Lessons from teaching my kid math for 10 months with Khan Academy

I have been teaching my 7 year old child mathematics with Khan Academy since February 2019. Everyday at about 19:00, we have a 15 minute session. Right now we are at 85% of 4th grade. During this time, I discovered that the difficulty of math does not lie in concepts, but in the high degree of attention it requires. Contrast a reading assignment with a math problem; In reading, you might omit a few letters, even words and still get the essence of the text and be able to answer questions correctly. With a math problem, if you misread even one symbol, you will be completely wrong. In this respect, math resembles software development.

During our problem solving sessions, I saw again and again that my son had no problem with the subject matter but was usually missing a bit and getting the answer wrong. When I helped him just a little by telling him to be more careful, he was able to solve most of the problems.

I suspect many students who are bad at math struggle due to a lack of attention. Unfortunately, improving attention requires one on one care, which the education system cannot provide. Parents have to help their kids.

Other lessons learnt:

1. It is frustrating to witness that your child forgets the math rule you explained a minute ago. Be patient and repeat as much as necessary.
2. Only advance to the next subject when your child can solve all of the end of chapter questions without any assistance from you. You might be dismayed by how many times he might have to repeat that test. As an example, my child solved all 18 questions of Understanding Decimals unit test in one sitting on his 13th try. It took him almost two weeks of frustration and tears! This sharpened his attention and cured his false sense of self-confidence(!)
3. Every couple of months, revisit older subjects by re-solving their unit tests.
4. My son is impatient and wants to solve problems quickly in his head. This works for simple operations but once you get to problems involving multiple steps like 12*17, you have to force him to use pencil and paper and show each step clearly to you.
5. Since every child is different (and also rapidly changes with time), progress and tactics will be different. You have to constantly observe and adapt to the learning/teaching challenges you and your child will face.
6. Persistence is key and the hardest part. It is easy to teach a couple of times, but most parents struggle to do it consistently.

How am I able to keep him marching on through this difficult journey? First, I have earned his respect and trust by being useful to him in subjects he cares about like video games, internet and sports. Second, I do not refrain from punishing him by reducing his video game time if he gets out of line.

Music: Chumbawamba - Tubthumping