This is a question I have heard over and over again during my time as a teacher and a parent. I have been teaching Primary / Elementary for the best part of 15 years and during that time maths teaching has moved forward with current thinking, as it did during the previous 15 years and, as I'm sure it will over the next 15 years. Much as this evolution of mathematics teaching methodology is a brilliant thing for students, as it can only help and make things better for them, it is proving very difficult for parents. The whole methodology has changed so much from what we were taught when we were at school.
The most recent changes to maths curriculum in both the UK and the US is to teach 'Maths for Understanding'. It has changed the way we teach maths and it is changing the whole way we are teaching the students to think about maths. As parents it is a difficult concept to grasp, mostly because it is so different from what we learnt and we are also having to change the way we think about maths to be able to help our children.
During my time as a teacher I specialized in maths, became the lead teacher for maths at my school and have spent many hours, convincing many pupils that they can do maths and it's not the scary subject that it can become.
I am hoping that through this blog I can reach out to many more parents and help them to help their children understand and develop their maths skills further. My blog entries will vary from week to week, sometimes giving a mini lesson, sometimes a small problem and sometimes just a discussion on something mathematical that I found interesting. Through using all of these you will, hopefully, be able to expose your child to a wide range of fun activities and help them become more confident and happy mathematicians.
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