You’ve done everything right. Or at least, everything that feels right.
When your child started struggling with maths, you did what any caring parent would do: you bought more workbooks. You downloaded extra practice sheets. You found websites with endless problems to solve. More practice means more progress, doesn’t it?
Except it’s been three months now, and nothing has changed. Actually, that’s not quite true—things have got worse. Your child used to tolerate maths time with mild reluctance. Now there are tears before you’ve even opened the book. The worksheets pile up, half-finished or covered in rubber marks where wrong answers have been scrubbed out in frustration.
And underneath your child’s struggle, there’s a quieter voice in your head: maybe you’re not doing enough. Maybe you need even more practice sheets. Maybe other parents are doing this better.
Here’s the truth that nobody tells you: more worksheets aren’t the answer. In fact, they might be making things worse.
This isn’t about blame—you’ve been following advice that sounds logical. But there’s a fundamental problem with the “more practice” approach, and understanding it will change how you support your child’s maths learning forever.
The Practice Paradox
Let’s start with a scenario that might feel familiar.
Your child is learning multiplication. They can recite the times tables—sort of—but when faced with an actual problem, they freeze. So you get worksheets. Rows and rows of multiplication problems. The logic is sound: repetition builds fluency.
But here’s what actually happens. Your child completes the first few problems slowly, counting on fingers, making mistakes. By problem fifteen, they’re exhausted and frustrated. By problem thirty, they’re rushing through just to finish, getting most of them wrong. The worksheet becomes an endurance test rather than a learning experience.
And the worst part? Tomorrow, they still won’t be able to do multiplication confidently. Because practice without understanding is just repetition without progress.
This is what educational researchers call “drill without skill.” Your child is going through the motions, but nothing is sticking because the foundational understanding isn’t there.
Why Understanding Must Come First
Imagine trying to learn a dance routine by watching someone’s feet and copying the steps, without ever hearing the music. You might eventually memorise the sequence, but you’d never feel the rhythm. You’d be mechanically moving through positions without any sense of why or when.
That’s what maths feels like for many children who’ve been drilled on procedures without understanding.
When a child truly understands multiplication—when they grasp that 4 × 3 means four groups of three, and can visualise it, draw it, explain it—then practice becomes meaningful. Each worksheet problem reinforces a concept they genuinely understand. The practice builds fluency on top of comprehension.
But when understanding is missing, practice just reinforces confusion. Your child learns that maths is about guessing which operation to use and hoping for the best. They develop what looks like knowledge but is actually a fragile house of memorised procedures that collapses the moment a question is phrased slightly differently.
The Guilt Trap
Here’s where it gets personal for many parents.
When worksheets don’t work, the instinct is to assume you need more of them. Or better ones. Or a stricter homework schedule. There’s an underlying belief that effort equals results—that if your child would just try harder, practice longer, focus more, the maths would click.
This belief puts enormous pressure on both of you. Every incomplete worksheet feels like failure. Every tear-stained page feels like evidence that you’re not doing enough.
But what if the problem isn’t effort? What if it’s approach?
You’re not failing your child by doing fewer worksheets. You might actually be helping them by stepping back from the drill-and-practice cycle and asking a different question: does my child actually understand what they’re doing?
Teaching for Understanding vs Drilling for Compliance
There’s a crucial difference between these two approaches:
Drilling for compliance asks: can my child get the right answer?
Teaching for understanding asks: does my child know why that’s the right answer?
A child who has been drilled can often perform well on worksheets that look exactly like their practice sheets. But change the format slightly—word problems instead of bare numbers, or a question that requires applying the concept in a new way—and they’re lost.
A child who understands the underlying maths can tackle unfamiliar problems because they’re not relying on memorised procedures. They’re thinking mathematically.
Here’s a simple test. Ask your child to explain their answer. Not just state it—explain it. If they can tell you why 24 ÷ 6 = 4, using words or pictures or objects, they understand. If they can only say “because it just is” or “that’s what you do,” they’ve memorised without understanding.
What Actually Works
So if worksheets aren’t the answer, what is?
Start with the concept, not the procedure. Before any practice, make sure your child can explain what they’re doing in their own words. Use physical objects, drawings, real-world examples. If you’re working on fractions, cut up actual pizza (or paper circles). If it’s multiplication, arrange objects in groups.
Use the “Explain It Three Ways” approach. Can your child show the concept with objects? Draw a picture of it? Explain it in words? If they can do all three, they understand. If they can only do one—or none—that’s where your teaching needs to focus, not on more practice problems.
Make practice purposeful. When you do use worksheets, use fewer problems done thoughtfully rather than many problems rushed through. Five problems where your child explains their thinking are worth more than fifty problems completed on autopilot.
Watch for the signs of understanding. A child who understands will start making connections: “Oh, this is like when we did…” They’ll catch their own mistakes because something “doesn’t look right.” They’ll be able to estimate whether an answer is reasonable.
Give it time. Understanding takes longer to build than memorisation, but it lasts. A child who truly grasps place value won’t need to relearn it every September. The investment in understanding pays dividends for years.
The Courage to Do Less
This might be the hardest part: trusting that less can be more.
When everyone around you seems to be cramming in extra maths practice, when the school sends home packets of worksheets, when online forums are full of parents discussing their child’s daily drill schedule—it takes courage to step back and say “we’re going to do things differently.”
But think about what you actually want for your child. Not just correct answers on a worksheet, but genuine mathematical confidence. The ability to think, reason, and problem-solve. A belief that maths makes sense and they’re capable of understanding it.
That doesn’t come from more worksheets. It comes from understanding.
Where to Start
If you’re reading this and recognising your own family’s struggle, here’s what I’d suggest:
First, give yourself permission to stop the worksheet cycle. Those piles of half-finished practice sheets aren’t evidence of failure—they’re evidence that a different approach is needed.
Second, get curious about where understanding breaks down. Often there’s a specific concept that was never fully grasped, and everything built on top of it is shaky. It might be place value, or what fractions actually mean, or how multiplication connects to addition.
Third, rebuild from the foundation. Yes, this might mean going “back” to concepts that seem too easy. But a solid foundation makes everything that follows easier. A child who truly understands that multiplication is repeated addition will find long multiplication far less daunting.
You’re Not Alone in This
If the worksheet approach hasn’t been working, you’re not alone. Many parents have been exactly where you are—frustrated, worried, wondering what they’re doing wrong.
The answer isn’t that you’re not doing enough. The answer is that there’s a better way.
Understanding your child’s relationship with maths—and your own—is the first step toward real change. Not more practice, but better understanding. Not more pressure, but more connection.
The worksheets can wait. Understanding can’t.
Ready to transform your approach to maths learning? The free CPCC Resource Pack includes the “Explain It Three Ways” Planning Sheet and other practical tools for teaching with understanding, not just drilling for answers. Download your free resources here, or get the complete guide in Confident Parent, Confident Child.