Tips for Maths at Home

Successful learning is all about self confidence.

If you are working with your child at home, remember these four golden rules.  Your child's confidence will grow steadily and you will enjoy your learning sessions together.

Four Golden Rules

Be Positive
Praise continuously - lots of it!
Be genuine in your praise.
Let your child feel your delight in his or her progress.
Always praise first, then suggest one or two things that need improving.

Revise frequently
It is important to revise regularly the key skills your child has learned so far. Regular revision in frequent short bursts is the best. Revise one or two things each time before working on something new.

Take things at a steady pace
Learning takes place in small steps, each following on from the one before. Successful teachers encourage their pupils to develop one step at a time. Waiting until a child has thoroughly mastered the present step before leading on to the next produces a child who is enthusiastic and confident about learning. This results in the best long term progress.

Take regular breaks
There is a limit to the length of time anyone can concentrate! Frequent short practice sessions are best.
Every child's concentration period is different. Use your own judgement as to when to stop. 
If you feel frustrated with your child or your child begins to do worse you have gone on too long. Stop immediately or switch to something different.

The touchy feely bit...

Certain personal qualities (both for you and your child) will come in very useful if you are doing Maths together.

A SENSE of HUMOUR: (Both of you)
Remember that some learning can be a challenge. It is important to keep cheerful and not fall out with people!

COURAGE, and a WILLINGNESS TO TAKE RISKS. (Your child)
You have to be prepared to TRY and to be WILLING TO MAKE MISTAKES.  It is through our mistakes that we often learn most.

KINDNESS and PATIENCE. (You!)
We all learn at different speeds and we learn best when we can ask questions, and puzzle over things we don't understand, without feeling that others are going to get annoyed with us.

It is also helpful for us as parents to remember that we have TWO EARS for listening and only ONE MOUTH for speaking. Remember that your child will learn most if (s)he discusses what (s)he is thinking, explores ideas and discovers things for him or herself, rather than you trying to explain how to do everything.

Understanding Early Maths

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