Build Confidence in Maths for Your Child can transform their approach to learning and make the subject enjoyable and rewarding. Maths can be tricky for many children, leaving them feeling frustrated or unsure. But with the right support, they can feel confident and even start to enjoy it! Building confidence in maths is about showing them that mistakes are just part of learning, and that with practice, they can get better. Here are some simple ways to support your child’s journey to feeling good about maths, along with a few inspiring stories of people who struggled at first but went on to do great things.

1. Build Confidence in Maths for your child to Start with a Growth Mindset

One of the best ways to build your child’s confidence in maths is to encourage a “growth mindset”. This just means helping them believe they can improve with practice. Did you know that Albert Einstein struggled with school as a child? He found traditional learning hard but went on to excel by thinking differently and focusing on understanding things his way. Remind your child that mistakes don’t mean they can’t do it—they’re just steps along the way.

2. Celebrate Small Wins and Progress to Build Confidence in Maths

I have find that every little victory goes a long way in boosting ones confidence. The child may have only been able to do long division for the first time or perform a few sums on their own — every little step counts! Other authors such as Lewis Carroll who wrote Alice’s Adventure and later on taught Maths was also a poor student in Maths. But he continued to push through and he eventually became good in the subject. Therefore, assist your child to focus on the progress that they are making, however little and encourage a child!

3. Make Maths Fun to Build Confidence in Your Child with Games

Maths doesn’t have to feel like homework all the time. Many children build confidence when learning feels like a game. Mathematician Maryam Mirzakhani, the first woman to win the prestigious Fields Medal, initially struggled with maths and found the subject boring. It was only when she started seeing maths in games and puzzles that she became fascinated.

Introduce your child to interactive maths games on websites like Kahoot, Blooket or even Mathletics to spark their interest. Making maths playful can help them see it as something approachable and fun. For more ideas on how to bring play into maths, take a look at our post on making maths fun.

4. Build Routine and Consistency

Consistency, which has come up numerous times in this paper, should help children to develop more security and confidence whenever the situation calls for it. Make maths a part of the daily routine where the child is expected to have lesson, go through a quick math review, do some math games and so on. Several of actor and comedian Eddie Izzard often comments about how he could never comprehend maths at school but eventually managed to remain with it by studying on a daily basis. This persistence enabled him to work towards gaining confidence as to the subject at hand over time.

Simply dedicating time in the day or the week to ‘maths’ time can work wonders. Unfortunately, even if the sessions are short, frequent, then your child will gain confidence gradually. For more information on the home education andHow to develop a good learning routine, check out our home school resource page.

5. Provide the Right Tools and Support

Having the necessary resources can help children focus on learning instead of feeling discouraged. Make sure they have essential tools like a calculator, paper, and a comfortable workspace. Even renowned physicist Richard Feynman found maths challenging in his youth, often needing specific tools and visual aids to help him understand complex ideas. Over time, with the right resources, he went on to become one of the most celebrated minds in science. For more on preparing your child’s learning space, see our guide on online maths tutoring prep.

6. Investing on the Process Rather than the Product

Building confidence is more than getting the right answers into solving mathematical problems. The noted science popularizer Carl Sagan once said to me that he did not like mathematics at all until the age of ten and even then only came to appreciate that aspect of it – problem solving, thinking things through – that is, the process, as much as the solution. Ask your child to pay more attention to the process he or she takes while tackling that problem or even the words that he or she uses to explain what they are doing. This takes a strain off them and allows them to see joy in learning and this gradually builds up their confidence levels.

7. How to teach persistence and patience

Confidence in maths doesn’t happen overnight. Share stories of people who struggled but didn’t give up. Ada Lovelace, known as the world’s first computer programmer, faced numerous setbacks in her early studies. She persevered and eventually developed a lifelong love for mathematics and computing. Let your child know that learning maths is a journey, and by staying patient, they’re building resilience that will serve them well in life.

In Summary

Allowing your child develop confidence in maths just requires that you let him or her know that it is okay to work through problems slowly. With the right approach, by encouraging and rewarding effort, teaching of maths through incorporating games and telling students and learners more stories of other people who studied maths and excelled, a lot of difference can be made. It only takes a change in attitude and a little persistence to help them change the way they look at maths and really get them to understand that they can succeed in Maths.

For further ideas and tools that can help your child in maths, please go check out National Numeracy.