I was at a maths network meeting and I suddenly thought – Yes, doing jigsaws really are a great way that parents can easily help their children with maths!

We were discussing the importance of what is known as spatial reasoning, and doing jigsaws is a great way to develop spatial reasoning.

If you think about it, when you are doing a jigsaw, you are trying to fit and interlock pieces together to make a picture.

You look at the shape and colour of each piece and try and decide what neighbouring shapes look like. You then look to see if you can find suitable pieces that might fit. You inspect the pieces … maybe if it was turned around it would fit? If it still does not fit, we try another. And so on until the picture and the jigsaw is complete.

This whole activity is actually very mathematical. We are using spatial reasoning to do the jigsaw, and it is a very important mathematical and practical skill.

So, enjoy doing jigsaws with your child. They are fun … and a great way to help your child with maths!

The Early Childhood Maths Group have designed some wonderful posters explaining this more. Do take a look!

Have fun!

Adrian Russell, illustrator of the book, with me enjoying a cup of tea from our lovely Brazilian mugs showing the cover of the Portuguese translation of my book. The mugs were gifts from Professor João.

It really has been an exciting Summer for me! I am looking forward to the Autumn.

In August the Portuguese translation of my book, Ajude seu Filho com a Matemática mesmo que você não saiba (the English version is, Help Your Child Do Maths Even If You Don’t) was launched in Brazil.

Here is the link to the recording of the event. A huge thank you to Professor João dos Santos Carmo, from The Federal University of São Carlos,  Associate Professor Sue Johnston-Wilder from The University of Warwick, and all who helped organise and support the Launch Live of the Portuguese translation of my book on 8 Aug. It was a great time.

My hope is that many parents and children in Brazil and globally will be helped by the book. Here is the link to the book in Portuguese and English.

Before the launch in Brazil, in July, I was delighted to lead a workshop on Working With Parents, at 1st International Workshop Supporting Developing Mathematical Resilience Globally, held at The University of Warwick, 1-5 July 2024. The workshop was funded by the ICMS.

There are some very simple things that any parent can do to help give their child a ‘can do’ attitude to mathematics. This is what I shared at the workshop, and I share in my books, too. The encouraging thing is that parents do not need to be mathematics specialists to do this.

The whole workshop event was great. It felt like I was in a supportive bubble, full of positivity and possibility as the International delegates shared ideas and hopes for future projects.

I am looking forward to the Autumn.

I wish all teachers, parents and students well for the forthcoming school year.

I recently heard this story from a grandmother who had bought some tickets to take her cricket-loving grandsons to see a T20 cricket match.

There was great excitement!

‘Can I show you the cricket ground on Google Maps?’ one of them asked her. She was more than happy to go along with this suggestion. After all, her grandson’s technical skills were much better than hers!

She was so impressed as he used Google Maps to find the cricket ground. Then, looking at the venue’s website together, they looked at the seating plan and found out where they would be seated; then, back on Google Maps, found out where they are going to sit and what the view is like.

This activity is actually very mathematical. It is using what is known as Spatial Reasoning and this is a very important mathematical and practical skill.

For example, you use this skill to find your seat at a wedding reception once you have seen the seating plan.

We can easily help a child to develop this as we use this skill quite a lot in our everyday life.

From a very early age, helping your child to grasp the concepts of what ‘under’ means, or ‘on top of’, or ‘over’, or ‘beside’ … is so important.

The Early Childhood Maths Group have designed some wonderful posters explaining this more. Do take a look!

Spatial reasoning toolkit posters – ECMG (earlymaths.org)

Enjoy your Easter Holidays!

In 2014 the Welsh Government ran an advertising campaign encouraging parents to be positive and not speak negatively about maths in front of their children.

They recognised the importance of this very simple thing that parents can do to help our children have a positive, can-do attitude to maths, and that is:

Pass on a positive attitude to maths

In fact, the psychologist Tanya Brown said:

‘Perhaps the single most important thing that parents can do to help their children with maths is to pass on a positive attitude.’

This is one of the simple things I discuss in my book, Help Your Child Do Maths Even If You Don’t.

I am so delighted to say that the bilingual Welsh/English version of my latest book has been published and is now available. Please see that link.

My Help Your Child With Numeracy books are proving very popular with parents during lockdown I hear as they are helping to explain methods used to teach maths in schools. Do take aa look at them. They are available on Amazon. Just follow the link.

This Blog has been a long time coming!
My last Blog post was in December 2019 and the world has really changed since then.
I have been busy in the meantime. I reworked the book I was working on at the time and am pleased to say the result, Help Your Child Do Maths Even If You Don’t, was published in September 2020, by AR & RR Education.
It has received really good reviews, and National Numeracy recommend it too.
I am pleased to say I shall be giving my first Zoom author talk this year on 18th February 2021. More details to follow.
In the meantime I wish you all a very Happy and Healthy 2021.

I am so excited about my forthcoming book, Maths Without The Maths.

The book explains how anyone can help their child even if they hated maths at school and think they are ‘rubbish’ at it.

I shall be sharing tips from the book about how you can help give your child a ‘can do’ attitude to maths at my author talk on Wednesday 5th February 2020, 10.30 am,  at the Winchester Discovery Centre.

Please save the date and come along. Book your tickets here:

I am so excited about being involved with Maths Week London, which is taking place from 10 – 14 June 2019.

Maths is such a cool subject and having a ‘can do’ attitude is a key attitude to encourage.

The success of Maths Week Ireland and Maths Week Scotland was so encouraging – over 80,000 pupils took part in Maths Week Scotland this year – that Sumdog, the organisers, want to share that success by bringing Maths Week to London.

I shall be sharing how parents and carers, without any specialist maths knowledge, can very simply encourage a ‘can do’ attitude in their children. Do come along!

I will keep you posted with further details of my event!

Please follow the link to find out more about Maths Week London:

https://www.mathsweeklondon.org/

I was utterly gobsmacked to learn recently about Joseph Bertony, the man who designed the crucial arch that made possible the fabulous ‘sails’ for the iconic Sydney Opera House.

What an amazingly inspiring life story! What amazing mathematical prowess he possessed. He did 30,000 calculations by hand for the design of the sails. These were checked later by the only computer available at the time in Australia to deal with these kind of calculations and yes, Joseph’s calculations were accurate. He had not made a single error.

The sails of Sydney Opera House are beautiful. I felt so emotional the first time I saw them. It is wonderful to learn about the engineer. You can read more about Joseph by following this link:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-47880938?ocid=wsnews.chat-apps.in-app-msg.whatsapp.trial.link1_.auin

Maths really is such a cool and beautiful subject. Without the maths, nobody would have dared to build it!

Here is a photo I took of the Sydney Opera House showing the sails from the Manly ferry.