âWhen we do our daily lessons, my son does great. Everything seems to click. But when he sees the same topic later, in a review or on a test, itâs like heâs never heard of it before. How can I help him pull math up from the dregs of lost memory?â
This is a common problem, and thereâs no easy answer.
You see, itâs easy for humans to convince ourselves we understand something when someone else explains it. It seems to make sense, but it doesn’t stick in our minds.
If you think of times when you’ve tried to learn something new, you can probably remember the feelingâyou thought you had it, but then when you tried to do it yourself, your mind went blank.
So how can we help our kids when they canât remember what to do?
People assume that because I teach math, blog about math, give advice about math on internet forums, and present workshops about teaching math — because I do all this, I must be good at math.



