Preparing your child for high school math can be a daunting task because there is one feeling that keeps bothering you. You keep thinking that since you are out of your studies for so long and since you are not in touch with math courses for upper levels, you really cannot help your child. This notion is WRONG. There are some simple and yet extremely effective ways that are capable of building solid foundations for your child to succeed in high school math assignments and courses. The basic thing you need to do is talk math with your child. You may not be able to make heads or tails of what your child says but try to figure them out.
If your child comes up with answers like “quadratic formula” or “binomials”, you can easily gauge that your child is not doing well. It will mean that your child is not getting a clear understanding of the concepts. On the contrary, if the answer is in details and your child explains exactly how the classes are progressing and what is the next plan of action and how he or she is planning to deal with that, you must know that the student is actually grasping, if not all, at least a major part of what is being taught.
Well, even after that verbal explanation, will you be able to say that your child can solve the problems? There is no way you can say that but you can actually monitor the class notes that your child is taking and check their homework. When your child knows that there is someone else monitoring his progress and has more leverage compared to the teacher, he or she will actually keep everything up to date and that will be of considerable help for your child in the long run.
Now comes the real concern! What if, your child gets a bad grade even after you monitored all his/her work and talked math to your child? Where has all your hard work gone? Why don’t you correspond directly with your child’s teacher through regular mails and emails (if you have it). You can ask about the progress and behavior and work habits and everything that you want to know about your child. Do this occasionally once in 3-4 weeks time or once every couple of weeks. The teacher also wants your child to succeed and will co-operate with you in every possible way and leave notes for you mentioning all that is relevant at that point of correspondence.
During communication, be supportive to the teacher as this will not open up chances for the student to come up and say that it is because of the teacher that he or she is not able to get good grades or understand the classes on the first place. A team effort with the teacher will considerably increase the performance of the child and prepare him or her for high school math!
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