Should I Try To Teach Him Fractions Yet?

I imagine it can be quite frustrating if “ACCORDING” to your child’s age he/she should be higher level math than it seems that he/she is capable of.  For example< is your child in the 5th grade, and he just can’t seem to grasp fractions?  Maybe a root part of the problem is that he has a weak foundation on key concepts such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.  Before delving too far into concepts such as fractions, decimals, and percents, MAKE SURE YOUR CHILD HAS MASTERED ADDITION, SUBTRACTION, MULTIPLICATION, AND DIVISION.

SHOULD I NOT EVEN SHOW THEM FRACTIONS BEFORE THEY MASTER KEY CONCEPTS?

I think it is ok to introduce the concept of say fractions to your child if he has not mastered the above mentioned concepts, BUT DON’T TRY TO GO INTO TOO MUCH DETAIL. It will be a LOT easier for your child to add unlike fractions (which involves finding the Least Common Denominator, which involves multiplying) once he HAS MASTERED multiplication.

My Child is Having A Lot of Difficulty Mastering His Facts

So if your child is in any grade higher than 3rd grade and still does not know these KEY facts, my advice to you is to MOSTLY STOP WHAT YOU ARE DOING IN MATH WITH YOUR CHILD UNTIL THESE FACTS ARE MASTERED.

Check out my  blog post Ways to Get Your Child to Memorize Multiplication Facts. for some tips to help with memorizing multiplication facts.

TEACH YOUR CHILD TO NEVER GIVE UP

Read stories to your children that will inspire them to persevere and not to give up.  Check out a fictional STEM book I have written Anna, Kid Engineer that I hope will inspire your kids to persevere.

You can also show them different careers possible if they are good in math such as  being an engineer or an architect.

What Are Some Important Topics My Child Needs to Master Early On

In my opinion, some key concepts your child needs to master early on include: addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, place value, and number sense.  After these concepts have been mastered, it’s important to master topics such as adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing fractions and decimals, long division, percents, being able to change words into mathematical expressions or equations (so knowing that “of” means to multiply and “is” means equal to), and simple geometric concepts such as perimeter and area.  Next, some other important concepts are adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing integers and working with exponents including roots.

Do you Need Help Teaching Some Pre-Algebra Concepts

If you would like your child to review some Pre-Algebra concepts this summer, then consider signing up for the Summer class I am doing that covers some Pre-Algebra concepts.  You can go here to find out more about the class or email me at shenek.alston@gmail.com.

So if according to your child’s age or grade, he should be doing higher level math, perhaps you should take a step back and make sure he has mastered key concepts.  Don’t stress out about it.  Instead, just be very patient with your child and help him to conquer this hurdle.  🙂