my son is 10 years old and finding Maths difficult.?

Question

How can I help him enjoy maths and to be interested in the subject?
He is doing well with his other subjects but I am just worried about it.

Answer 1

My 10 years old is the same. he does really well at school and is struggling with maths.

I went to his teacher and asked what she thought was letting him down and it turned out to be his multiplication tables. He wasn't very confident on them and it affected a lot of the other things they were doing.

I spent some time with him helping him to learn them and he is getting on a little better now.

You can get excercise books in places like WHSmith that have maths excercises in them and they can get stickers and things as a reward for doing well. I find that appealing to there mercenary side can be great. Offer him something for learning his times tables lol.

Answer 2

Start off with basic arithmetic, like the times tables. Work with the apples, take one away, type thing. Use sweeties, toy cars, whatever he is interested in to hold his attention. It's a VERY long time ago, but when I was that age we used what were called "Napier's rods" Pieces of wood about 1cm square, different colours and lengths representing 1 to 12 (I suppose it would be 1 to 10 now) They could be moved around and, for example, the 2 and the 4 made up to the same height as the 6. Do you see what I mean - it worked for me. Once he's got the grasp of those basics, it will become interesting, or at the least, understandable to him. In these days of calculators and computers, I find it sad that young folk can't do even the simplest of mental arithmetic. Persevere though. Make it fun, he'll get the hang of it, honestly.

Answer 3

Children have different aptitudes and it's likely your son's natural ability in maths is average or below-average. This could turn out to be quite a problem as getting decent grades in maths and English in particular, are often crucial (for employers, for university access, etc). The good news is that practically everyone in the country can get at least a B in maths if they receive the right tutelage.

Getting him to enjoy/be interested in it might be impossible. I saw that it was important, but never really enjoyed it, just got through it. Make sure he understands it - go back to basics with him. When it comes to teenage maths, he won't need to understand absolutely everything - indeed, this might be a hindrance as the exams only really test if you know something, and you have limited memory space! But at age 10 he should understand things fully: all those Xs can seem confusing; you need to tell him, for instance, that that X represents any number.

Answer 4

Perhaps he has a stronger aptitude on the verbal rather than the analytical side. If he's having trouble, consult with his teacher about what methods they are using and how you can help him at home. If you try using something other than what they use at his school, you can wind up confusing him further. Many very intelligent people have trouble with math - its just a different kind of intellect. Whatever you do, don't add any more stress onto him about it than he already has. His best grades in math may be B's and that's all right as long as he is really trying.

Answer 5

i am the same. very smart in every subject other than maths, this started from around 7 though because i never learnt my times tables, i couldn't do a lot of other stuff then later in high school without the use of a calculator. all i can say is sit down with him a few hours after school and go over it with him, you could play maths games on the bbc website and even buy help books from book shops.

Answer 6

maths is a fun subjects. however maths is as fun wen u know the answer, because if u dont not know how to calculate somthing it is a whole different story. my dad used to play games that involved us thinking things like monopoly making us calculate the changes for the people wen they buy houses or wen they have a fee to pay.
its fun to make a subject like maths fun.. other things to do is doing sudoku puzzels in news paper..
or even challege him from the blu and ask him a multplication question.. i am sure he bright but mathematics is about practise.. i did a..level maths and till now i still used that tecnique of practising and random questioning myself with formulae.

hope i have been a great help.. and gud luck

Answer 7

I think if you have diffuculty with maths you will always have is it to do with that part of the brain ,either you have that skill or you dont but you must try and do the best you can with what you have got . you say he is good at other things thats good ,and you know you can't be good at everything .There is no point in worrying that can be picked up and will make him more anxious about the subject .

Answer 8

Check with school, if you can handle the problem fine, if not consider a tutor to help him. They have special schools to help but before you pay out the big bucks see about hiring someone from the high school to help. PS at 10 he would enjoy a cute girl as opposed to an ugly guy.

Answer 9

is he into army related things? I know something that helped me when I was that age and having problems with math was turning the problems into battlefields and figuring it out that way. just a suggestion from a guy who has been there. by the way now I have a degree in electronics engineering so somewhere along the line it worked

Answer 10

Teach him again the fundamental principles of mathematics. The secret of knowing math is to simply internalize all the principles and methods because whatever mathematical problems you face, the approach, method and solution is always the same though presentation may vary.