Don't be scared off by some numbers on a page.
For a lot of people, math is a dry and scary subject. But it doesn't have to be this way. By practicing math often and being taught in a way that makes sense to your child, math can easily become something they love doing.
“Somehow it’s ok for people to chuckle about not being good at math. Yet if I said ‘I never learned to read’ they’d say I was an illiterate dolt.” -Neil deGrasse Tyson
Especially with the pandemic, so many students have been set back in their math learning. Without a strong understanding of the fundamentals of math, it can be very difficult to succeed in high school and college math, not to mention the real world. Math is applicable to pretty much every field and career- music, art, culinary, physics, finance, business, medicine. It is a required concept for many high school and college courses. It is tested on standardized exams, such as the SAT and the ACT. It helps us develop our problem solving and critical thinking skills. It's an essential life skill, too- mathematics helps to manage money, file taxes, budget, and conduct a financially secure life. Not only in finance, either. We measure ingredients when we cook, we convert dollars to other currencies when we travel, we split the bill when we eat at restaurants, we tell time, and all of our daily actions require mathematics in some way. And math skills as an adult can be traced back to the very beginning- the strength of math skills in elementary school.
But in my opinion, the biggest benefit that comes out of having a good understanding of math is confidence. The boost in confidence that comes from doing well in math fuels the drive to keep doing math, to keep getting better at it, to help others who may not understand a concept, and most of all, to not give up on it when it gets hard. Those who may not have been as successful at a young age in math quickly develop the idea that they will never be good at it, and cease to try. They are less confident and more resigned to the idea that they will not improve, and this must be corrected. By helping young students regain confidence in their mathematical skills, we set them up for success and the passion for mathematics in the future.
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