It’s progress report time. Did your child receive one? Has this become a stress-inducing drain on his or her motivation to learn? Some children through sheer will and refusal to fail can dig themselves out and move that D to a C+ in a matter of weeks. But other children who are more prone to question their abilities can shortchange themselves by accepting poorer performance as their predestined fate as if they were somehow passed over when skills were doled out in their DNA.
No subject suffers this demise more often than math. With language arts, students can avoid a total shutdown because they still communicate daily using their words. With math, it’s more challenging to circumvent a shutdown, or meltdown, whichever the case may be. How do you counter the argument that “I’m just not good at math,” or “I don’t have the math gene?” Providing encouraging feedback to try their best in math and to excel in the subjects they do enjoy averts a shutdown but also skirts an important issue—that practice is required to improve. With language arts, a student can’t stop speaking so building vocabulary can be incorporated into daily living. Math practice, however, needs to be more intentionally set into a student’s routine, or face neglect.
Mathnasium can help incorporate regular math practice into your child’s weekly routine. Schedule an appointment to learn how you can help your child think and feel more like a comeback kid.
(510) 509-6284
