A poem for today ...
Times tables,
Number bonds,
To add and to subtract;
These key skills are what you need
To start to love your maths!
The quality of my poetry notwithstanding, the fact remains that confidence in a subject is directly related to knowledge.
If your children are resisting the maths they're being set whilst learning at home, pare it down to the basics and focus on practising their number bonds to 10 and 100, times tables (appropriate to age) and practising the basic skills of adding and subtracting. Those children who feel confident in maths are those with a strong foundation of times table and number bond facts, so it's time well spent.
A strong base of number bond and times table facts allow more of a child's working memory to be used in solving the more complex mathematical question that's being asked of them. If their tables and number bonds are not quite so secure, a bigger proportion of their working memory will be taken up in trying to recall, or even work out, the basic number facts they should (in an ideal world) already know. We want to maximise the working memory we have available to solve problems, so systematic and repeated training in basic skills and knowledge is essential. With this will come confidence, and as Julius Caesar said, victory.
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