Media Release from the Society for Quality Education

June 16, 2009

School's Out - Time to School-Proof for Next Year

A free tool to help children who struggle with math

Summertime is almost here, and the end of school presents parents with a real opportunity to help their children who are struggling with math. With math skills at a premium in today’s knowledge economy, thousands of conscientious parents are wondering what to do about their children’s math deficits.

Because we at the Society for Quality Education wanted to help these parents out, we asked an Ontario math teacher to prepare some tools for parents who want to help their children with math over the summer. We are happy to announce that David Harris’ wonderful teaching materials are now available at www.teachyourchildmath.ca. Structured as a series of math worksheets, Stairway to Math is a powerful but simple tool to help children build on and improve fundamental mathematics skills.

“Parents who can afford it are arranging for their children to receive outside tutoring in math or even transferring their children to private schools,” said Doretta Wilson, SQE Executive Director. “But lower-income parents, many of them recent immigrants who cannot afford such options, are desperately looking for alternatives. As well, many parents try to help their children themselves, but they may lack confidence in their own math abilities, are not sure exactly what to do, or lack proper teaching materials,” she added.

Stairway to Math does not constitute a complete math program but, if the math sheets are used selectively and appropriately, they are guaranteed to improve a child’s math skills. Topics cover fundamentals such as: place value, fractions, multiplication and division, and percentages, with lots of practice provided. All of the Stairway to Math materials can be downloaded and printed at no charge.

The Society for Quality Education is dedicated to the significant improvement of student learning in Canada . We invite the public to visit our home website www.societyforqualityeducation.org to learn more.

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