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Use Goal-Setting To Help Your Child With Primary Math

By Lucy Punch

Republish: EasyPublish™ Published: 09Feb2012 Word count: 464 Viewed: 71 time(s) Get Free Content For Your Site

Parents who help their primary school-age children with math at home deserve a medal.

In my view, they are at the coal face of declining numeracy competencies in primary schools around the globe, and can make a fundamental difference in the way their kids approach math in the classroom.

But it's not always an easy ride.

With the school bell about to ring in a new year of learning, it's the perfect time to set some goals to help your young student get their head around early math concepts.

Research shows goal-setting from an early age can have significant benefits to learning outcomes - especially in difficult subject areas. So, before you begin stocking up the fridge with emergency lunchbox time-savers and ironing the uniforms, prepare your child for the year ahead by talking to them about what they want to achieve at school this year.

They don't have to start out with lofty ideals about mastering long division or being top of their class… even just a few simple and achievable learning goals can make a big difference to the way they begin the new term and start out in their new classroom.

I find writing down their ideas in a simple 'contract' can help keep young learners focussed on some of the goals they set out to achieve, as well as being a very rewarding way of looking back on their progress down the track.

For example, maybe they want to master skip counting by fives by the end of the first term.

Maybe knowing all of their times tables by the mid-year break would be a good goal to work towards.

Or maybe just committing to doing 15 minutes of math homework a night with their parent is worth writing down in their learning contract.

When using this type of motivational tool, all you need to do is make sure your child's goal is realistic and achievable, and then commit to working on it together.

In drafting your contract, also think about how you'll measure your child's progress… for example, they might know they've reached their stated goal when they get a certain score on a classroom math test.

Or when they can give you the answer to any times table problem in less than five seconds.

Or just when they can complete a particular activity from a resource you're using at home.

The most important thing to remember is that goal-setting empowers your little student to work towards their own sense of achievement, and take ownership of their own learning outside the classroom.

And that's got to be a good thing.

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