How to Help Your Child with Maths at Home

How to help your child with maths at home

The most effective ways to help your child with maths at home are: practise times tables daily (10 minutes is enough), use real-world maths in cooking, shopping and measuring, focus on understanding rather than memorisation, and never say “I was bad at maths too”. Research from the University of Chicago shows that parental maths anxiety is directly passed to children, so your attitude matters as much as the exercises.

Age-specific advice

Key Stage 1 (ages 5-7): Build number sense

At this age, the goal is to help your child develop a strong sense of what numbers mean, not just how to count them. Practical activities work best:

Count everything — stairs, cars, apples in a bag. Make counting part of daily life.
Play with money — give your child coins and let them “pay” for items. This builds understanding of place value and addition.
Use measuring — baking is excellent for maths. “We need 200ml of milk. The jug has 150ml. How much more do we need?”
Number bonds to 10 and 20 — these are the foundation of all mental arithmetic. Practise until they’re automatic: “What goes with 7 to make 10?”
Board games — games like Snakes and Ladders, Monopoly Junior, and dice games build counting, addition and strategic thinking.

Key Stage 2 (ages 7-11): Master the fundamentals

Key Stage 2 is when the core skills that underpin all secondary maths must be locked in. The most important areas are:

Times tables — By the end of Year 4, your child should know all times tables up to 12×12 fluently. The government’s Multiplication Tables Check (MTC) tests this. Practise daily for 10 minutes using apps like Times Tables Rock Stars, or simple verbal quizzes while driving. If your child doesn’t know their times tables by Year 5, everything else (fractions, division, algebra) becomes dramatically harder.

Fractions — The most common point where children start struggling. Use visual aids: cut a pizza into 8 slices and ask “What fraction have we eaten?” Use fraction walls (available free online) to show equivalence. The key concept is that fractions represent parts of a whole, not just abstract numbers.

Word problems — Many children who can do calculations struggle with word problems because they can’t identify which operation to use. Practise by asking real-life questions: “We’re driving 120 miles and we’ve done 45. How far is left? What fraction of the journey is that?”

Key Stage 3 and GCSE (ages 11-16): Support without doing it for them

At secondary level, the maths becomes more abstract and parents often feel less confident helping. Here’s what you can do:

Help them organise revision — create a revision timetable covering all topics, not just the ones they’re comfortable with.
Encourage past paper practice — completing past papers under timed conditions is the single most effective GCSE revision strategy.
Use free online resources — Corbett Maths, MathsGenie, and BBC Bitesize all have topic-by-topic explanations aligned to the GCSE curriculum.
Don’t do the homework for them — if your child is stuck, help them identify what they don’t understand, then encourage them to look up the method. Doing it for them removes the learning.

Common mistakes parents make

“I was bad at maths too”

This is the most damaging thing a parent can say. Research from the University of Chicago (Maloney et al., 2015) found that children of maths-anxious parents learn significantly less maths over the school year when those parents try to help with homework. The anxiety transfers. Instead, model a positive attitude: “Let’s figure this out together.”

Teaching different methods to school

The way maths is taught in schools has changed significantly. Column subtraction, grid multiplication, and bus stop division may look different from how you learned them. Teaching your child a different method can cause confusion. Ask the school which methods they use, or look at the worksheets your child brings home.

Only practising what they’re good at

Children naturally want to practise topics they already understand because it feels good. Effective revision means spending most of the time on the topics they find hardest. Help your child identify their weak areas and focus there.

When to consider a tutor

Home support is valuable, but it has limits. Consider a tutor if:

Your child is more than a year behind their expected level
You find yourself getting frustrated during homework (this damages the parent-child relationship and the child’s confidence)
Your child needs preparation for a specific exam (11 Plus, SATs, GCSEs)
The maths has gone beyond your own understanding (no shame in this — GCSE maths is genuinely challenging)

How to Help Your Child with Maths at Home