In Pixar’s long-awaited movie, Incredibles 2, Mr. Incredible finds himself navigating the challenges of being a stay-at-home dad. One of those challenges is helping his son Dash with his math homework.

In this hilarious scene, Dash says:

“That’s not the way you’re supposed to do it, Dad. They want us to do it this way.”

Mr. Incredible, speaking for every parent ever, responds:

“I don’t know that way. Why would they change math? Math is math. Math is math!”

At Demme Learning, we trust parents to teach math to their children. We know that math education can be intimidating but we also believe that equipping parents with video and textual resources can turn even the most math-shy parent into an “incredible” instructor. (See what we did there?)

The Math-U-See approach asks the parent/instructor to watch the video for each lesson and read the accompanying chapter in the Instruction Manual; this allows the parent to see each concept demonstrated and shows how to use the math manipulatives to aid in the learning process. Not only does this approach bolster parental confidence, but we often hear from parents that Math-U-See has aided their own understanding of math.

As our marketing coordinator Dani explains in this blog post:

Many parents find this approach beneficial for themselves. They get to relearn a concept, or see a problem solved through a new lens. Some even learn concepts for the first time, or finally have that lightbulb moment in their own mind.

In an blog entitled Family Engagement Matters in Early Math Learning, our CEO Ethan Demme highlights an e-newsletter from the Harvard Family Research Project which has insights, tips, and resources for parental engagement in teaching math. The e-newsletter reminds us that “math education, like all education, develops anywhere, anytime, starting at birth.”

If you’re looking for more resources, check out this curated list of blog posts on math activities that are fun for the whole family.