How to Easily Overcome Math Anxiety in your Homeschool
Math anxiety is real! And it’s also pretty common! In fact a study conducted concluded that a whopping 93% of Americans have some form of negative feeling towards math. What?!
With these kinds of statistics, it could very well be that you or your kids are struggling with math anxiety. But I don’t want to stress you out with this post.
I rather want to give you and your kids strategies for easily overcoming a fear of math! And I also want to let you know about our favourite online math curriculum and how it has helped us with math anxiety!
This post is sponsored by CTCMath. I received a free CTCMath Homeschool Family Membership and am being compensated for my time. I am not required to give a positive review. As always, I am sharing my honest opinion with you. Please read my full blog disclosure.
Do I Have Math Anxiety in our Family?
Before I get into the solutions, I want to dive a little deeper into math anxiety and how it could present itself. If you or your kiddo have a fear of math, you could have very severe reactions whenever you have to do anything math related.
This could be when you have to work out a math problem, do mental arithmetic, figure out a tip at a restaurant or when you have to use a calculator. Here are some common symptoms identified by Medical News Today:
- physical symptoms such as an elevated heart rate, sweating, feeling dizzy and tensing your muscles,
- emotional symptoms like panic and fear,
- and an inability to perform relatively simple math tasks.
What Causes Math Anxiety?
Psychology Today quotes a study that says math anxiety is learnt from parents and teachers. And I totally get this! As a kid I struggled with math.
I had teachers who were impatient and unsupportive. At the same time, my dad always spoke about us not being math people. And I definitely internalized this! From then on I considered myself bad at math.
I also believe that there is so much emphasis placed on math that it becomes huge and frightening. And if you struggle, you feel like you’re not smart or you don’t work hard enough.
But, it’s not all doom and gloom! If this bad-at-math mom can teach math and encourage her kids to enjoy it, then so can you! And I’m here to show you how!
Overcoming Math Anxiety
One of the very best ways to overcome math anxiety is to homeschool. You can create an environment that’s conducive to happy learning. And a close second to this, is using a programme in your homeschool that only encourages rather than causes anxiety.
With these two elements in place, you have a fantastic opportunity to make teaching and learning math positive for you and your kiddos. And to make the subject enjoyable, engaging and stress-free!
Let me share how we avoid any math anxiety in our homeschool with CTCMath.
You can see my other detailed review posts about CTCMath here. As you can see, we love it!
Get a Supportive Math Teacher
We use a programme with a great math teacher. My boys are never made to feel bad or that they’re not doing well. CTCMath’s teacher is Pat Murray and he’s so encouraging. He praises the kids in each video lesson. And his tone is kind, patient and supportive.
At the same time, by outsourcing math to CTCMath, I’m avoiding passing on any of my math anxiety on to my kids. They’ve always had a great experience with math and it shows! They’re confident with anything math related.
I’m also learning right alongside my kids. I have so many gaps from my years of resistance and fear. And I’m starting back up from the bottom to fill them all in! And this brings me to another way of overcoming math resistance – going at your own pace.
Use a Self-paced Programme
As I mentioned at the start of the post, homeschooling is a great way to overcome math anxiety. And a big part of this is being able to go at a pace that suits your kids.
With my kids, I’ve noticed some great benefits of going at their own pace:
- They can go over concepts they’re not so confident with, as many times as they like. There’s no falling behind. And that’s why we love CTCMath’s programme. They can go as fast or as slow as they need to. It’s all about math mastery and taking the time needed to achieve it.
- The boys have been able to go back when needed. And then speed ahead too! When we started out, they needed to review some Kindergarten concepts. And once they had mastered these, they got through two grades in a year! With CTCMath, you have access to all grades, from K through 12.
Create a Personalized Path with Adaptive Learning
Another way that the boys avoid math anxiety is by having a personalized programme, perfect for them. This means that they are always challenged, at just the right level.
CTCMath will adjust to each child’s needs and level, as they progress through the programme. Once again, there is no anxiety because they are challenged in a way that builds up their confidence. They are not made to answer questions that are too hard, or too easy for them!
Build your Kid's Math Confidence
Confidence in math is definitely an antidote to math anxiety! And as a homeschooler, you have the perfect opportunity to do this for your kiddos! And I highly recommend using CTCMath to help you. So I just want to end off with a few of the features that help to build confidence that we love:
- The video lessons on the platform are fantastic because they’re short and break down complex math concepts into bite-sized chunks that are easy to manage.
- Questions are interactive and fun. And kids are rewarded with stars and encouraging animations.
- Problem areas never go unnoticed because there is extensive tracking and monitoring that you can easily access. You can then quickly jump on areas your kid needs more help with before they become a huge gap.
This One's for the Parents
As parents we might not mean to do it, but we can cause math anxiety. So I feel that we often need so much support when it comes to giving our kids the most effective math-learning experience.
CTCMath definitely has you covered! They have a Facebook group for parents where you can ask for advice and find tips on teaching math. And be sure to sign up to their newsletter because it’s always full to the brim with useful info and tips!
Please Reach Out with Questions
I’m such a believer in CTCMath and creating a positive math environment in your homeschool. No to math anxiety, I say! So please feel free to reach out with any questions!
Follow me Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest for more homeschool shenanigans, advice and resources. And please check out my working homeschool mom coaching if you need some extra help and support.