These are probably the easiest things to address within the home, yet they are the most difficult ones to address within the school. I thought I understood how to do it when the teacher explained it, but I couldn't apply that knowledge and actually do it. My teacher was not much help, but when I went to summer school for further help that year, the teacher was so patient, so understanding, and made me feel like he'd stay right there until I got it. That is what made all the difference. A difficult concept for beginning algebra students involves addition and subtraction of integers.
All students go shopping and spend money.
My teacher did lots of activities with a string measuring around jars to find circumferences. We learned how to measure the diameter, with a ruler, and now I understand it. The District Problem solving and actual conceptual understanding of mathematics are the most difficult things for students to understand, at all grade levels in high school. Students have an easier time understanding the actual skills, but concepts and problems with many words . . . that they must solve are much more difficult for students. The roots of the problem go back to elementary and middle school. . . .