The Subject Parents Dread What is the one subject that you dread helping your kids with? You are probably hoping that they never bring you those difficult questions about fractions, word problems, geometry or heaven forbid, calculus. If you’re like many of us moms you are probably dreading the day your child approaches you with their math homework. In these modern times there are so many different approaches to teaching math. Tablet Learning These days there is an app for everything. Surely you could find a great app for your children’s tablet that could give them some math practice. However, if you had the right tools and were confident you could teach your children what they needed to know, would you choose to share your time with them and be involved in their learning? If you choose to be the teacher instead of the tablet then not only will they have solidified a brain pathway of addition, but they will have solidified memories of mom helping them learn it. Simplify For young children it is important for them to be able to accomplish a more difficult task in an easier way that is simple for them to comprehend. As moms we try to teach our kids all kinds of things that seem beyond a child’s understanding. We simplify emotions to happy or sad. We simplify adult foods by cutting them into smaller pieces. Even if you are not confident in your math skills you can still simplify problems for your kids. This is made possible by diverse strategies and approaches to solving math problems. It may seem second nature for you to cut up your child’s food, but with the help of Emily, you don’t have to plan a single step of teaching your child basic math in a way they will understand it. Doubles and doubles plus one are easy ways for kids to visualize how to solve addition problems in a way that makes sense to a kid and the way their brains break down big things into smaller pieces they can easily comprehend. Doubles are adding 1+1 or 4+4, etc. Doubles plus one teaches kids to double the smaller number and then add one. This makes the equation into something they already know how to do. Instead of trying to teach 6+7 they already know the double of six is 12 and from there they just have to “plus one” to get 13. This is the simplified concept of doubles plus one. Different Learning Styles As a parent you understand that every child is different. If you have more than one, you know that even siblings can be as different as night and day. As a teacher of all subjects to your children it is crucial to be flexible in your teaching style because every child has a different learning style. What works for one does not work for another. For some students, their minds will only allow them to solve the problem in one specific way, so you as the teacher have to be able to show them multiple solutions so that they can pick what works best for them. This will increase confidence in the youth and not set them up for failure. More Than One Way At first, your child may only be able to get the answer one way. However, multiple strategies solidifies learning. It is good for children to understand multiple ways to solve the problem so that they can have a bank of options to choose from in a stressful situation. The more ways they are able to solve the problem, the more solid the task will be in their brains. You should be able to get the same answer five different ways if you have the correct skills and a patient, caring teacher. This website offers a variety of activities that give your children fun, visual math activities to practice the doubles plus one strategy.