Increased interest in and less frustration with math

Many participants reported an increased interest in math. One said, “I feel different from when I was going to middle school. I find myself getting into it, really.” Many participants said they had discovered that math could be learned in many ways; moreover, they found out that math was everywhere in life, not just in school. “You could be doing math without knowing it was math.”

Some participants reported that their knowledge and skill levels had improved. “I can do more math now,” one said. I noticed, as the weeks went on, that participants showed an increased willingness to stay in a position of not knowing as they looked for a pattern or compared several people’s thinking processes as they were doing an activity. They could suspend their frustration while they wondered what might be happening. One example of this was the electric atmosphere in one session while a parent explained how she could quickly figure out the sum of a series of doubles, after all the others had been painstakingly adding number after number as they doubled a penny ten times. The parent made several attempts to show her method; her first couple of explanations were not easy to understand because she was working out for the first time how to articulate her thinking; then she had to explain it a few more times in answer to particular questions from the group. The uncertainty was compounded by the fact that I wasn’t sure that her method would work, so I took a minute or so to check it mentally. All in all, about five minutes of uncertainty, yet no one in the room gave up, or asked for a quick answer to get them out of uncertainty, which I notice are two common responses to frustration.

Helping Their Kids with Math

Parents reported that participation in the family math groups helped them work with their kids on math ideas. Besides the specific strategies they learned, they reported calmer interactions with kids and better communication.

Specific strategies

Participants reported that they learned some specific ways to work with their kids with math. This was especially true of parents who had kids in school, who found some ways to help their kids with homework. One parent reported that she would now use ordinary examples to explain more abstract math problems her kid brought home; another said she learned to be more specific with directions, and gave the following example: “Flip it over halfway, not all the way.” Another reported, “I can tell my kids what they need math for, like culinary arts or carpentry.”

Others reported they had learned to make math fun for their kids. One said, “My intention is to use the blocks and the games, making it fun and imaginative play.” Another said, “I’m buying tens blocks for my kids for Christmas; I would never have thought to buy math toys for them before.”

Better communication and a more positive adult/child relationship

Some parents reported that relationships with their kids improved because the parent had learned how to communicate better. One mother talked about the impasse she had previously come to in dealing with kids’ homework. The process had become so frustrating that she would refuse to continue to work with her child. “Before I used to say, ‘Just leave it (homework) then. If you fail, you fail.’ Now I can help.… Now I can show my son without getting frustrated and getting him frustrated.”