Inside Ivanhoe

IPS Tips 

F - Year 2 (approximately)- DOING MATHS TOGETHER AT HOME.

A child’s first years are a time of rapid learning. Research tells us that babies have an innate capacity to understand numbers. As your child’s first teacher, you play a key role in developing their numeracy skills from an early age.

 

Developing numeracy skills early gives children an important foundation for their learning and development. It helps prepare them for daily life, including general problem solving and handling money.

 

Maths includes noticing numbers, shapes, patterns, size, time and measurement. Incorporating maths into everyday experiences is easy and fun. Maths is everywhere – in the playground, at the shops and at home.

 

Children need lots of experiences in making, counting, drawing and talking about numbers. The activities in this section will help your child to develop these skills. You may feel the maths your child is doing at school is different from how you were taught, but you can still support your child in many ways. Make connections for your child by explaining how numbers and counting are a part of everyday life.

 

Talking about maths.

It is important for children to develop specific language skills related to maths. Visits to the playground, or helping at home, provide rich and meaningful contexts to develop these skills. 

 

It might take time for your child to use these terms and language effectively, but exposure to this mathematical talk is a strong support for future learning.

 

Some activities to develop mathematical language:

  • Use specific terms when asking for items. For example, ask your child to get the ‘one litre’ milk bottle from the fridge, or the ‘one kilo’ bag of flour from the cupboard.
  • When cooking, talk about different measurements used, such as teaspoons, millilitres, litres, and cups. Discuss ideas about empty and full.
  • As you walk, talk and play together describe your child’s movements as they climb ‘over’ the fence, slide ‘between’ the poles, and swing ‘under’ the monkey bars. This helps your child understand language related to spatial awareness.
  • Sorting activities support your child to understand concepts such as ‘same’ and ‘different’. Use recycling as an opportunity to sort items to place in the rubbish.For example, paper, plastic, food waste and general waste.

Year 3 - 6 (approximately)- EXPLORING NUMERACY WITH YOUR CHILD.

Family participation in learning is one of the most accurate predictors of a child’s success in school and beyond.

 

Providing opportunities to discuss and engage in mathematics supports your child’s learning in and out of school. Your child will also begin to connect the importance of maths with their everyday activities, such as navigating public transport, comparing and choosing the best item to buy in stores, setting a budget, and cooking.

 

Talk positively about maths so your child also values it. If your experiences in maths at school were less than ideal, avoid making comments like “I was bad at maths at school,” or “I didn’t like maths because it was too hard.” Comments like these can lower your child’s expectations of themselves, and can perpetuate myths about people being naturally bad or good at maths.

 

Conversely, if you did well at maths in school, avoid jumping in with answers or solutions. Encourage your child to talk about how they might work out maths problems. This helps boost their confidence and deepens their understanding.

 

Regardless of your own school experiences in maths, be reassured that maths today is not about learning by rote. Today, the focus is on recognising that there are multiple ways to get an answer, and being able to explain how and why you chose the approach you did.

 

There are many activities you can do at home to help explore maths with your child. When participating in these activities, avoid associating them with speed. Expecting your child to work quickly on maths can cause maths anxiety. 

 

Try to focus on the process and not the outcome.

Exploring sports

Sports provide a good opportunity to engage your child in maths, particularly if they are a keen sportsperson.

 

Here are some questions to ask your child when watching or playing their favourite sport:

  • How does your favourite sport tally the score? What maths is presented on the tally?
  • How do other sports tally the score – for example, tennis, golf, cricket, netball, football?
  • What maths do you use to find the total of the scores?
  • Who is at the top of the ladder? How is this determined?
  • Are there other ways to record the score?
  • How long do your favourite sport games go for in minutes and seconds? How is the time in the game divided? Into halves, quarters or something else?
  • What are the shapes of different playing fields and courts? Talk about edges and angles.
  • How can you estimate the perimeter and area of a playing field?
  • How many cars could be parked on the MCG field? How could we work this out?