Reply to AAP 3rd grade Math : do you teach/help your DC?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I was wondering if I am supposed to teach and help my DC at home.

DC is 3rd grade, and seems struggling with math. 
I hope the teacher knows and helping from the base if it is necessary.
- It is a small class.

but the teacher just keep going and keep going.

Should I fill the gap? 
Actually, I don't want to. 
I think it's teachers' job to teach their students, not parents.  
(I can give a hint on a very challeging homework problem, though. )

Do you teach your DC at home?[/quote]

OP, you say you "hope the teacher knows" you child is struggling.

Red flag there. You [i]hope[/i]? It's up to your son, first and foremost, and you, since he's only, what, eight?, to be sure the teacher [i]does[/i] know he's struggling.

That is not the same as having to teach your son math. You have to communicate better with the teacher, and to teach your son to communicate with her too. (Yeah, I'm
going to say "her" since OP doesn't specify. All my kid's math teachers have been women so I'm picking that with no offense aimed at men teaching math.)

We found in third grade AAP that the teachers often do not know each individual child's problem areas in math. There are too many kids. And very often, homework -- where a lot of the learning should get done and where the problems should get identified -- is "graded" in class by the kids themselves, with the teacher giving the answers to the class. But the teachers sometimes never actually see the homework, so they don't know that Johnny got five out of ten homework answers wrong and needs extra help with division, now, before the unit test in two weeks' time. Homework is often not graded for being right or wrong but just for being done, and when kids check it for themselves, the teacher does not see that problems 2, 5, and 9 show that the child isn't understanding a particular concept.

This is where you come in. Do you look at his homework daily? I see that you say you can give him hints on challenging problems - great. Do it, but also be sure you look over everything else too. Do you know what unit they're on now? Do you see his homework after it's been checked so you know how he did on it? Or do you look at it and actually check through it daily and say "Try this one again" for questions with issues?

Don't just "hope" that the teacher knows he's struggling -- tell her he is. And encourage your son strongly to go see the teacher to discuss problem X and Y in last night's homework that he really tanked on, for instance. If he is balky and feels he'll be singled out as "dumb" if he does that, arrange with the teacher for him to come in early or stay after school for a time to work on his problem areas. (By middle school teachers have specific days they stay after school to answer questions and provide help. My kid, who does fine with but isn't a whiz at math, has figured out that it does help her to stay during that time and walk through things with the teacher then. In elementary you need to arrange that kind of occasional time with the teacher but it is worthwhile and teaches the child that the teacher is there to help them and not just to throw problems and grades at them.)

This isn't "teaching" your child, though some in DCUM-land will say that it is, or that it's helicoptering. Nope, it's called paying attention and advocating where you need to. IT does not mean you are pushing for your kid to be a math genius but it does mean you want your child to be comfortable with, and not stressed about, math. [/quote]

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