing okay at school but his ambition is to take SAT to continue to his dream university in the U.S. so he came to us; we have the tools to assess students’ preparedness for this test and can show them the path to achieve that.
Does your child need extra support in math? Mathnasium of Red Deer is your neighbourhood’s math-only learning centre, and we are here to unlock your child’s potential and set them on a path to lifetime success. Our centre director, Riwan, and the whole team, would be happy to meet you! We are conveniently located in the shopping destination area in Red Deer: 5250 22nd St, Unit 30 B – at the Gaetz Avenue Crossing shopping centre, in the same area as Chapters Indigo/Starbucks, Michael Arts, Petland and Ashley, and the phone number is 403-872 MATH (6284).
Sign up today for a Free Assessment!