How I Made My Kids Smarter in Math in Elementary School

From working with my children and my experience with private tutoring, I realized that kids in elementary school often struggle with the fundamentals of numbers and combining them. The workbooks used at their schools are good, but in most cases, they go from one topic to the next subject relatively fast. Some kids come along with this speed; others miss essential facts and cannot internalize core concepts. While private tutoring, I once had a student in 5th grade who struggled with math problems like calculating 8+5, but in 5th grade, he had to learn advanced mathematics like calculating fractions. He was a bright, lively, and curious child, but the lack of internalizing basic math operations made him struggle intensely with all math problems based on that.

So I sat down and thought about these core concepts. What has a child to learn in elementary school to master advanced maths?

• At first, it has to learn to add numbers up to 10. This is the fundamental operation everyone has to train.
• Next comes adding numbers up to 20, with the carry-over going above the 10, like 8+5. This is even more important than adding numbers up to 10 because this is the core principle of our number system. Each time we reach and step above tens, the method repeats itself. This way, we don’t have to learn a specific word for each number. We can repeat our 0–9 numbers by understanding the ten systems. Kids that are unsure with calculations up to 20 are even more uncertain with adding and subtracting up to 100 and above.
• The next step would be to take that knowledge and reverse it by subtracting numbers up to 20
• After mastering this, kids should learn to expand their knowledge of the system of ten for numbers up to 100, addition, and subtraction.
• Coming next is the multiplication of small numbers. Multiplying is nothing other than repeatedly adding the same numbers. Multiplying small numbers is one of the most used capabilities in advanced mathematics. The best way to learn this is by repeating lessons and learning by heart.
• Following is the ability to divide small numbers. Again, this is a reversion of multiplication.
• And lastly, one last core ability learned in elementary school is the ability to add and subtract by column.

So my oldest son was in 3rd grade, and I trained him in addition up to 20 with him, which was way below 3rd-grade conditions. But guess what, after he could securely add and subtract up to 20 without overthinking, he got way better at calculating up to 1000, multiplication, and division problems. After that, we trained the same way for adding and subtracting up to 100, multiplication, and division.

Math Training sounds boring and pushing, but I limited it to 10–20 minutes per day, but each day. We added timed training sessions to the chore to make it more interesting. Especially when he got better with the basic calculations, he demanded the timed drills and tried to beat his time from the day before.

Daily repetition is the key. If your kid is stressed, you are doing something wrong. The best way then is to evaluate whether the lessons are too complicated. Imagine trying to train subtraction up to 100 when your kid hasn’t mastered a complete understanding of adding up to 20. This is a blueprint for frustration.

How did I shape these training sessions?

You need a lot of exercises for each topic. For your kid to internalize the concepts mentioned above, repetition is the key. And the practices have to be in increasing order. Start with simple addition exercises up to 5. Yes, up to 5. Just repeatedly solving 2+3, 1+2, 3+1, etc., is the starting point. Then go to solving addition problems up to 10, and finally up to 20.

You can craft your exercise sheets by simply using Excel or Google sheets. That is how I started. Or you can use downloadable sheets with exercises from the world wide web.

I got so obsessed with the proper private tutoring of my children that I crafted a considerable amount of exercise sheets for each subject with varying difficulty levels. One day I looked at all the material with my wife, and she mentioned that I made enough worksheets to fill a book or two.
That sparked something in me, and I organized all this material and bundled it into themed books. The possibility of helping other parents with the same problems as we had made me publish these books on amazon. If you struggle to find suitable worksheets for your home tutoring, you can check the books on Amazon:

• Math Training 1: Addition and Subtraction up to 20 *
• Math Training 2: Addition and Subtraction up to 100 *
• Math Training 3: Multiplication of Small Numbers *
• Math Training 4: Division of Small Numbers *
• Math Training 5: Column Addition and Subtraction up to 1000 *

I hope I could help you with this information or even the books I created.

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