Outsource. Don't try to fake it and DIY. You don't like math, it makes you nervous, right? There's not going to be any way to really hide that, and while not being GOOD at something isn't a reason to outsource, anxiety and baggage with a domain
is.Seriously. That's my suggestion for ANY interest area where you're out of your own depth
and uncomfortable.
But-- and I mean this gently-- your kids are also VERY young still. I'd be quite surprised if a HG+ youngster, even a not-entirely-mathy one, had hit any kind of wall with math yet at their ages.
The first such wall seems to happen either in early adolescence (might be a girl thing related to cultural context, it's hard to know for sure, but it seems MORE common in girls who are perfectionists, anyway) or about when they hit either geometry or algebra II.
The reason, I hypothesize, is that this is often the first REAL stretch in maths-- that is, they are suddenly asked to do things in a way that they've NEVER been asked to think before, and some of them definitely have a sense of instant gratification in math by then.
Read the "why our kids hate math" thread-- and the original article with its comments, too. That foundation is really hard to overstate in terms of later importance. I know that with HG+ kids, and particularly with PG ones, we're often defaulting to "the gaps don't matter, they can be filled later" but I
do think that those gaps can contribute to later difficulties
mentally with their love of the subject when it becomes challenging and not merely a matter of knowing the right algorithm to apply, but treating it as a tinkering/problem-solving thing instead. They have to know how to frame those challenges-- and questioning their competence with "stuff I should already know" isn't a good way to reassure themselves that they can meet them. I don't know if that makes sense, but I've seen a LOT of adolescents give up on something-- even something that they love-- when they realize that their preparation isn't adequate (sometimes not even grossly inadequate, just missing a few things here and there). It is at that point about the psychological impact of the realization, not the cognitive challenge, which is still likely to be not that significant.
Again, though-- if you're already finding yourself anxious about explanations NOW...
outsource. It's time to start looking for someone who IS a math expert and will take your kids under a wing. The time when you
cannot assist is likely to be upon you soon-- and you may not notice gaps that an expert will want to fill now since s/he will understand what they'll translate into later.
I would have labeled my own DD as "mathy" at 7yo, too. She's not; she plateaued in Algebra II when she hit that
wall that I talked about. Maybe it's how it was taught (I suspect so, in fact), but when she was learning the arithmetic and basic algebra/geometry material, she found it very easy. Too easy, probably, because then algebra II hit her like a truck. It was the first time that understanding wasn't
entirely effortless, and it made her feel inadequate because clearly, having to WORK for understanding felt... icky.
Statistics, tutoring math, and physics saved her love of the subject-- I only knew to push her in those directions rather than into calculus because of my larger perspective and (relative) comfort with the subject, though. Well, that and knowing HER well by then.
I mention that to you let you know that someone who knows math through calculus/linear algebra/differential equations is probably a must for a math mentor to HG+ children-- they have to be able to see the big picture reliably so that they can communicate well with such children about their perspectives, and reassure/encourage them when they meet challenges. Someone who is math phobic or only fluent through trigonometry (or less) probably
cannot do that. They can be a cheerleader, but what to do when that isn't what is needed, that's the problem. Start that relationship NOW so that it can pay dividends down the road.
