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Math at Home
Math help for parents at the kitchen table: times tables, number bonds, place value, fractions, decimals, word problems and what each grade should know.
How to simplify fractions: a step-by-step guide to simplest form for parents
What simplest form means, how to reduce a fraction step by step or in one move with the greatest common factor, the divisibility shortcuts that speed it up, improper fractions and mixed numbers, and the three mistakes that cause most wrong answers.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
New math homework, decoded: what each strategy is for
Number bonds, open number lines and area models look strange to anyone who learned to carry the one. This guide explains what each strategy does, which old method it leads to, and how to help without contradicting the teacher.
Fractions explained for parents: what school teaches now and how to help at home
Fractions changed since most parents learned them. This guide explains equal parts, the number line, equivalent fractions, comparing and adding with unlike denominators, with worked examples you can do at the kitchen table.
Signs of dyscalculia in children: what parents notice first
How dyscalculia shows up at different ages, how to tell it apart from math anxiety or a missed topic, who can carry out a real assessment, and what helps at home in the meantime.