Reading well and understanding math are linked.

I was reading a post at one of my favorite math sites, Let's Play Math! In this post, Denise was telling about a time when she misunderstood one of her daughter's math problems because she (Denise) failed to fully process the information she was reading. It was a fairly complicated and involved problem that I would have probably tried to skim right over, like she did, not fully comprehending what I was supposed to do. 5th grader makes these mistakes in her work as well, and I tend to get on her case about it...a lot. I suppose it's a common problem, especially with a curriculum like Saxon which tends to have a lot of word problems.

There is a helpful link posted to some tips for teens with reading problems. I also liked this quote she had posted - I think I might print it out and hang it up!

As important as mathematics is, it is a distant second to the need for good reading comprehension. We teachers so often hear students summarize a course by saying, ‘I could do everything except the word problems.’ Sadly, in the textbook of life, there are only word problems. — Herb Gross, quoted by Jerome Dancis in Reading Instruction for Arithmetic Word Problems:

There's also a more recent post up - How do we Learn Math? - which I think is a must-read, not only for all homeschooling parents, but ANY parent who helps their child with homework. I thought the following quote Denise put up on this post was clever as well:

Free math (Available here Monday through Friday). But you must bring your own container, and you must fill it with much or little according to its capacity and the amount of work that you are willing to do. The learning assistant (sometimes euphemistically called a “teacher”) will provide expertise, advice, guidance, and will set an example. But in the final analysis it is you who must do the work needed for your learning… Here it is — this wonderful stuff called math. If you want it, come and get it. If you don’t want it, kindly step out of the way — as not to impede the progress of those who do. The choice is yours.
— L. M. Christolphe, Jr.quoted in the Mathematical and Educational Quotation Server