#maths word problems

What if your kid isn’t the brightest in Mathematics? As a parent are you going to give up on them? If engaging a tutor is not possible for your family, what are some of the ways in which you can help your average primary student do better at Maths? 

One of the ways in which you can take charge of your child’s education is by working on primary maths worksheets and playing a variety of games. Here we discuss how a parent can help an average primary student flourish in Mathematics with a few basic tips. 

Tips to Help An Average Student Flourish At Mathematics

Play games with your child

Play games like Chutes and Ladders, dice games, and counting games with your kids. Encourage them to watch sports like football, cricket, and tennis where there are a lot of technicalities involved in keeping the score. You can also teach them card games. What you want from your child is fluency in basic Mathematical concepts like counting, addition, multiplication, subtraction, and division. 

 Teach your child math from a historical viewpoint

Children love stories. They love to know details about certain things and if one were to present Mathematics to them from a historical context they are sure to respond. When teaching Mathematics, research a bit about the concept itself and explain it to your child as you would a story. This might spark interest in children who enjoy tales. Stories of Archimedes, Euclid, and Pythagoras are bound to inspire children and help them get fascinated with this ancient fundamental subject. 

Help them solve primary Maths worksheets

Reinforcing what’s already been taught in class is a great way in which you can build confidence in an average student. Students who are average at Maths just need a little push in order to do better. If you can get your hands on a set of worksheets, you can help your child work out the problems every day. This will boost their confidence. 

Encourage fluency in Maths facts 

Unless children are well-grounded in the theorems and fundamental rules of Mathematics, they will be unable to solve problems. You can’t expect the average student to come up with solutions to problems when they haven’t covered the basics. Mathematical facts need to be drilled into children at an early age so that they can use the building blocks to think abstractly. 

Never shout or scream at a struggling child

If your child is struggling with Mathematics, don’t demotivate them. The struggle should encourage them to persevere, not give up. Screaming at a child doesn’t solve anything, it only builds resentment. 

The Final Word 

Mathematics can be quite a challenging and difficult subject for some children to learn. It involves the study of numbers, shapes, patterns, and the relationships between them. 

As children grow up, however, they go from the simple problems to the more difficult problems which are worded out in the English language. 

These problems are called Math word problems and involve an everyday situation where a numerical question arises. The problem is then solved using basic mathematical operations such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division following the BODMAS rule. 

There is a simple trick to solve these problems. If you are tutoring or teaching a child how to tackle and understand these word problems in mathematics, you should know these tricks and assist them accordingly. So what are these tricks? Let’s take a look at them through the lens of Matharoo. 

How to Solve Maths Word Problems? 

Solving a word problem in mathematics involves “translating” the problem written in simple English into a mathematical expression. Then the child needs to proceed to solve that mathematical expression. For instance, take this problem: 

Q. I have 20 cupcakes and Maggie gives me 4 more. How many cupcakes do I now have? 

The way to solve this question is to look at the key words here. The key word in this question is the word “more”. It indicates to us that the question is about “increasing” the number of cupcakes that we have at present. When we do a simple increase, the operator we use is addition. Do you see how simple that was? Now all you have to do is add the “4 more” to the “20 cupcakes” you have at present. 

Just by using the right key words, we can break down a mathematical problem posed in English into an arithmetic expression and solve it. 

Key words for Addition

The various key words for addition are: add, altogether, in all, combine, larger, larger than, perimeter, sum, increase, in total, and plus.  

Key words for Subtraction 

The various key words for subtraction are: difference, decrease, changed by, how much less, gave away, minus, remains, shorter than, and less. 

Key words for Multiplication

The key words for multiplication are: cubed, doubled, tripled, area, product, and times. 

Key words for Division

The key words for division are: average, divide, each, equal groups, a fourth, a quarter, half, split, share, quotient, ratio, and third. 

Wrapping Up 

If you want your child to excel in these mathematical word problems, why not try maths word problems from Matharoo? It’s the ideal platform for your child to learn the basics of word problems and work out what they’ve learned with the platform's many worksheets. 

Children will also be prepped and ready for NAPLAN. Children can also grow their critical skills and their reasoning and logical skills. 

Students will receive the Matharoo worksheet on a Saturday afternoon via mail and can proceed to work out the sums in the evening.