(ROCKWALL/HEATH, TX – August 1, 2016) Mathnasium of Rockwall-Heath is honored to have been voted ‘Best Tutoring Center’ in Living Magazine’s 2016 Readers Choice Awards. Owners Bob and Becky Barnes thank the community for its support.

When Bob and Becky first opened the Mathnasium franchise in Rockwall nearly six years ago, they never imagined the overwhelmingly positive impact the learning center would have on local children in terms of excelling in math. They soon outgrew their original space and last year relocated to a larger facility at the intersection of Goliad Street and Ralph Hall Parkway.

“I think Becky and I both agree that this has been the single most rewarding thing that we have ever done in our 30 years being in business together,” said Bob, who holds a Master’s degree in Education and taught sixth grade straight out of college. Becky also has a lengthy teaching history and taught for over 20 years prior to opening Mathnasium.

Becky said that the passion for teaching that she and her husband share helps them develop close bonds with their students, and their almost ministerial-type approach to helping kids learn math has led to a lot of success for Mathnasium and its students.

“It is so rewarding to watch these students progress as they increase their mathematical understanding, which in turn increases their confidence in their abilities,” Becky said. “When they begin to connect the dots, they actually come to enjoy math.”

So just what is the Mathnasium Method, and how has it become so effective at helping kids excel?

According to Bob, it all has to do with explaining math in such a way that kids can grasp the concept. Since adults are much more adept at thinking abstractly than children, helping them to understand math – an often complex and abstract subject – is all about explaining it in such a way that a child’s mind can comprehend it.

 “It starts to make sense when you explain to them how and why Math works,” Bob said. “One of the things that’s really important to Mathnasium, to us and to kids is that they develop what we call Number Sense: the ability to look at numbers, take them apart and put them together in a variety of ways. We want them to think of numbers as building blocks to things that they need to do.”

Bob and Becky said they fully support the Rockwall ISD and its incredibly hardworking teachers. They can also appreciate the difficulties that can come with teaching in the typical classroom environment.

“At Mathnasium, we have the luxury of spending an hour of one-on-one time with each student, which can be difficult to achieve in classrooms where teachers must work within time constraints and thus may not be able to spend as much individual time as they would like with their students,” Becky said.

“Whenever I sit down with someone and they are clueless about what they’re working on, we talk about it and work through it together,” Becky said.  ”The light bulb comes on and they say, ‘I get it!’  I get chills every time I think about it, because they went from a complete lack of understanding about what to do, to understanding what they’ve done, and being able to apply it to something else.  Now, that’s exciting.”

For more information, visit mathnasium.com/rockwall-heath or call 972-722-6000.