Are your kids excited about going back to school but don’t want to deal with math? It’s not that they hate math. They’re just afraid of facing another year of rote memorization of math tables and drills and the frustration of not “getting it.” Without an understanding of the fundamental concepts of math, each new year of instruction only continues the pattern of confusion, frustration and intimidation developed in previous years.

Math plays a crucial role in developing the critical thinking and reasoning skills needed for future success in all walks of life. When children start to grasp the connections between numbers, the anxiety of failure fades. As problems become solvable, math actually becomes engaging and fun.

Successful problem-solving skills are based on having an intuitive sense of the problem, being able to visualize its different components and how they relate to the “whole.”

Calculators can help do math quickly, but they cannot replace the “number sense” gained when children experience applying fundamental math concepts.

“At Mathnasium, in addition to providing homework help, we help children build numerical fluency and show them how arithmetic is all about counting,” said Rangu Mandyam, owner and director of Mathnasium of Thousand Oaks.

For example, addition is counting how much. Subtraction is counting “how far apart” two numbers are. Multiplication is a fast way of counting how much using equal groups. Division is counting how much of this group are inside that group.

Mathnasium asks questions like seven and how much more make 10? Seventy and how much more make 100? How far is four from 12? How far is 40 from 120? How many four-person teams can one make out of 40 kids? 20 kids? 80 kids?

Mathnasium Learning Centers offer math-only after-school educational programs in a supportive setting where children build confidence and develop much-needed math skills to succeed in the information age. Developed from more than 30 years of hands-on experience with thousands of children, the Mathnasium educational method is designed for children of all ages and skill levels.

This fall, Mathnasium of Thousand Oaks will remain open an additional hour, from 7 to 8 p.m. two days a week, for football players who can’t make it to the learning center earlier.

The center offers one-on-one tutoring in a group setting to children in grades two through 12, and is planning on offering a PreK-K-1 grade program in the near future. Private tutoring is also available throughout the year.

For more information, call Mathnasium of Thousand Oaks at (805) 777-8403 or e-mail thousandoaks@mathnasium.com.