Resources For Helping Kids Learn Math

Understanding math concepts can be intimidating to both children and adults alike, but don’t let that discourage you from trying to learn more, or from helping your child with her homework.

Whether you are looking for simple explanations to tricky math concepts, or just needing some tutorials or extra practice on the math subjects you’ve come to the right place. I’ve compiled a list of some of my favorite math websites that you can use in the classroom as a teacher, for homeschooling, or just as a supplement to your child’s traditional class time.

The MathGoodies website offers tips for new math teachers, lesson plans, printable worksheets, online games and more.

The Home School Math website isn’t just for homeschooling families, it also offers tips for “highly effective math teachers”, curriculum guides, and printable worksheets for grades 1 through 6, as well as subject focused worksheets such as fractions, rounding, telling time and counting money.

The Teachnology website offers information on math as well as every other subject in school. Teachnology offers lesson plan suggestions, teaching tips and explanations of terms. The site also offers links to other websites as well.

The PBS Kids’ show Cyberchase features three earthlings aliens, and tons of math concepts. Although this link takes you to the Parents & Teachers’ page, the traditional website offers plenty of chances for children ton watch videos on math, and play games using their power of deduction. The Parents & Teachers’ page also offer games, printable activities, and gives ideas on how to make math more fun. Below you'll find a sampling of the television show. For shorter live-action clips that apply directly to the show's theme, visit the videos link on the "Cyberchase" website.

CoolMath teaches kids that math is cool, in fun ways, such as through puzzles and games. You can also use the “math dictionary” and practice buttons for more detailed information. Although the website suggests that the content is appropriate for ages 13 – 100, your upper elementary school student could also benefit from the other features of the site as well.

Visit Brightstorm.com for advanced level math, such as algebra 1 & 2, geometry, trigonometry, pre-calculus and calculus. This website offers more than 2,000 free videos with great teachers and real examples to help you really understand the math problems. The site also offers test prep for the SAT, ACT, PSAT, and the AP examinations. The website also offers a checker, known as their Instant Math Answers which allows you to check answers for free for 7 days, then purchase a monthly subscription for a nominal fee. Although I’m not familiar with this function, I’d assume that the checker just tells you if your answer is correct or incorrect, and that it doesn’t give you the answers to the problems.

The PBS Kids’ show Cyberchase features three earthlings aliens, and tons of math concepts. Although this link takes you to the Parents & Teachers’ page, the traditional website offers plenty of chances for children ton watch videos on math, and play games using their power of deduction. The Parents & Teachers’ page also offer games, printable activities, and gives ideas on how to make math more fun. Below you'll find a sampling of the television show. For shorter live-action clips that apply directly to the show's theme, visit the videos link on the "Cyberchase" website.

Despite what society teaches, kids like to compete with each other. They also like to see how educational concepts relate to real-world situations, so teaching with games effectively does both at the same time.Don't worry, you don't necessarily need to spend gobs of money on the games, often just a few simple supplies will do just fine to help teach math to younger students. As with any learning activity, make sure that the game serves the purpose of teaching something, and that it just isn't a time-filler, notes the NRich website.

Need helpful science resources? Check out this HubPages article for an article I wrote on the topic.

Sum Dice Fun

Find a large set of foam dice and have kids compete to see who can add the sums together the quickest. (Think of it as hands-on flashcards.) Once kids have mastered adding the two digits together, ask them to multiply the numbers the quickest.

Quick Card Figuring

Pass out five "number" cards from a normal deck of playing cards to each player, then turn over another card from the deck. The turned over card is the "goal" for everyone to reach. Players must use the cards they were given in order to reach the goal, and can use any form of operation to reach the goal. For example, suppose the student had the following cards: 5, 4, 2, 2. If the goal number was "eight" the student would have to answer 5x4/2-2=8.

Roll Six

"Roll Six" is a combination of the two previous games- pass out a total of six dice- have students roll the first five dice to see what numbers they have to work with, then roll the last dice- that's the goal number to reach, using the different operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division).

Don't let math woes frustrate you and your child. Although some math concepts may take longer to learn (consider- not all seventh graders are intellectually developed to understand calculus), using games just to learn and strengthen concepts may help lighten the mood and enable your child to succeed in something small, giving him the confidence to keep learning.