"1, 2, 3, 4, tell me that you love me more"

1234 by Feist

Hi Reader,

If you've ever watched your child struggle with a math problem, you know the frustration is contagious.

It's hard to watch and even harder to figure out why they don't understand.

♾️ Here's how you help your child solve not just that problem, but every one after it.

• Watch them closely. When they get to the step where their confidence breaks down, or they make a mistake you've found the target skill 🎯
• Work Backwards. Most often it's not the math problem, but a specific skill your child needs to review/learn. Zone in on the target skill. Make a few practice problems to refresh the skill. If you need inspiration, workbooks like these are awesome for practice problems.
• Use Math Tools: Look for ways to create visuals and use math tools. Get the math out of their heads, and into their hands! For K-2, this is an awesome set of tools to have on hand. If you're teaching multiplication, use this to make arrays at home.
• Revisit the original problem: Now if your lucky, there will be a few problems asking for the same skill. Finish the original problem together (yes, you can give them the answer! If this question caused any frustration, it's better to cut your losses) and then move on to the next one.
• Review: It takes a child at least 7 quality exposures to learn a new skill. Bring up this skill a few more times over the next 2 weeks. If they seem to have forgotten, be patient because it's normal to forget new skills.

💕 If you're really in the weeds, reach out to me. I'm happy to share some tips from the classroom to help you out.

What's New?

🎙️ See you soon? I'm so excited to present Ready or Not: Here Comes Kindergarten! Saturday August 17 at 2:30pm. I'll go over simple tricks to prepare your 3-5 year old for school both social emotionally and academically. If you're local to Charlotte I'd love to see you there!​

📚 Back on track: Last weekend I released my video Parenting During a Toxic Election Cycle. Here's a problem: Instead of attracting parents, I've attracted a lot of people sharing intense opinions about the election. While I love the views, I need a hand to get this video back on track with my intended audience: parents. Could you watch, like, and share or comment?

Things I Love

🎒 Backpacks!: Target's character backpacks are 20% off right now. I love this Squishmallows cat one, light up Spiderman, and of course this sophisticated Pikachu backpack is for the more discerning 4th grader.

🎁 Recycled fun: We bought my 4 year old buddy this cardboard construction toolbox for his birthday. It features safe tools to create anything out of recycled cardboard. It was really cool to see what he made! We bought the "discovery" pack.

Be kind to yourself 💕