Your involvement in your children’s education increases their chances for success in school. Here are a few easy and effective tips that show you how you can get involved even if you are a busy parent.

Finding reasonable estimates helps children avoid totally unreasonable answers. 

*Let your child make a grocery list for a favorite meal, and using a newspaper ad, estimate how much it will cost to buy the ingredients. 

*Ask questions that require some thought but don’t require a paper and pencil such as, "Will it take longer to take a bath or clean your room?" or "What three things in the house are the same length as this shoe lace?"

Help children notice things that are alike and sort them out of mixed groups. 

*Let your child help sort laundry by putting socks in one pile, and pants or shirts in another. Then have them regroup the clothes by family member or color. 

*Look through a catalog or magazine and find pictures of items that can be grouped together. For example, things that will grow or will not grow, or things that go inside or outside the house.

Graphs are a way to show complex information in an easy way. 

*Use a bar graph to show the favorite ice cream of family members. Extend the size of the graph to include friends or relatives.

*Make a pie chart or circle graph showing how much time your child spends in school, eating, sleeping, playing, etc. This also requires estimation.

Connect math learning to the real world. 

*Talk to children about using math when you follow a recipe, go to the bank, check the temperature, or decide if a sale on jeans is a good value.

Play family games that use math. 

*Card games like ‘Go Fish’, and ‘Gin Rummy’ teach counting, sorting, and strategy. Other good choices are Yatzee™, Uno™, Monopoly™, Life™, and dominoes.

Encourage your child to solve problems. Resist the urge to help too much. Ask questions and let them figure it out. Learning how to solve problems and find answers are critical lifetime skills. 

Finally, be patient. Some math concepts may take a while to ‘sink in’. Let your child know that it’s okay to make mistakes. If they know that they can learn from their mistakes, they will not be discouraged by them.