Skip to main content

The Role of Parents – Practical Do’s and Don’ts

 

Mathematics is the science of recognising, understanding, appreciating, creating and using patterns in day-to-day life, business, sciences, work life, and technology.

After exploring the emotional and cultural factors that shape a child's perception of mathematics in earlier posts, this one shares a clear, actionable framework—the Do’s and Don’ts for parents who genuinely want to help their children love math.


✅ The Do’s for Parents

  • Love your child unconditionally.

  • Let your child blossom into their own self; give space.

  • Understand that each child is unique; appreciate their uniqueness.

  • Develop a hopeful, long-term perspective toward life.

  • Help your child recover from low scores or stressful phases.

  • Spend informal time: talk, play, go on outings.

  • If your child struggles academically, explore where their true strengths lie.

  • Avoid over-pushing bright young kids. Often they perform well under pressure in early classes but gradually withdraw from self-study as they grow.

  • Assist in creating daily structure. Help develop a study routine with patience and consistency.


❌ The Don’ts for Parents

  • Never compare your child’s scores or habits with siblings or friends.

  • Never beat, yell, or punish them physically for academic reasons.

  • Avoid public reprimands. Would you like being scolded in front of colleagues?

  • Don’t expect your child to excel in everything—school, tuition, arts, sports. This leads to burnout and depression.

  • Avoid transactional parenting. Don’t tie love, rewards, or outings to academic performance.

  • Limit gadgets. Too many distractions derail routine and focus.

  • Don’t narrate your failures in maths. It seeds resignation. Your journey is different—don’t pass on the burden.


This post is a heartfelt request: become your child’s support system, not another source of pressure.
Let's nurture not just mathematical competence—but confidence.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

My Journey as a Maths Teacher – Part 2

  🧒 From Grade 3 to Guiding Future Teachers It gives me immense pleasure to be of some help to my younger mathematics teaching colleagues like Shruti Goel, Laly, Preeti Garg, Misha Nambiar, Rajendra Paliwal , and many others—across subjects and across schools. But things weren’t always this way. 📘 The Indore Phase – Simplicity, Struggle, and Silent Growth After leaving Mumbai in 1988, I served as a school teacher at Choithram School, Indore , till 1992. I even taught Grades 3 to 5 in a single session . Yet, the spirit was always high. I loved taking classes, creating activity sheets, and even wrote articles I mailed to U.S. education journals —long before emails were common. If there was one shortcoming I admit, it was in checking large stacks of answer books. I often rationalised, “I’m a creative person, so it’s okay.” In hindsight, it wasn’t—but the honesty helped me grow. 🔄 The Decade of Churn (1988–1997) It was a whirlwind decade. Imagine this combination: Ph.D. ...

Mathematics and Life 1 Introduction to the article series by Beyond Abacus

Purpose of the series is to explain various basic mathematics concepts in simple language connecting concepts to examples from life,business, science, day to day life. It will be our special emphasise to develop what Dr. Prakash Moghe calls the math - language interface. That is, showing similarity between the words used in daily language and mathematics like point, ray, interest and so on......     Audience This series of posts is for everyone who wants to understand, learn, revise, apply maths concepts, formulae, and wants to develop Problem Solving Approach, critical thinking, design thinking, and mathematical thinking. Agewise , from age 6 to the time one wants to learn / revise / teach basic maths will find these posts useful in their own ways. Frequency of posts At least one post a day has been planned. Length of posts Each post will be self content, so will be long enough to elaborate the point and short enough to keep the reader engaged. The reach Each post wil...

Mathematics and Life 87 You know maths worksheet - 3

  You know maths worksheet - 3 Answers to You know maths worksheet 2 True  2. True 3. True 4. True 5. True 6. True 7. True This was just a very basic revision of geometry terminology. Since geometry is unfortunately neglected across the nation and across the curriculum too, I have designed just a concept brushing, easy going test. Today we will discuss some questions which are a mix of basic arithmetic and basic reasoning ability A leap year comes in 4 years. True / False My friend said I have a one acre plot. Seeing me confused he elaborated, it is nearly 45,000 sq ft. Was she right ? I went shopping and saw an item labelled 2000/-. I also read it had a discount of 10% for the festive season and an additional 10% discount on that purchase as it was their Foundation day. I paid 1600/-. Was I right ? A purchased one thing in 100/-. He sold it to B for 125/-, who sold it to C for 150/-. Who made more profit A or B ? Why ? Or both made the same profit ? Five men can complete a wo...