Friday 13 July 2012

Maths

A few thoughts today on Maths.

There are a great many home educators who don't do any sort of formal maths at all, until a child is ready to take GCSE's. This is fine and has proven to be very effective. There is evidence to show that a child who is motivated at 15 to take a maths exam, can learn everything they need to know in just a few weeks.

Until this week, I've been one of those, more or less. My children have shown zero interest in sitting and doing any form of structured maths. We've come and gone on structure over the past 9 months, and at the moment, they're showing real interest in 'doing something'. So, we've been following the MEP curriculum this week. It has been a fabulous week, and they have covered a lot of ground already.

I kid you not when I tell you that George 2 has been downstairs doing his maths before breakfast every day and has thoroughly enjoyed it. He's also become motivated to read again and has been reading every day. He has a new folder all of his own with the practise sheets neatly inside.

George 1 today was asked to sort numbers into a Venn diagram. He picked it up immediately and just got on with it. This is the child who came out of school in October last year telling me that he was never going to do another workbook or pick up a pen again!

It may not last very long, but while it's lasting they're getting so much enjoyment from maths and it's a privilege to be a part of that. Everyone is more relaxed, I think because they've achieved something tricky and got their brains in gear a bit.

The joy of home ed, is that in a few weeks, when they're fed up of doing this everyday, we can change it. It'll happily coincide with the schools going back and we can start visits to museums again!

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