MathIt Blog

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The MathIt Blog

Clear, practical guides for parents, teachers and adults who want stronger math skills. Each article answers one question, shows the method step by step, and points to a free game or printable worksheet to practise it.

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A pan of brownies cut into a grid of squares on a wooden board, part of it frosted, with a hand cutting it with a knife, colorful fraction circles, a notebook and a pencil beside it.
Classroom Notes· 9 min read

How to multiply fractions: the rule, the area model and mixed numbers

The three-step rule for multiplying fractions, why it works on an area model, how to cancel first, how to multiply fractions with whole numbers and mixed numbers, and the mistakes that cause most wrong answers.

By Laura Bennett, MathIt
A kitchen counter with two cups of milk, three cups of flour, a mixing bowl with a whisk, two jars of blue paint and one jar of yellow paint beside a few drops of green.
Classroom Notes· 10 min read

Ratios explained: what a ratio is and how to find equivalent ratios
Four blue ten-rods and twelve loose cubes on a table beside stacks of silver and copper coins and a pink piggy bank.
Math at Home· 10 min read

Subtraction with regrouping explained for parents: why one ten becomes ten ones

All articles

All · 25Math at Home · 12Classroom Notes · 13Math explained · 12For parents · 9
Six paper bags in two rows on a table, each holding the same three red apples and four oranges, showing fruit shared into equal groups.
Classroom Notes· 11 min read

Greatest common factor and least common multiple: how to find them

What the GCF and the LCM are, three ways to find them with worked examples, the GCF × LCM shortcut, when to use which, and the four mistakes that cost marks.

By Laura Bennett, MathIt
A woven basket full of apples, oranges and pears on a table, with a stack of plain gold coins and a few loose coins beside it.
Math at Home· 9 min read

How to teach rounding numbers with a number line, before the rhyme

Why 47 rounds to 50, why 5 goes up by agreement, how rounding to the nearest tenth works, and the four mistakes that turn 4,782 into 48 at the kitchen table.

By Laura Bennett, MathIt
A pie cut into eight slices on a plate, with one slice lifted on a pie server, next to a set of four nested measuring cups.
Classroom Notes· 9 min read

How to divide fractions with keep-change-flip, and why it works

What 3 ÷ 1⁄2 means, the keep-change-flip steps, the common-denominator proof of why they work, fractions divided by whole numbers, mixed numbers, and the four mistakes children make.

By Laura Bennett, MathIt
Four pairs of colored socks pegged on a clothesline, four stacks of five gold coins, and two strings of beads threaded in groups of three.
Math at Home· 10 min read

Skip counting for parents: the counting habit that grows into multiplication

What skip counting is, why schools start with 2s, 5s and 10s, how socks, nickels and dimes make it concrete at home, and when to stop counting and start learning the times tables as facts.

By Laura Bennett, MathIt
Three cubes built from small blocks on a table: a single yellow block, a blue cube two blocks on each side and a larger orange cube three blocks on each side, with two loose green blocks beside them.
Classroom Notes· 10 min read

Exponents explained: what the small number means and the rules that follow from it

What the base and the exponent mean, how powers of 10 connect to place value, the five laws of exponents with worked examples, why any number to the power of 0 is 1, and the mistakes that cost marks.

By Laura Bennett, MathIt
Two bars of different lengths drawn one above the other, with the gap between their ends marked.
Math at Home· 10 min read

Math word problems: the routine that stops the freeze

Your child can do the arithmetic and still stalls on the story. This guide gives a seven-step routine, four ways to draw a problem, and the key-word traps that send children straight to the wrong operation.

By Laura Bennett, MathIt
Ten beads on a table, three of them inside one loop of string and seven inside another loop.
Math at Home· 11 min read

Number bonds explained for parents: the pairs that make later math fast

A plain explanation of the circle-and-branches diagram on your child's worksheet: the six bonds of 10, the four facts each one carries, and a five-minute kitchen-table routine.

By Laura Bennett, MathIt
A rectangle cut once across and once down into four colored parts of different sizes.
Classroom Notes· 10 min read

Long multiplication explained: the order that makes it stick

The order that makes long multiplication stick: the times-table check, 36 × 24 as an area model, the placeholder zero, and the four mistakes that ruin the second row.

By Laura Bennett, MathIt
One strip cut into ten equal parts with five of them shaded, above a strip cut into a hundred parts with forty-five of them shaded.
Math at Home· 10 min read

Decimals explained for parents: reading, comparing and using them at home

Decimals break the one rule children trust about numbers: more digits means bigger. This guide explains decimal place value, the padding step that settles any comparison, and the money and kitchen examples that make it stick.

By Laura Bennett, MathIt
Base-ten blocks laid out in three groups: three hundred-squares, four ten-rods and seven single cubes.
Math at Home· 10 min read

Place value explained for parents: what it is and how to help at home

Place value is why the 3 in 347 is worth 300 and why carrying, borrowing and decimals work at all. This guide covers what each grade is expected to know, four ways schools show a number, and five kitchen-table steps that build it.

By Laura Bennett, MathIt
Ten bars of different heights in a row, with a dashed line drawn across them at the average height.
Classroom Notes· 10 min read

Mean, median and mode explained, with worked examples

Three summaries of the same list of numbers give three different answers, and all of them are correct. Here is how to find the mean, the median and the mode, with worked examples, the even-count rule and the mistakes that cost marks.

By Laura Bennett, MathIt
Three groups of counters on a table: twelve arranged in a rectangle, eight in a rectangle and nine in a square, while seven counters fit only in one straight line.
Classroom Notes· 11 min read

Prime numbers explained: how to spot them and why they matter

What makes a number prime, why 1 is left out, the square-root test that settles any number under 100, prime factorization with factor trees, and the six mistakes children make.

By Laura Bennett, MathIt