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Tommaths (he/him)

You don't have to be a mathematician, or even "good" at , to help your learn maths. You just have to model resilience and positivity towards what they're doing, and to avoid reinforcing negative tropes.
A :

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Tommaths (he/him)

1. Do they seem to have been taught a different method for something you remember? Not a problem: get them to you theirs, and encourage them to try to understand yours. See if you can spot similarities. Why do both work? Can you find reasons why one may be "better" than the other (there are no right answers here, but just being more familiar doesn't count)?

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Tommaths (he/him)

2. Are they doing something you don't recognise, or maybe you do recognise but never got the hang of it? Get them to you as much of it as they can. Work together on it. Admit that you don't understand it YET but don't use this as an excuse to not engage. Learning new things is a positive thing. Not understanding something is a prerequisite for learning something new.

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Tommaths (he/him)

3. Try not to fall into (or get out of) the habit of saying things like "I've never been any good at ," "I've always hated maths," "I've never seen the point of maths," etc: these are the most effective ways to kill a potential future mathematician.

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Matt McIrvin

@TeaKayB I have the opposite problem: I like math, and when I express what I think are positive or reassuring thoughts about material she finds difficult, the message my daughter gets is "this is easy for me; why isn't it easy for you?" and she feels insulted or dismissed. I need to find a way of acknowledging her frustration without contributing to it.

Dec 02, 2022, 11:05 AM·Public·Web
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Tommaths (he/him)

@mattmcirvin I think part of the issue (generally) is that finding maths difficult means that maths is bad. The major difference, as far as I can tell, between people who love maths and those who hate it is not whether they find it difficult but how they react to that feeling.

Maybe, rather than trying to reassure her about the _material_, focus on the feelings. You're finding it difficult? That's great! It means you're learning something! Or, it _is_ difficult, I've just had more practise.

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