Spend time with kids on simple board games, puzzles, and activities that encourage strong math skills. Even everyday activities, such as playing in a sandbox or in a bath tub can teach children math concepts such as weight, density, and volume. Check your TV listings for shows that can reinforce math skills in a practical and fun way.

1. Encourage children to solve problems. Provide assistance, but let them figure it out themselves. Problem solving is a lifetime skill.
2. The kitchen is filled with opportunities to teach fractional measurements, such as doubling and dividing cookie ingredients.
3. Point out ways that people use math every day to pay bills, balance their checkbooks, make change, and calculate a tip at restaurants. Involve older children in projects that incorporate geometric and algebraic concepts, such as planting a garden, building a bookshelf, or figuring how long it will take to drive to your family vacation destination.
4. Children should learn to read and interpret charts and graphs, such as those found in daily newspapers. Collecting and analyzing data will help your child draw conclusions and become discriminating readers of numerical information.

While teachers play an integral role in the education of children, it goes without saying that parental involvement makes the biggest difference in a child’s scholastic success.