Supporting Your Child At Home
Supporting your child with maths at home can sometimes be challenging.
Third Space Learning and the NCETM have developed a set of supportive blogs:
Primary_Maths_Dictionary_TSL.pdf'Maths for Mums and Dads' is a great book filled with some fantastic ideas to support maths at home.
Here are some top tips from the book:
Praise ‘effort’ rather than being ‘quick’ or ‘clever’. This fosters a growth mindset and encourages perseverance and develops resilience when the maths gets hard.
Don’t tell them they are ‘wrong’ when they make a mistake, ask them to talk you through how they worked it out. Often they will spot the error themselves. Or model making the mistake yourself and ‘noticing’ the error.
When they get the maths right, ask them to explain their working then, too! This gives you a chance to check their reasoning (sometimes people come up with the right answer for the wrong reasons). If you only ask for an explanation when they get the question wrong, they begin to associate being asked to explain with failure, and so will start to clam up rather than reveal their mistakes.
A great resource to help with homework
Resources and links to maths games that can be played at home.
The Sumaze! series of free apps are mathematical games that encourage independent engagement with maths puzzles. They are designed to develop problem-solving skills and mathematical thinking.
A free collection of printable board, counter and dice games, including how to play instructions, equipment needed and coloured layouts.
The games are designed to be played to help children understand maths topics they have studied, recall facts, and practise skills. Games can be played by children independently or as two-player with a parent.
A set of videos for numeracy development designed for children aged 0 to 6. There are fun activities that can be applied to everyday life and play.
Maths opportunities in 'real' life
Keeping maths 'real' makes it more relevant. Chocolate and sweets provide practical applications for work on fractions and multiplication.