When we think about supporting students in mathematics, we often focus on what happens during the school day. But there is another important piece of the puzzle: welcoming families into the conversation about mathematics.
Parents and caregivers want to help their children succeed in math, but many aren’t sure what that looks like today. Their own experiences with mathematics may have centered on memorizing rules, completing worksheets, practicing facts, and getting answers quickly. Today, we know that children need much more. They need opportunities to think, talk, explore, explain, make connections, and make sense of mathematics.
One of the best ways to help families understand this shift is to invite them into the school and let them experience it for themselves.
Make Math Night About Doing Math Together
A Parent or Family Math Night can be a wonderful way to build that connection. But rather than making the evening a presentation where teachers “talk to parents about math,” consider making it an opportunity for parents and children to do mathematics together.
Think less sit and listen and more play, explore, talk, and figure things out.
Give families engaging tasks that encourage conversation. Choose problems that might make them think, laugh, disagree, try another strategy, or celebrate when they find a solution. Let parents experience what it feels like to work through a problem with their child and hear the mathematical thinking that emerges.
For some parents, this may be a very different experience from the math they remember from school.
And that’s a good thing.
A Family Math Night can help parents see that mathematics isn’t simply about getting the right answer. It’s about making sense of ideas, using strategies, explaining thinking, and learning from mistakes.
Choose a Theme or Open the Door to Many Topics
There are lots of ways to organize a Family Math Night.
You might choose a specific theme that addresses a topic families are eager to understand. Math facts are a popular choice. Families often want to know how they can help their children work toward fact fluency, and a math facts night gives teachers an opportunity to demonstrate games, strategies, and practice routines that build understanding and automaticity without relying on memorization or timed tests.
You might also plan a more general math night that gives families a glimpse into several areas of mathematics. Stations could include number sense, place value, computation, fractions, geometry, problem solving, or mathematical games.
The event could be designed for:
- K–5 families, with activities differentiated by grade level
- Primary grades, focusing on foundational number concepts
- Intermediate grades, with a focus on fractions, multiplication, problem solving, or other key ideas
- A specific grade level, allowing you to address the mathematics students are currently learning
There isn’t one right format. The important thing is to create an experience that helps families feel comfortable, capable, and excited about mathematics.
Set Up Stations That Invite Conversation
Stations are a great way to make a Family Math Night active and engaging.
Rather than creating a series of worksheets for families to complete, look for games and tasks that naturally encourage interaction.
And don’t underestimate the value of a few smiles!
When families are laughing, talking, playing, and working together, they begin to see mathematics as something that can be collaborative and enjoyable.
Math Facts: Build It, Don’t Just Memorize It
A math facts night is a perfect opportunity to show families that fact fluency develops over time and is about more than memorizing isolated facts.
For an addition station, you might give families a collection of number cards and challenge them to find different ways to make a target number such as 10, 20, or 25. Ask questions such as:
“How many different ways can you make 20?”
“Which facts do you know automatically? Which ones can you figure out using a fact you already know?”
For multiplication, families might build arrays with counters or tiles and look for connections between facts. If they know 4 × 5, how could that help them solve 4 × 6? What about 8 × 5?
The conversation is the important part. Parents get to hear their children explain strategies and they begin to see that knowing facts can mean knowing how to figure them out, not simply recalling them instantly.
Place Value: Build a Number
For a place-value station, provide dice, digit cards, base-ten blocks or place-value discs.
Each person rolls or selects digits and creates a number, then models it. Family members then challenge one another:
- Build the greatest number you can. Whose number has the greatest value?
- Build the smallest number you can. Whose number has the least value?
- Which digit has the greatest value?
- What number is 100 more? 10 less?
Parents quickly see that place value isn’t simply about naming digits in a number. Students need to understand what those digits represent and how numbers are related.
Don’t Forget the Fun!
Stations shouldn’t feel like a lesson. Include games that families can simply play and enjoy while still practicing important mathematics.
Look for activities that don’t reward simply being the fastest. Instead, choose games that encourage players to make decisions, use strategies, explain their thinking, and perhaps even change strategies as they play. Try the games in Navigating Numeracy Learning Progression Centers (www.hand2mind.com/navigating-numeracy) for ideas or for a collection of ready-made game boards, direction cards, and materials.
Send the Math Home
One of the biggest benefits of a Family Math Night is that it doesn’t have to end when families walk out the school door.
If families enjoy a game or activity, send the materials home.
Provide simple directions and the materials needed to play. Encourage families to keep playing at home, perhaps while waiting for dinner, during a family game night, or even on a car ride.
And parents don’t need to become the “math teacher” at home. They simply need opportunities to play, ask questions, listen to their child’s thinking, and enjoy mathematics together.
The Invitation Matters
Sometimes we underestimate the power of simply opening the school doors and saying, “Come do math with us.”
When schools take the time to invite families in, they send an important message: You are an important part of your child’s mathematical journey.
Family Math Nights can help parents better understand what their children are learning and how they can support that learning. They can help dispel some of the anxiety parents may carry from their own experiences with mathematics. They can give families practical games and activities to continue at home.
Most importantly, they can help change the way families think about mathematics.
When parents leave a Family Math Night saying, “That was fun!” or “I never thought about it that way!” and their children are eager to play the game again at home, we’ve done more than teach a few math skills.
We’ve helped families see that math is something everyone can do, talk about, and enjoy.
