Homeschooling maths

I don't want my child to fall behind in maths

I’m hearing the plea” How am I supposed to homeschool my child? I don’t want them to fall behind but I don’t know how to teach them maths.”

Don't worry that you are not a maths teacher

Please be reassured
☺ your child is naturally curious
☺ we all learn through play and your child is especially good at it.
☺ Relatively new brain science shows that if you do something rather than being told about it, new brain connections are made thirty times easier

When your child was very young you did a brilliant job, offering help so that they could discover new skills. Maybe you gave them something new to play with ( a cardboard box!) or encouraged them to carry on when they got stuck. You didn’t tell them exactly how they needed to move to crawl up the stairs!

Learning maths at home can be through play and discovery

Their capacity to learn through play and discovery have not diminished. You can support their learning by encouraging play and discovery and if you didn’t get on with maths at school it’s especially important you pass to them a ‘can do’ attitude.

Try to notice the maths in your day and help your child to notice it too. Collect some counters, coins, sticks, pebbles, talk about the maths you notice and share some of their curiosity. Make some different dice, play a favourite game and talk about any differences you notice. Follow a recipe or make changes to that recipe!

Recognise that many workbooks and apps are effectively tests that won’t help your child to develop new learning.

Have fun and particularly for the child who has built up some maths anxiety, because they couldn’t remember 3x7 at school, their experience of maths, will be changed, for the better.