One of the main reasons that parents choose to enroll their children in tutoring sessions is the difficulty that comes with understanding complex problems and solutions. Many tutors develop unique methods of enabling understanding in children.

When tutoring math, it is crucial that the child learn the vocabulary associated with the methods, as this can provide understanding of the problems that are being asked. Even if the child is unable to recall the formula, the vocabulary associated with the problem can give insight to solving it.

Gauge the level of the child and where their questions lie. Do this by asking open ended questions such as “Where do you think that we should start?” and “What are the steps to working out this problem?” Asking these questions will promote the child to think on their own and formulate the process required to solve the problem in their head. Not only will this help the tutor to gauge the level of the child and determine which concepts require review, it promotes the child to think about the concept at hand and become confident with the steps required to solve the problem.

Next, listen – Although this step may sound as if it is the easiest, listening is a talent that many tutors need to work on. Listening will allow the tutor to assess the communication and skill levels of the child they are tutoring. Listening is the only way, aside from witnessing the problems being solved, to gauge the comprehension of the child.

Math is a complex subject to learn and should be approached with drawings and diagrams to promote understanding. In complex diagrams, have the child label points such as types of angles, sizes of angles and solutions to problems.

And finally, remember to reinforce the child’s main educational school program with similar concepts.  You can always provide some refreshers on the basics, but don’t get too far ahead of what they’re studying in school.

Repetition is especially useful when tutoring as children may not have been given the chance to repeat the information that was learned within the classroom setting. When the child is tutored using repetition they are given the chance to use the information learned in the classroom setting and combine it with the practice that they have been exposed to during the tutoring session.

In the past few years learning by repetition has been associated with forming the connection of synapses in brain cells.  This assists in not only learning the information, but in recalling that information throughout the lifetime of the child. Once this information has been committed to memory with the use of repetition, this information may be more easily recalled in the future.

Many skills that are learned through childhood homework assignments are skills that are going to be called upon for further learning. The pyramid of learning that is created can be based upon the repetition of the skills that children learn in their formative and early years.

Repetition is not the end all be all of learning. The learner begins with a limited amount of information (be it words or concepts), and adds in concepts as the process goes along. Gradually, the child will need less and less repetition as he or she learns the concepts which are built upon in the future.

Repetitive teaching techniques can be extremely useful with homeschool tutoring.

1. Provide a quiet place for the child to study and review the concepts that have been learned that day. This could be a time after dinner when the table is clear or any another designated study area within the home or the bedroom.

2. Keep track of assignments. The more you are involved in the child’s school schedule, the more the child is going to consult about it with you. Remember when assignments are due, when assignments need to be started and when any tests or quizzes occur within the classroom.

3. Help children with basic skills including math skills like addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. These basic skills are required for any further math concepts to become developed throughout their academic career.

4. Use everyday situations to help your child learn math, English and scientific principals. This will ensure the child will realise the importance of the lessons that are being taught while reinforcing the information that has been covered in the classroom setting. Repetition ensures that the child will retain the information.

5. Use worksheets, computer software and educational games to further develop and practice the concepts that have been taught within the school. Using the skills learned on a daily basis will help to solidify the lesson within the child’s brain.

And finally, don’t be afraid to seek professional tutoring help if you’re in over your head or if your child is simply struggling too much.  Tutor Match has thousands of Math tutors, English tutors, and Science tutors available either in your neighborhood or offering tutoring services online.

Math Anxiety

Nationwide statistics shows that math scores have been dropping year after year for all grade levels. Students of this tech savvy generation start to fear math as early as the beginning of middle school level. Being the world leader in science, technology and innovation, this country cannot afford to have its next generation so detached from math. It seems as if unlike other countries such as China and India, the society here as a whole is not laying enough emphasis on the importance of math. Students that perform well in school are considered geeky and “uncool”, adding to the already mounting isolation from math as a subject of choice.

A recent article in the NY Times outlines results of most difficult math competitions for young people, including the American and International Mathematical Olympiads for high school students, and the Putnam Mathematical Competition for college undergraduates. The results show that American students that excel in these competitions are immigrants from other countries. People in countries like India and China still consider math to be imperative for growth, both academically and professionally. It’s no wonder that teachers from India are now teaching students here in the U.S. online. More and more online math tutoring companies are hiring tutors in India to teach U.S. students online. Providing low cost one-on-one tutoring services serves the dual purpose of effectiveness and affordability.

Parents, teachers and educators all around should start emphasizing the importance of math in real life and make learning math easy and fun by providing individual attention whenever possible.

About our Guest Blogger and Author:
Aish Agrawal is a math tutor in Boston, MA on Tutormatch.com.  He also works with http://www.clickandclimb.com which provides live online math tutoring to students in grades 3-12. For the latest information about online math tutoring and to solve the problem of the day visit http://blogs.clickandclimb.com

The first thing to test is your child’s ability to do standard multiplication and not the ladder method. This is fine with small numbers, but once they get to 3 digits and decimals, it becomes nothing but a pain and often a source of errors.  I usually had 2-3 students in each class using the ladder method.  I worked with them during extra help or before school, retraining their multiplication and wouldn’t you believe … they found it much easier to do the traditional vertical multiplication method!  What you can do at home is each night give your child a few problems to do using traditional method. They will be confused at first and might forget, but after a few days they should catch on.  Don’t overwhelm them with a ton of problems; 2-3 each night is fine.

The next thing I suggest is to review their long division skills.  Some students came to 6th grade only knowing how to do “partial sums” which again is fine with small whole numbers, but once you get into decimal division, it doesn’t work as well and creates confusion.  So first, review long division (or teach it depending on the case) and then review decimal division.  Most 5th grade math curriculum covers both long and decimal division so it should not be a foreign concept to a 6th grader.  Each night, give your child 2-3 decimal or long division problems.  Don’t overwhelm or overload.

Parents, if you don’t feel confident about making up your own problems, contact the teacher and ask if he or she can send your child home with a worksheet or if they can recommend a website with problems and examples.  Two very good websites with worksheets are edHelper.com (which is a paid subscription) and Math.com which is free.  And teachers, send your students home with worksheets to do at their own pace.  It may seem like a lot at the beginning of the year, but retraining math skills only makes learning new ones easier.

About our Guest Blogger and Author:
Mrs. Hilary M. is a Math Tutor and Teacher from Princeton, NJ who offers her professional math tutoring services on TutorMatch.com.  She also blogs at Mrs. Mo’s New Jersey, Baby! and HCM Tutoring.