Dear Parents,

This year students at Lincoln School are going to be spending time daily practicing and learning the math facts. We will be using a program called Mastering Math Facts. It will take only a few minutes each day of class time, but students will keep working until they have mastered all the facts. A fact is mastered when it can be answered instantly, without any pause. The program allows each child to go at his or her own pace. Students are given an opportunity daily to show they have learned a set of facts by passing its test.

You can help your child progress and learn faster by practicing at home the same set of facts your child is learning at school. If your child does not pass a set of facts he or she will bring home as homework that day’s practice sheet. It will help a great deal if your will practice with your child for five minutes with that sheet.

Here’s how we recommend you practice. Your child should have the top half of the day’s practice sheet (without answers written in) in front of himself or herself. Have your child read each fact aloud and then say the answers to you. If you hear either the slightest hesitation or an error on one of those facts, give your child some extra practice on that fact. The best way to give extra practice is to begin by immediately giving your child the correct answer, and then ask him or her to repeat the problem and answer the answer once more. Next, back up three problems and have your child begin again. If there is no hesitation or mistake when the problem is reached this time, be sure to praise your child and let him or her continue.

Work until finishing the top half of the page, but no more than five minutes in one session. If you wish to do a second session, wait at least an hour, or try it again in the morning. When memorizing facts, two short sessions spread hours apart are far more helpful than one long session. Your child’s hard work should pay off in “passing” within a very few days. Then the next set will be assigned and practice can begin again. Each practice and test sheet is cumulative, including all the facts learned so far.

Learning all the facts in a given operation is a lot of work, but future success in math is dependent upon knowing facts so well that the answers come automatically without much thinking. Thank you so much for your support of this critical learning goal.