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Everyone can learn mathematics. It just depends.
Are you using manipulatives?
These are any little toys that can help students visualize the math. I use many different ones, each for a different reason. For explain, Hundreds Tens and Ones symbolize very different numbers, but to a little kid, 324 means three and two and four. A year later, the same child might say "thirty-two four" or "three twenty-four". This is not a mistake; it's the stage of learning mathematics that they are in. They may be taught to say the number correctly, but can they visualize it as 3 hundred 2 tens and 4 ones? Do they see that number when you say it, or are they struggling? The right tool for the right job. I was told this many times as a highschooler by a boss, and it rings true now as well. When students use and experience math with the right approach, they understand it at a deep level that will assist them later as they move on to algebra and more advanced mathematics.
Are they getting enough practice when and where they need it?
I'm coaching my daughter's soccer team now. Five year olds are cute, but this is their first experience with team sports, and they all come to the game with different levels of ability and emotional readiness. Some kids won't go out on the field; some won't come off! Some can kick well, others need practice.As a coach, it has been a joy to watch some players bloom. Every week, some of the kids get better and better, and it is easy to see. Math is the same way. Math is Logic, and as students practice, they understand the pattern and begin to predict and anticipate and finally work with it successfully and drive up their timing and tempo until you hear them say, "That's too easy!" When a month ago, they were scared and upset.
Things change, and classes move to the next topic. But what about the prior skills? Are your children still practicing earlier lessons, and building the confidence in mathematics, or are they moving forward so fast they are mentally exhausted? Help your child pace themselves, and keep them practicing. Find five minutes in the day to review old skills. Go for speed on the 'easy' stuff, use friendly numbers for today's work, and build confidence for tomorrow's struggle.
Do they have the right attitude?
Do they think they are smart? Is because they feel they worked hard and learned it, or because everyone praises them? Research says some students who believe they are smart will shut down when faced with a frustrating task. Why? They have not built the persistence skills necessary to face a task that is not straightforward.Now think about your day. Most tasks you do in a day (that have not yet been automated) are not straightforward. But you do them in an organized way until they become a routine task. So let's help our children work at tasks that are not easy, that might take time to finish, that they might have to ask others for help with to complete the task. Find those weeklong problems, those problems that you do wrong the first time, and you have to untangle and start again another way to try again.
(If you want one of these, look up Sally and the Peanuts math problem)
