Learning begins at home and
parents/carers are a child’s
first educators.
We hope that this page will provide both a useful overview of the key elements of numeracy from the parent’s perspective and guide you towards useful resources for parents both within and outside our site – however we are just getting started so please do help us develop further support as suggested in ‘How you can make a difference’ below.
The two key points
Giving your children a positive attitude to maths is something every parent can do.
Maths is all around us - sharing this with your children can be easier than helping them with their reading - because you don't need to sit down with a book...
Children’s early experiences
The influence of the parents cannot be overestimated, from birth right through a child’s schooling. From baking a cake with a three-year-old and counting toys back into the toybox to practising times tables, a parent contributes hugely to a child’s learning journey.
The overwhelming majority of parents and carers want to do the very best for their children. Parents are demonstrating a growing appetite for discussion, information and advice, as seen from the burgeoning market in TV programmes, magazines and websites.
Number is an abstract concept and some children take longer than others to get a confident understanding of the way the number system works. The more enjoyable and fun experiences a child has the sooner they become comfortable and confident with early number. Successful numeracy learning depends on mathematical thinking and reasoning, such as having problem solving skills and thinking logically, as well as the ability to read, write and use numbers accurately. And if you are a parent, there are lots of things you can do to help you child develop this way of thinking.
Most importantly is a ‘can-do’ attitude. The UK is still one of the few advanced nations where it is socially acceptable – fashionable, even – to say you ‘can’t do’ maths. And this attitude is a major handicap to learning. We know that every child can do maths, and also know that every parent can too – with the right support, which you maybe didn’t have first time around.
Giving your children a positive attitude to maths is something every parent can do.
What can you do to help your child?
An important way to boost your children’s confidence, skills and motivation is by showing them how useful number skills are in almost everything they do and how much fun they can be. Talk about maths in the home and show them that there is maths in almost every aspect of daily life.
Some of the fun things you can do with your children include:
on car journeys - playing number-plate games, adding and subtracting with road signs, thinking about speed by dividing distance by time
at the shops - weighing fruit and vegetables, budgeting with pocket money, working out the relative value of products by comparing prices and weight
in the kitchen - with weighing and measuring, and temperature and timings
making models and origami shapes
give your child little problems to do and let them reason things through: such as doubling the ingredients in a recipe or working out when to take the cake out of the oven if it takes 30 minutes to bake
praise your child for trying, even if they get stuck or get things wrong. New experiences and discoveries are always stimulating, and they don't have to be expensive or elaborate:
if you go for a country walk, try collecting leaves of different shapes, look for patterns in nature
introduce your child to simple map-reading using a road atlas or map of your area.
There’s a lot of focus on developing mental maths skills during Key Stage 1 (ages 4-7). You can help by practising counting in 2’s and steps of other size, counting backwards from different numbers, chanting times tables and asking for the answers to simple sums. There are some great times tables song CDs available which are a really fun way to learn and can be played in the car or during breakfast.
As the child gets older, you can adjust the task to suit.
painting a room? Ask the child to work out how much paint you need by calculating the area to be painted
see if your child can estimate the change due in shops and then see if it matches what you are given
These are just a few of hundreds of ways you can help bring maths into your child’s everyday life.
How you can make a difference
We’re just getting started and we are very keen to work with parents to support their children’s numeracy development. Please get in touch to:
tell us about resources and activities that you like and think we should share and promote through the site
point us to important information and web links it would be useful to add
let us know of gaps you think we should address
suggest projects that we should be considering
let us know about public figures perpetuating the ‘I can’t do maths’ attitude
