Linking Home and School in Maths

My parents are both teachers and 12 of my uncles/aunties/cousins are also teachers. You could say teaching is in my blood! Education is my passion, but more specifically primary school maths education. I love to teach maths. I love watching a ‘lightbulb’ go on when a student ‘gets’ a maths concept.

Over my lifetime, I have seen education from many perspectives. Firstly, through the eyes of my parents who were both teachers, then myself as a primary school classroom teacher, PhD researcher, University Lecturer, and in my current role as an educational consultant.

In the past 10 years, I have also seen schools from another angle- as a parent. My husband and I have four children. The eldest is 16 and the youngest is 6. So, there is quite a spread of ages! We will have at least one of our children attending our local Primary school for a total of 17 consecutive years! That is a lot of Book Week costumes!

For most parents the only experience they have with Primary Schools maths is when they attended school 20+ years ago. I can attest to the fact that maths teaching has changed a great deal since ‘back then’. Many of us want to help our children, but we have no idea how maths is being taught- there are new words, strategies and materials being used. It was not until I had other parents messaging me saying “what does [insert some maths term] mean?” I realised the disconnect between schools and home in maths.

We all want the best for our children and whether you are a librarian, social media influencer, fashion designer, plumber or an aeronautical engineer, everyone uses maths every day- we know it is important!

In this article I wanted to share some hacks and advice that I have refined over the years to help my children develop confidence and a genuine interest in maths.

My first piece of advice is to leave the teaching to the schools. As I mentioned, things have changed, so to avoid confusion it is best to work on fluency at home.

In Literacy, the purpose of the nightly ‘home reader’ is to work on reading fluency. The books are not meant to be difficult. This is the same in maths. But the beauty of maths fluency practice is you can do it ‘on the run’!

I work on Maths fluency in the car. Firstly, our passengers are literally a captive audience, and for the most part they have not much else to do in the car, so generally they are quite happy to be involved!

I run ‘Car Quizzes’. I am the ‘Quizmaster’ and I ask them 3-5 rapid fire questions as I drive. It takes a total of about 2 minutes and then they get to ask me questions (which is secretly getting them to do more maths!)

Below is an example of questions I have asked my children as they have moved through the different Year levels.

Foundation: One More or One Less (numbers 1-10)

For example: “What is one more than 3?” or “What is one less than 6?”

Year 1: Doubles (numbers 1- 10)

For example, “What is double 3?” (This is important for learning the 2x multiplication facts in Year 2)

Year 2: Double, Double (numbers 1-10)

For example, “What is double, double 2? (This means double 2 is 4, and then double 4 is 8- this is important for learning 4x multiplication facts in Year 3)

Year 3: Halving (numbers to 100)

For example, “What is half of 8?” or “What is half of 60?”. This is important for learning the 5x multiplication facts in Year 3)

Year 4: Multiplication Facts

For example, “What are 3 fours?” (This means what are 3 rows of 4. By the end of Year 4 the Australian Curriculum Version 9.0 standard requires students to be fluent with all multiplication facts up to 10x 10)

Year 5: Factors

For example, “What are the factors of 12?” (This means what are the numbers that multiply together to make 12. The answer is 1,12,6,2,3,4.)

Year 6: Simple Percentage Discounts

For example, “What is 10% off $50” (10% of $50 is $5, so $50 take $5 is $45)

The key is the questions need to be easy! We are wanting to build confidence and enjoyment of Maths. Coming up with content for the car quiz is as simple as asking your child what they are learning at school, and then including that in the car quiz.

My final piece of advice is to play board and card games as often as you can with your children. Once a fortnight we schedule a family ‘games night’. We play Uno or Cluedo or Trouble or Checkers or Spoons or anything together as a family. Maths is involved in every single game, and some of my favourite memories have been on these games nights.

I hope that this has given you some simple ways to help support your child on their maths journey.