Top Tips for Helping Your Child with Maths

For many parents, helping with maths homework can feel intimidating, especially if your own school memories involve confusing formulas and a lot of frustration. The good news? Supporting your child with maths doesn’t require being a maths expert. What matters most is building confidence, curiosity, and a positive attitude toward learning.

Here are some practical, stress-free tips to help your child succeed in maths.

Keep Maths Positive

Children often pick up on adult attitudes very quickly. If maths is spoken about as “hard” or “boring,” they’re more likely to feel anxious about it.

Try to:

• Avoid saying things like “I was never good at maths”
• Use encouraging language such as “Let’s figure this out together”
• Celebrate small wins and progress

A positive mindset goes a long way in building confidence.

Focus on Understanding, Not Just Answers

Getting the right answer is important, but understanding how to get there matters more. Encourage your child to explain their thinking out loud. This helps you spot where confusion might be happening and strengthens their problem-solving skills.

If they make a mistake, treat it as a learning opportunity rather than a failure.

Use Everyday Maths

Maths is everywhere, and real-life examples make it feel more relevant and less abstract. You can practise maths skills through everyday activities like:

• Cooking and measuring ingredients
• Shopping and working out change
• Telling the time
• Counting steps, toys, or pieces of fruit
• Comparing prices or quantities

When children see maths in action, it feels more useful, and more interesting.

Make It Hands-On

Many children learn best by doing. Using physical objects can make tricky concepts easier to understand, especially for younger learners.

Try:

• Coins or buttons for counting and addition
• Lego or blocks for multiplication and fractions
• Drawing pictures or using number lines

Hands-on learning helps turn abstract ideas into something tangible.

Encourage Questions (and Curiosity)

Let your child know it’s okay to ask questions, and that not understanding something straight away is normal. Curiosity is a key part of learning maths.

If you don’t know an answer, be honest and explore it together. This shows your child that learning is a process, not something you have to get perfect the first time.

Practise Little and Often

Short, regular practice is more effective than long, stressful sessions. Ten minutes of focused maths a few times a week can be far more beneficial than a single long homework battle.

Keep sessions relaxed, and stop if frustration starts to build.

Use Games and Technology Wisely

Maths games, puzzles, and age-appropriate apps can make practice feel fun rather than forced. Board games involving numbers, cards, or strategy also help develop maths skills without feeling like “work.”

Just be sure to balance screen-based tools with real-world and hands-on learning.

Work with the School

If your child is struggling, stay in touch with their teacher. They can explain the methods being taught in class and suggest ways to support learning at home.

Using the same strategies at home and school can prevent confusion and build confidence.

Praise Effort, Not Just Results

Instead of focusing only on correct answers, praise effort, persistence, and problem-solving:

• “You worked really hard on that.”
• “I like how you tried a different approach.”

This encourages resilience and helps children feel safe making mistakes.

Helping your child with maths is less about knowing all the answers and more about creating a supportive, encouraging environment. By keeping things positive, practical, and pressure-free, you can help your child build confidence, and maybe even start to enjoy maths along the way.

Every child learns differently, and with patience and encouragement, progress will come.