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Growing Young Mathematicians!
  Visit this website to learn more about our mathematics curriculum.

Questions You Can Pose  
 to Support Your Child with Homework
  • Your student’s teacher is your most valuable resource. The first step in helping your student is to speak with your student’s teacher to discuss the content and when the content will be taught during the school year. 
  • Set up a specific time for homework. 
  • Try not to do your child's thinking or work. Build on what your child understands rather than telling your child "this is how you do it".
  • Let your child know that if he/she becomes frustrated, they can take  a break or ask the teacher for help the next day. But do let your child have an opportunity to tell you what parts they understand and what parts they are not sure about. Ask: How are you thinking about this problem? What do you understand? What don't you understand? 
  • Can you think of a similar problem that might help you think about this one?
  • What is the problem about? Tell me in your own words.
  • What did you do in class to get started?
  • Can you make a diagram or draw a sketch?
  • Does your answer make sense?
  • Could there be more than one answer? How do you know?
  • How do you know your answers are correct? 
  • Did you show your thinking? 
  • What is one step you could take to get you started?
    Ways Parents Can Do Math with Their Children 
  •  Each evening, empty your change purse or pocket of coins and, with your child, figure out the total value of the money.
  •  When you are going to the movies or to an appointment, have your child figure out what time you need to leave to arrive on time. 
  • Let your child see you doing math—measuring ingredients when you’re cooking, making change when shopping, keeping score for a game, measuring plant food to feed your houseplants, and so on—and talk aloud about how you’re reasoning. 
  • Cuddle up with your child and read aloud children’s books that have math themes, then talk about the ideas in the stories. (Ask your librarian for suggestions.) 
  • Realize your influence on your child’s math attitude. Make numbers accessible in game-like, light-hearted, playful ways. Let your children know that math is just another aspect of life and is not to be feared.
  • Find opportunities to count and do mental math.
  • Look for geometric shapes in the environment.
  • Share with your child how you are using estimation  (This bag weighs about 10 pounds. We have about 30 miles left to drive.)
Bedtime Math ! Try a little math right before bedtime! Click Here.
Don't let MATH MUDDLE YOU!  A helpful site for parents!

More on Helping Your Child with Math Homework !

A Tour of Mathematical Connections: Why it is important to help our students make connections and see mathematics as meaningful and not as isolated procedures
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Try this problem! Talk to another adult about your ideas!
A man bought a horse for $50 and sold it for $60.
He then bought the horse back for $70 and sold it again for $80. What’s the financial outcome of these transactions?
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Growth Mindset in Mathematics 
Recent brain research and studies based on the work of Jo Boaler and Carol Dweck have shed light on the importance of promoting a growth mindset. Students with a growth mindset embrace challenges, see mistakes as an opportunity for learning and know that effort contributes to making progress. In the area of mathematics especially, we want our students to recognize the role of productive struggle in mathematics. The idea that ability and "smartness" are affected by effort is the BIG IDEA to share with students.  (Click on the button below for more information.)
 

Check out this article by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Past President on rethinking mathematics as problem solving rather than "Faster Isn't Smarter". 

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What is Fluency? 
Our NC Math Standards state that students will know their facts from memory. This is an outcome. What is the difference between fluency and memorization?
Memorization
Many of today’s adults practiced facts using flash cards. They drilled and drilled and drilled. For some, the effort appeared successful; they could rattle off their facts within the two-minute time limit. For other learners, memorization did not happen. Instead, they arrived at the conclusion that they were simply bad at math.
Fletcher's research suggest we take a closer look at the definitions of “fluency” and “from memory.” He reflects on the use of “fluency” within language arts where some students “read” 120 wpm with no understanding while others read at 80 wpm and can fully explain what they just read. He notes that fast does not equal fluent.
Rather, true fluency means that students have developed efficient, accurate, and flexible ways of learning.
Efficiency - Efficiency implies that the student does not get bogged down in many steps or lose track of the logic in the strategy. An efficient strategy is one that the student can carry out easily, keeping track of sub-problems and making use of intermediate results to solve the problem.
Accuracy - Accuracy depends on several aspects of the problem-solving process, among them, careful recording, the knowledge of basic number combinations and other important number relationships, and concern for double-checking results.
Flexibility - Flexibility requires the knowledge of more than one approach to solving a particular kind of problem. Students need to be flexible and choose an appropriate strategy for solving the problem at hand. They can use one method to solve a problem and another method to double-check the results
Example: If know that 7 x 10 = 70, I can quickly solve 7 x 9 by subtracting 7 from 63. This strategy shows us that a student has established an understanding of multiplication.  This understanding will later be applied to solve a problem like 73 x 9 by solving 73 x 10 and subtracting 73!

Read Fluency Without Fear !
Click the button to learn more about memorization vs. memory
Great websites and apps to try at home! Online games can be engaging and allow your child practice time for developing mathematical concepts. But not all online games/sites are of the best quality. Here is some information to help you can use to gauge the quality of the site. The sites below are some of the best to try out.
Illuminations
Mixing in Math
Cool Math
You Cubed