Building Math Confidence

For some of us, math can be challenging at first and lower our confidence in ever doing math well. This is known as math anxiety. But if we persevere, we can learn and be successful! The following resources offer tips for helping your child be math confident.

How to Support Your Child

Name What’s Happening: Ask your child how math feels. If they’re anxious, name it together. Try saying something like, “It sounds like math feels stressful sometimes. That’s okay—and we can work on that together.” Naming the feeling helps reduce its power.
Focus on Thinking, Not Perfection: Let go of speed and right answers. Try saying, “It’s not just about the answer, I just want to hear your thinking.” This shifts the focus to problem-solving and removes pressure.
Start with Calm: Before (or during) math work, pause and reset. Try taking 3 deep breaths, saying positive affirmations (e.g. “I am a mathematician. I can do this.”), singing a familiar song, taking a quick stretch or movement break.
Find Math in Everyday Lide: Help your child see math beyond homework. Try helping your child see math everywhere through sharing when you are doubling a recipe, estimating prices at the store, playing games that include math, doing Math Thinking Monday Questions, etc.
1. Celebrate Mistakes as Learning: Try telling your child ,“Making a mistake means your brain is growing.” Model this yourself—talk out loud when you mess up, and show how you work through it.
2. Model a Growth Mindset: Help your child see that math is something they can grow at. Try saying, “Just because it’s hard doesn’t mean you’re not doing well” “I love how hard you’re working at this” “Aren’t tricky problems fun?”
These tips are from the Math Anxiety Quick Start Guide from the Math Happiness Project.

Tools You Can Use

Check out these other resources to learn more how you can support your child in math.

Guide: 6 Ways to Help Kids Overcome Math Anxiety

What you will Learn: 6 strategies to help build math confidence.

Video: TED-Ed: Why do people get so anxious about math?

What You Will Learn: An animated video on how the brain reacts to math stress and how we can change.

Read: Math Anxiety is Real- Here’s How to Help Your Child Avoid It

What You Will Learn: How to create a supportive home environment.

Read: Math Happiness Project: How to Support Children with Math Anxiety

What You Will Learn: How to shift your household focus away from math performance and toward math joy.

Ready to Put Confidence into Action?

We’ve put together a collection of everyday routines and simple activities that bring math to life at home on our Learning Math at Home page.

Building Math Confidence