If students practice math facts a couple of times a day throughout the year, they will never forget them! Parents will help you if you give them the tools, which you can easily do with Rocket Math. Start with a letter to parents telling them what you are doing.  The letter is a good start for parents to know how to practice.  We have included a two page parent letter from Dr. Don in the virtual filing cabinet in our subscription website.

If you would like to personalize a letter we also have a one-page letter in Word that you can edit and make your own here.  We also have one in Spanish here.

Back-to-school night is the best time to teach parents how to practice Rocket Math.

If you’re really smart you can also use back-to-school night to show parents how to do practice at home.  A good way to do this is to have a couple of students demonstrate how to practice, and do the correction procedure, so parents see what to do.

Now that parents know what to do, be sure that all your students are taking home their used practice and test page from Rocket Math each day. Students should complete the test and then get a parent or someone else in their family to help them practice around the outside. Then they could also practice the test, as long as they aren’t looking at the answers.

This extra practice session at night will make a big difference in how fast students pass a level. You might even let the students in on the secret. (One teacher I know announced publicly to the class that they weren’t supposed to practice at night because it would give them an unfair advantage, but then individually told each student she’d make an exception, in their case. Soon the whole class was practicing each night diligently!)

Use the “Thank You to my Helper” achievement awards so that students can take them home and thank their helper when they pass a level. Ask students who is practicing at home, and then you could call home to thank those parents for their help. You will be amazed how these things will increase the amount of help you get from home and thereby improve the success of Rocket Math in your classroom.