Every year, about this time, a certain textbook gets flung across the room out of frustration. It’s the end of the school year, and our brains are all ready for a break.
But it seems like the math lessons just keep getting harder and harder.
That confidence that we started the year with? Gone.
Will it return? Hopefully, when we start the new school year.
Thankfully, we’ve been through this before. The end-of-year math struggles are not new to me or to my precious kiddo. This year, I even remembered it was going to happen BEFORE the daily tears and meltdowns started.
Instead of fighting to get through a lesson a day, we slow down to the pace that’s right for us.
We make it through fewer problems, yes — but I know she’s understanding the material instead of rushing through just to say it’s done.
In episode 6 of the Learn Your Way podcast (titled Your Child is Not Behind), I discuss this strategy in greater detail. I mention that we work toward mastery instead of grades, often taking time to re-teach a skill that doesn’t quite stick.
As I said in the episode, “That doesn’t mean that I don’t have high expectations for my kids or let them get away with not trying. It does mean, however, that I don’t punish them for not understanding the material.“
We learned quite a few years ago that we can’t take a break from math over the summer. Even if we just do five problems a day during the break, it means we won’t have to work so hard to catch up in the fall. That means we don’t HAVE TO finish the math book before the last day of school.
We just have to keep moving forward. Together.
Want to read more about making math less stressful at home?
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Do any of your kids have end-of-year math struggles?
Tell us about it in the comments below!
