A lot of high school students find that 8th grade math  problems such as solving algebraic equations, learning  how to find the volume of 3D shapes, calculating the  length of a side of a triangle and getting to grips with  the concepts of statistics and probability can be quite  overwhelming at first. This can put many students off  the subject of math completely. This is something that parents dread.

Even the concept of using “words” and  “alphabetic characters” to solve mathematical problems  can be a source of confusion because all of a sudden,  the emphasis in math is not on “numbers” per se but more  on finding the values of “unknowns”.

For many parents who are confronted with their  children’s 8th grade math homework worksheets, they too  can be taken aback and many would not know how to begin  to help their children solve these problems, especially  if many of these parents were not good at math  themselves.

After all, this is not junior high school any more. 6th  grade math is so comparatively simple compared to what  students start to learn at 7th and 8th grade.

So,what can you do to help your child if he is  struggling with his 8th grade math homework?

The first thing is to see if you are able to assist in  any way. Getting involved and showing some interest in  your child’s homework is important, especially if your  child is finding the subject difficult as it is.  Parental support and interest is vital. Even if all you  can offer your child is a word of comfort, this is better than ignoring the problem altogether.

The next thing to do would be to talk to the math  teacher at school and see if you can get any extra  workbooks or math worksheets to go through.  Teachers  want their students to do well and many will go the  extra mile to make help their students in any way that  they can.

But what if you have spoken to the teacher, have extra  math homework and worksheets for your child but they are  still finding it difficult to understand the topics?

The next step in this case would be to find another  source of math help.

This could be in the form of finding a math tutor who comes either from  recommendation, for instance other parents have hired  this tutor and found this has greatly helped their  children.  If you are going to hire a personal math  tutor to give your child the one-to-one learning that he  might need, then going with recommendations is the best  way. Otherwise, you might end up interviewing and  looking at many potential math tutors before you find  one that you feel would be a good fit for your child.   You also have to ensure that you find a tutor nearby  otherwise your petrol costs driving there and back each  week will mount up, on top of the fees you pay  (sometimes as much as $30 per hour) for the tutor.

Increasingly, many parents are turning to online math  courses in a bid to find math help for their child at a  cost that is affordable.  There are many good online  learning courses available and they offer math teaching online (as well  as science and other subjects) via  tutorials that are recorded and which your child can  access at any time and watch over and over again.

Many of these programs also have the tutors going  through examples and showing the student how they have  worked out the solution to a given problem.

If you are unsure of whether an online math help program  is going to give your child the math help he needs, sign  up for a trial version if possible and give this a try.

Whatever you do, finding math help for your child  especially if he or she is struggling with their 8th  grade math lessons, is the right thing to do instead of ignoring the situation and hoping it will resolve itself – it won’t and the only thing that will happen is that your child’s maths grades will start to go down.