Math 101

I was talking to a friend this week and she was confused by her 5th graders math. It wasn't that she didn't understand the math, she didn't understand the vocabulary that her 5th grader was using and therefore couldn't help her.

Math has changed. Well the math hasn't changed, the words teachers are using to teach kids math had changed. No longer do we call 3 a number, it's a digit, we no longer "borrow from our neighbor" we "regroup". This can become frustrating for the child and the parent. There are also some weird looking methods to do math like the Lattice Multiplication method. Schools have moved this way to better prepare kids for the math language. So later on in life they won't need to re-learn that 364 is made up of the digits 3 6 and 4.



My recommendation use the internet to your advantage. There is a wonderful site called http://www.khanacademy.org/  which will walk you and your children through step-by-step of how to do the math problems. There is even a section where you can practice your math skills, using the proper math vocabulary.

Here is a video from Khan Academy showing Lattice Multiplication.
















Here is another site I found with visual vocabulary terms. It doesn't have the processes but it will show you what a billion is or help you understand a math law. This site has some other fun activities that I haven't explored yet as well.

http://www.mathsisfun.com/definitions/distributive-law.html

I also recommend talking to the teacher. Ask if they can give you a vocabulary sheet at the beginning of each unit with the vocabulary words and what they mean so you will know how to help your kids. 

If all else fails Google the math terms on and I'm sure something will come up.