Feel nervous about teaching your child maths? 5 Tips to help

19th October 2012

Do you feel unsure about teaching your child maths? Your may be surprised to know that your child may pick up your anxiety. So here are 5 tips to help you approach maths with confidence.

1. Happily Keystage 1 allows you to teach maths in a hands on way. Engage your child as fully as possible in the process by using practical aids. Eg if you want to introduce the idea of a fraction, keep it simple. Take a cereal packet, mark and cut out circle. Let your child cut it into 4 equal pieces. This is a demonstration of quarters!

2. KEEP IT SIMPLE DON'T OVERCOMPICATE THINGS, it's all new information for your child.


 3 GIVE YOUR CHILD TIME TO DIGEST THE CONCEPT.


 4.Give some more practice by REPEATING the same idea with a cake for example or other objects such as cup cakes, nuggets or toys. Children are often keen to ensure these are divided up fairly.


 5.Later on you can write it down as a fraction on a little whiteboard that you can keep handy in the kitchen. 

10 minutes a day of your attention is invaluable. Most importantly,if you enjoythe activity so will your child. Watch your childs face light up as the idea you are introducing 'clicks'. 

Recommended DVD for Maths NUMBERSHARK 4

16th October 2012

I am often asked to recommend a good DVD for learning Maths at Key Stage 1. One of the most helpful DVDs that I have come across has been produced by Whitespace and is called 
'Numbershark 4'. 

It includes 35 games and worksheets giving student lots of practise in the full range of maths skills and the latest version includes fractions.

It is often used in schools to help students to consolidate their early maths skills.It is specially helpful in supporting children who may be falling behind, have special needs or who like working on their own. Recommended.

www.wordshark.co.uk

Making Maths Resources at Home eg Flashcards

 MATHS RESOURCES DONT HAVE TO BE EXPENSIVE

Things you can make at home with thick card and felt pens

A number line (A number line is like a simplified ruler) and is helpful for learning counting on and counting backwards.

Dominoes
Good for matching dots and numbers and improves speed of working with numbers.



Flashcards

Flashcards can contain all sorts of information on them. You can make them around topics or concepts that your child is finding particularly difficult.

Worksheets

Make your own worksheets by adapting them from Maths Websites


Go on Amazon and Ebay to get the best prices or charity shops sell childrens toys and books at very reasonable prices.

5 Tips on helping Your Child in Maths

1. Use counters.

These could be anything that you are using at the time you want to count with your child (eg biscuits, sweets, pens etc).

Also Cuisenaire Rods are excellent. These are designed specially for helping young learners to count. For a young child it is helpful to have objects to count. This will help them to keep track of their counting and is a prerequisite to developing mental maths skills (ie doing simple sums in their head without pen and paper).

2. Make it part of everyday life

 Whether you are eating cereal or chopping carrots, any of these activities can be used in practising maths. 

3.Rote learning- 

Singing or reciting together up to twenty and backwards (later up to a hundred). Time tables is often learnt by repeating it over and over.

4. Colouring In Shapes and numbers. 

Children usually enjoy colouring in and a simple Maths workbook will provide many opportunities for this. 

Sometimes using a workbook which is a step easier than the stage your child is at will help build up its confidence. it will also help consolidate early numbers skills that are so important to be competent at maths later on.

5. Discuss Strategies

Try and find out how they are working out their sums by discussing it with them. Introduce different ways to do the same sum. Get them thinking.

Finally, always give lots of praise!!

Help your child with Maths Key Stage 1

 Keystage 1  Mathematics (ages 5-7)

Advice For Parents

1. What is Key Stage One (KS1)?: A simplified version for parents
2. Practical Games and Activities for your child.
3. Useful Websites
4. Recommended Workbooks or Worksheets

Some parents may feel anxious helping their child with maths. It is often viewed as 'difficult' and many parents lack the confidence to help their children. 

Yet doing maths at home can be fun as there are so many great websites on learning Maths for children of all ages.
At Key Stage One, the emphasis is on practical maths. As a parents it is possible to reinforce the number skills that your children may be working on at school. 

This website contains the key information that you need to HELP YOUR CHILD TO SUCCEED.

It is often possible to do 'maths' with your child while simply playing. 

1. SIMPLIFIED VERSION OF KEY STAGE ONE TARGETS

1. Count up to Twenty
2.Count in 2's, 5's 10's
3 Simple halving and doubling(even numbers)
4. Read and write numbers to 20 and then to under a hundred.
5. Be able to use a number line (this is very easy to make at home with a strip of paper).
6. Round up numbers to the nearest 10. (eg 22 is closest to 20, 27 is almost 30).
7 Begin to understand simple division.
eg pizza can be divided in 6 slices)
8. Add and subtract to 10 (sometimes called number bonds). Develop a rapid recall of these number facts eg (7+3 +10)
9. 2 times and 5 times table.
10 Doubles of numbers to 10 
(eg 5+5=10)
10. understand the symbols +,-,x,=
(7+3+10).

The full requirements for Key Stage one are laid out on the Dept of Educations website.(click on link below).

http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/teachingandlearning/curriculum/primary/b00199044/mathematics/ks1

2 Practical Games and Activities for your Child

All activities should be kept fairly short and should ideally involve practical work which can sometimes be followed by recording in a written manner. e.g. adding 4 pieces of lego and four more and then recording the sum in a written form
eg 4+4 =8
or four plus four equals eight. (a small whiteboard is handy)


Dominoes
Bingo
Flash cards
Number Snap
Play games with dice
Snakes and ladders
Playing 'shop' put simple price labels on tins, packets etc
Colouring in 2-D shapes
Counting food while cooking or eating e.g. buns, pieces of carrots or apple.
Flashcards.



3) Useful MATHS WEBSITES for children. 
Find the one that your child likes best and let them do short, sharp activities on it.(10-15 minutes).

a) http://www.mathsisfun.com/ 

This website has lots of fungames on it, including memory games and puzzles. Memory games are useful in helping your child with memory skills.

b) http://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/

This website has lots of games and multiple choice quizzes on it and is often used by teachers in schools.

c) http://www.bond11plus.co.uk/ 

 Bond is often used by parents preparing their child for the 11 plus or grammar or independent school. It really is excellent. Well-structured and very ENGAGING. A couple of worksheets from this everyday will ensure that your child is on track. It workbooks can be bought from Amazon. However its

website also has a section called 'free resources' on it which is very helpful at stage one.

d) http://showme.com

Offers 10 minute videos of maths(and other) topics uploaded by teachers and even children themselves. Just type in the topic you want your child to learn. e.g. counting in 5's.

e) http://www.happychild.org.uk/wks/math/key1  
This website contains lots of printable worksheets that gradually build up number skills.
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4) Recommended Workbooks or Work Sheets

There are a number of Key Stage One workbooks used by tutors and parents which cover all aspects of KS1. These can provide more formal maths practice. 

a. Bond  11+Workbooks
b. Letts Study Books
c. Schofields & Sims

Please email me at mathsforu2@gmail.com if you have any questions or need further help.