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Strong organizational skills can be crucial to success in math. Often, a child’s mathematical challenges are due to a lack of organization rather than a lack of intellectual ability. “Organization is the key to success in school. It is the key to success in college. And it is the key to success later in life,” says Richard E. Bavaria, Ph.D., vice president of education for Sylvan Learning Center. “Starting early and giving children the skills that they need is the key to future success.” Dr. Bavaria says the best way to teach organizational skills is to be a role model to your children. “Show them that you have a work area you rely on to be organized. It might be in the kitchen or a desk where you write the monthly checks,” Dr. Bavaria says. “When children see that their parents organize their lives, they will recognize that organization is necessary, not just in school but for their parents as well.” Use the following tips to help your child keep his schoolwork in order: Have your child pick out a fun and flashy daily planner. Work with him to develop a system to track homework assignments and important dates, such as test days. Each night, review the planner with your child to make sure that each task gets checked off of the list. Each morning, ask him to recheck the planner to ensure that he has all of the materials he needs for the day, such as math homework sheets. This also is an important end-of-the-school-day ritual. By going through his planner each afternoon, your child will make sure to pack his bag with all the notebooks and textbooks he needs that night for his math assignments (and others too!). Not only does this teach your child important lifelong organizational skills, it also saves you an extra trip to school! It’s also a good idea to create a simple filing system. Separate the different types of paperwork your child brings home. Use different colored folders for each school subject, and label each folder with the class and teacher’s name. Try to coordinate the folder colors with the corresponding class notebook. Think of the filing system much like your own, with a section of folders for works in progress, pending files for items such as school calendars and class rosters, and a section for filing old work, including finished homework that your child can use to study for a test. Keep all of these files and materials in a central location that is accessible to your child. You can buy a filing set at an office supply store, or help your child make his own filing box by using a cardboard box or shoe box and decorating it with crayons, markers and stickers. Be creative! Making organization a fun activity will encourage your child to keep up the system on his own. “Parents can help their children be organized by organizing homework time and homework space,” Bavaria says. “Be sure that space has all of the materials that a child will need—pencils, pens, highlighters, a stapler, construction paper, etc.” Bavaria says this kind of system works wonders. “Parents tell me frequently that their children spend three hours a night doing homework. What they don’t recognize is that their children spend an hour and a half looking for the materials they need,” Bavaria says. “You can diffuse a lot of homework battles by helping your child become organized.” An important component of organization is time management. Knowing when to start and when to stop will help a frustrated math student keep the assignments in perspective. In his planner, help him record how much time he should spend each night on math assignments and other homework. This will help your child divide all of the work into manageable chunks. For bigger assignments, work backward. Determine when the project is due and break up the work into more manageable nightly tasks. “Have your child create a long-term calendar so long-range projects don’t get done the night before but are spread out evenly over a long period of time,” Bavaria says. Also, help your child learn how to prioritize his math work. First, ask him to write down all of the necessary tasks, then label each task from one to three, with one being the most important. Ask about each task, so you understand your child’s priorities. If you believe that math needs a higher priority, demonstrate that by helping him to rearrange his schedule. Make prioritization a frequent habit with your child. “If you set the foundation early, children will develop good organization habits and after awhile it becomes second nature,” Bavaria says. Math is a technical and complicated subject that requires step-by-step processes. With the proper organizational skills, your child will understand how to break down complex tasks into manageable bits, just like a math problem. By Natalie Bauer Elementary Math Worksheet Simplify the following fractions. 1.) 2/10 2.) 3/9 3.) 4/10 4.) 13/14 5.) 7/14 6.) 11/33 7.) 4/24 8.) 3/12 9.) 12/60 10.) 2/22 Answers: 1) 1/5 2) 1/3 3) 2/5 4) 13/14 5) ½ 6) 1/3 7) 1/6 8) ¼ 9) 1/5 10) 1/11 |
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