“Fake it until they make it”
This is the advice that Dr Ange Rogers suggested that teachers tell parents back in November 2020.
Dr Ange has been a classroom teacher, Numeracy Coach, Consultant and currently lectures to pre-service teachers at RMIT University in Melbourne.
She was writing about the importance of parents in developing a positive mindset about maths, and whilst mainly written for teachers, The Parent Problem has sage advice for parents too.
And it is still applicable.
She wrote “The one thing that remains constant is a parent’s influence.
We must encourage and educate parents to ALWAYS remain positive about maths.
We must share with them the serious implications of using throw away lines like “I was no good at maths” or “I didn’t like maths”…
Immediately that child switches off and thinks- “mum/dad were never good at maths so its ok for me not to be too”
Maths is more than half about mindset, so having a positive attitude is a HUGE advantage. Time and time again I have seen children who, even in Year 1, have decided maths isn’t for them…”
This is particularly important as some of our Year One students begin to “make history, setting new numeracy benchmarks for every Year 1 student in the state.” You can read the full article, written on May 25, 2025, in the Daily Telegraph.
Generally speaking, parents not only need to be positive about maths, even if they have had, or continue to have, a ‘difficult relationship’ with maths themselves, they need to become more involved in their child’s learning.
There … I said it!
And before you yell at me through the screen or close the page and move on to something else, take a moment to hear me out.
I was fortunate as a child to have a ‘stay-at-home’ mum. We lived on the land and that was how it was done. That’s not to say my mum had all the time in the world - far from it - but it did mean that she was able to help make maths meaningful for us, to involve maths in our every day, like in cooking for example, to help us practice our tables, to help us solve problems.
That’s also not to say that parents nowadays don’t do the same things, but with the way the world has shifted, with both adults in the house needing to go to work just to make ends meet, it makes it really difficult to have time to do these types of things.
TIME… that’s the biggest problem. There never seems to be enough of it.
And when we are time-poor, we make choices about what stays and what goes.
After decades in the classroom, I know what one of those choices has been.
Time - the nemesis of adult life!
That means parents need to work smarter, not harder.
So, when it comes to being involved and helping your child with their maths, don’t spend hours googling terms and strategies to help your child.
I have done all of that for you, and that’s what you get with a MathsBites subscription - everything you need to know so that you can give help to your child in a timely fashion. Smarter, not harder.
But if you have limited time, when can you watch the short videos? Great question!
Put a video on in the car, and listen to it on your commute to work or to the shops - you’ll know where you need to go back to watch if necessary. Waiting for the bus, the train, your coffee or lunch … Give yourself 5-10 minutes every now and then and I promise it will make a difference.
It’s that simple.
