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All · 38Math at Home · 18Classroom Notes · 20Times tables · 3Math explained · 18For parents · 14Adult learners · 3
A tiled floor seen from above with a rug covered in colorful shapes and a tape measure laid along its edge, wooden cubes and colored pencils in the middle, and a wooden garden bed of plants wrapped in a loop of red yarn.
Math at Home· 11 min read

Area and perimeter explained: the fence, the carpet and the formulas

What area and perimeter measure, how to find both for a rectangle step by step, why area uses square units, the same-perimeter experiment, L-shaped figures and the mistakes that cost the most points.

By Laura Bennett, MathIt
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

What a ratio is, part-to-part versus part-to-whole, how to simplify ratios and find equivalent ones, the cross-multiplication test, unit rates, scaling a recipe and the four mistakes that cause most wrong answers.

By Laura Bennett, MathIt
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

What your child's teacher means by regrouping, why nobody says borrowing anymore, and how to walk through 52 − 27 and 403 − 168 with coins at the kitchen table.

By Laura Bennett, MathIt
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