How to help your child with maths at home (even if you weren't good at maths)

Children listen closely to how adults talk about maths. If they often hear "I was never good at maths" or "Some people just don't have a maths brain", they may decide that struggling means they are not a maths person, and stop trying.

Maths is a skill that grows with practice, like learning to cook or play football. Try replacing a few common phrases:

Praising effort and method, not only the right answer, teaches your child that mistakes are part of learning rather than proof of failure.

Short, regular practice works better than long, occasional sessions. Twenty to forty-five minutes most days, at roughly the same time, builds a habit that carries your child through the term.

• Choose a regular time, such as after the evening meal, and protect it from errands and television where you can.
• Set up a study spot. It doesn't need to be a desk. A corner of a table with good light, a pencil, an eraser, a ruler and an exercise book is enough.
• Keep phones out of reach unless they are being used for a maths tool.
• End on a success. Finish with a question your child can do, so they leave feeling capable.

When your child is stuck, the temptation is to show them the answer. But when you solve it, you do the thinking. Good questions let your child do the thinking while you guide. You don't need to know the answer to ask them.

• "What is the question asking you to find?"
• "What do you already know?"
• "Have you seen a question like this before? What did you do then?"
• "Can you draw a picture of it?"
• "Does your answer make sense?"

Maths makes more sense when children see it working in real life. Bring them into everyday decisions:

• Cooking. Ask them to double a recipe for visitors or halve it for two people. That is fractions and ratio.
• Shopping. At the market, ask them to add up the items before you pay and to check the change. Ask which size of a product is better value.
• Transport. If the fare is ₦700 each way, what does a week of school runs cost? If the journey takes 40 minutes and you leave at 6:50, when do you arrive?
• Budgets. Give an older child a small budget for a family outing or a week of snacks and let them plan it. That is percentages, estimation and decision-making together.

💡 Tip: Keep it light. One quick question while you cook is worth more than a lecture. If it starts to feel like a test, your child will stop enjoying it.

Your child's teacher is your partner. A short, friendly conversation early in the term helps you understand what topics are coming and how your child is doing. Ask the teacher what method they use for key topics, so you don't accidentally teach a different one that confuses your child.

1. Look at the homework together first. Ask your child to read the questions and tell you which ones look easy and which look hard.
2. Let them start alone. Stay nearby but busy with something else.
3. Step in with questions, not answers, when they are stuck for more than a few minutes.
4. Take a short break if tears or anger appear. A glass of water and five minutes away often help more than pushing on.
5. Write a note to the teacher if a whole question was impossible. That tells the teacher what to revisit.

Free online tools can give your child extra explanations and practice. MathPlug is free, needs no login and asks for no personal data, and once saved it works offline, so your child can practise even without data. It has short lessons, worked examples, a formula library and a maths dictionary for words your child doesn't understand.

As with any app, check what your child is using, keep screen time balanced and encourage them to write their working in an exercise book rather than only tapping answers.

Consider extra help, such as a lesson teacher, a study group or a conversation with the school, if you notice:

• Marks dropping steadily over a term, not just one bad test.
• Gaps in basics, such as times tables or fractions, holding back newer topics.
• Your child avoiding maths homework, hiding results or becoming very worried before tests. Our guide on maths anxiety has practical ideas.

Whether your child is facing end-of-term tests, BECE or WASSCE, your role is to keep things steady. Help them make a simple revision timetable, make sure they eat well and sleep at a sensible time, and keep the home as calm as you can.

Our BECE study plan and WASSCE study plan give week-by-week timetables you can pin on the wall. On exam mornings, a good breakfast and a word of encouragement are worth more than last-minute cramming.