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Numeracy

One of the things parents mention all the time is that when they help their younger children with sums, and explain how they got the answer they are often greeted with the comment:

"The answer's right, but we don't do it that way. We work it out differently"

Even very basic starter sums like five take away two can get that response and the reason is simple - the way of teaching sums or numeracy, to give its proper title, has changed. The way a lot of adults will do the calculation will certainly get them to the right answer, but the way they do it will seem alien to a young child who will have been taught a totally different system of calculation.

Brushing up your own Skills

Central Bedfordshire Council host a web site which is a good resource for parents and will help you get to grips with the mathematics your child is learning. It goes without saying that your child's school manager and teacher will also be more than willing to point you in the right direction to get help. If your skills are a little rusty, and you could do with a refresher in maths or English, or if English isn't your first language and you want to improve your writing, grammar and punctuation then check out the BEST Advice category for adult education and look in the Bedfordshire Adult Skills and Learning section, as there are many course available to help you get back up to speed.

Central Bedfordshire's Approach

As numeracy seems to be the biggest area where parents, especially older ones, find it hard to help their children, central Bedfordshire Council have published a numeracy policy which explains the various levels your child will go through as they learn number skills and how these skill are taught. It's well worth a read and will put you in a position that will enable you to help your child understand sums and calculations and reinforce the learning they receive at school.

Central Bedfordshire Council were kind enough to let BEST Advice reproduce this document so you can follow the various teaching stages and monitor your child's progress.

Calculation Policy (Copyright Central Bedfordshire Council)

CBC also let us reproduce the other documents they thought would help parents. These are the children's work books for numeracy for years 3 & 4 and 5 & 6:

Calculating Workbook Years 3 & 4 (Copyright Central Bedfordshire Council)

Calculating Workbook Years 5 & 6 (Copyright Central Bedfordshire Council)

For more information on numeracy, visit the Central Bedfordshire website dedicated to numeracy.

Other resources

There are also dozens of other sites on-line which offer interactive games, puzzles and challenges for children which are all based on using numbers and calculating. Even though some of them are American sites your child can still work through the problems using the techniques they have been taught.

Some sites offer downloadable games, which means you can let your children use them without being connected to the internet, but we would recommend that if you download anything from the net you only do so from a trusted and certified site and that you make sure your computer has a virus checker which is active for scanning internet downloads.

Finally, most good computer stores will have interactive learning programmes you can load on to your computer for your child to use. Often these cost just a few pounds and will keep children amused (and quiet) for ages.