To become great at things like sports, music and art, people say you need to be born with natural ability. Being “a natural” is empowering. It builds self-confidence. It makes you feel special!
It’s commonly believed that you need to be born “a natural” to become great at math. But the folks at Mathnasium – The Math Learning Center believe that virtually any child can become great at math. For many kids, math is something that doesn’t come naturally, but they can be taught to think in the ways that the naturals do. When it comes to math, your child can feel empowered, self-confident and special. When you learn to think like a natural … you can become one!
At Mathnasium, students are taught to use efficient and reliable “schema” – organized ways of thinking – that are innate to the mathematically gifted “naturals” among us. Mathnasium instructors deliver excellent instruction that is driven by top-notch proprietary curriculum materials. These materials are carefully selected for students to assure they encounter these topics only after the appropriate prerequisite knowledge is in place.
The Mathnasium curriculum is built around number sense, which has been described as a “good intuition between numbers and their relationships.” With number sense, students develop numerical fluency, which can be seen as the “bridge that connects number recognition and problem solving.” Students who are numerically fluent recognize how to compose and decompose numbers based on patterns and comprehend how to use those numerical patterns to solve problems. This puts them in the position to focus on the problem and what it means – and not on number facts. Through this process, students develop strong mental math and written computational skills, along with the reasoning ability to know which skills serve them best in any given situation.
Mathnasium is structured as a learning center rather than a tutorial service. While a tutor helps students get through “tonight’s homework,” Mathnasium’s primary role as a learning center is to identify and directly address gaps in students’ knowledge that are the underlying causes of their current difficulties in school. Since math is a cumulative subject, it is extremely important to make sure that students have mastery of prerequisite knowledge from previous grades if they are going to have success in their current grade and beyond.
Mathnasium students enjoy attending their sessions, causing parents to frequently ask “how?” and “why?”! While there are many contributing factors, the primary reason is that Mathnasium students are significantly gaining self-confidence due to their improving math abilities. Mathnasium students often feel relieved that math really can make sense, and they feel empowered to reach new heights that never before seemed possible.
At Mathnasium, parents of students tell the story:
“Since her enrollment in Mathnasium, we have seen great growth in Abby’s math abilities, which has resulted in higher test scores and an end to her great anxiety with math. It is great to have low-stress homework time!” –Beth M., parent of third grader
“Laura is so much more confident going into math tests than she was before she started going to Mathnasium. Because she is more confident in math, she also has grown more confident in all of her other subjects.” –Lisa M., parent of eighth grade student
