Maths, a word a lot of children dread.

I remember when I was still in primary school, one of my most hated subjects was maths. The only time I ever recall liking the subject was when I got to SS3 and I had the most awesome maths teacher ever.

Mr Olubanke was more fascinating than the subject he taught. You could tell he had so much passion not only for teaching but for the subject itself and this itself made his classes fun.

I came across a couple of tips on how to encourage your child to learn maths. So if you have child, who doesn’t have a natural love for maths the following tips could help:

1. Get involved

The most important thing you can to do encourage your child’s interest in maths is to get involved.

Getting involved does not mean doing your child’s homework for them. Most parents end up solving all the maths problems in their children’s homework.

Getting involved especially from a young age simply means that you should show your child how maths is part of day-to-day life.

Take the time to show kids that maths is a part of ordinary life: talk about the number of recharge card sellers you see on a street or count the number of people in the car and have them do the same thing.

For older children you can tell them to calculate how much its going to cost to fill your 50-litre petrol tank or keg etc.

2. Make friends with your child’s teacher

It is very important for parents and teachers to work together. Make sure you know who your child’s teacher or maths teacher is.

This way you can collect the syllabus and even ask for tips on how to help your child and work together to develop on and improve your child’s maths skills.

3.Use the internet

The internet has a variety of tools to make learning maths fun. Show your child how to take lessons on the various maths learning websites that are available e.g. mathplayground. com, mathsisfun.com and mathletics.com

4. Play games

Playing games like Snakes and Ladders, Monopoly or card games such as 500 all are excellent ways to teach your child maths without telling them you’re doing so. You may even enjoy playing.

5. Teach your child ‘rote memorization’

Experts believe that rote memorization is still the only way to learn basics such as adding and subtracting single digits, or basic multiplication.

It’s not cramming per say but the true purpose of rote memorization in education is to create automaticity, so that, for example, when a child sees 2 multiplied by 3, he or she automatically says the sum, 6. The child does not have to think about it. The response is automatic.

Teresa Lim, from Abacus Maths Academy in New Zealand and a maths expert adds that:

“Memorising times tables is crucial but it takes time to learn, and you can’t learn it at school because maths isn’t taught regularly enough.” Boring car journeys are a perfect opportunity to practise.”

6. Hire a lesson teacher

A lesson teacher provides one-on-one tuition to a child. A lot of us grew up with lesson teachers, they were essential in helping us practice what we learnt at school, at home.

No matter how good you feel your child is, even the best of maths students can benefit from extra help.

Experienced parents, have you had success in encouraging your child to learn maths? How were you able to do it?