Solve for X
26x^4 + 13x^3 - 4x^2 + 32 = 36854
Does the above math equation leave your kid completely perplexed? Are you completely lost and confused when you think about helping your kid do their math homework? Fear of math is a universal phenomenon with kids across grades, geographies and education curriculums and this fear severely impacts their performance. To conquer the fear your kids need to dig deep, understand and confront it head on!
There are many types of fear, which are related to math. The more common ones range from math being too complex, too time consuming or weak fundamental concepts. Math is complex and tough to understand!
It's true that math involves some very complex equations and numbers like the one above. The best way to overcome complex problems is to break it down into smaller parts. Most math concepts are made of "little parts" or skills that you may have learned in the past which form the building blocks of your math foundation. Once your kids can break down the particular problem, they may discover that they are weak in some basic concepts or key steps which define the problem. One of the best ways for them to strengthen those concepts is to revisit and practice those concepts for a grade lower than their current grade. Math is not interesting!
Most kids find math boring when compared to the arts and language subjects. Schools have further accentuated the problem by providing interesting views which help to spark the kid's interest and curiosity in arts and language subjects but not for math. Yet math can be made very interesting when related to real life problems and its unlimited applications in our daily lives. Many times, math poses challenges that can be amazingly gratifying to conquer. One of the other fears which consistently resonates amongst kids is the perceived time commitment that math involves. In reality, you need to be smart about the way your kid approaches math and one of the things that has proven to help many kids is regular practice. You need to have your kid set aside some time everyday to regularly practice math and refresh math concepts. The key lies in focusing on one math concept at a time and setting aside time on a regular basis for learning and refreshing those concepts. It's normal for kids to resist devoting an hour of their thoughts on math homework. I'm not wired for math I've heard many kids say "Math is not for me" or "I'm just not wired for math". There is no such proven theory which proves that one person is better than the other at math. While studies show that there are different brain types, the difference lies in the approach you take to solve a problem. In short, your kids are no different when compared to other kids. One factor that affects math performance more than any other is confidence. Studies do show that positive thinking can dramatically improve math performance. Fear of Math like any other ordinary fear can easily be eliminated by essentially confronting it and strengthening your foundation.
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