Parent's Page

Helping parents to support their child’s education.

New research has shown that learning to play a musical instrument can improve children’s performance in maths. Apparently, when an instrument is learned, the brain is ‘rewired’ in ways that improve general memory skills – particularly the memory span for numbers.

This is good news for parents who begin to quake at the mere mention of the word ‘maths’ or ‘numeracy’ as it is now referred to in schools. It is incredible how many adults will happily tell you that they are hopeless at maths, and yet you will rarely hear grown-ups cheerfully announce that they are hopeless at reading or writing.

The question is, are we passing on our anxieties about maths to our children? There aren’t many 4 or 5 year olds who start school feeling anxious about numbers. In fact, the opposite is usually true – numbers present no threat and young children find them fascinating and fun. This can very quickly change, however, when they become bogged down with learning number operations for which they cannot see the relevance.

We, as adults, have probably all complained at some time or another that we were forced to learn things at school that have had no relevance or use to us in our lives. If children are to enjoy maths and not find it threatening, it is our job to make it relevant to their everyday lives. They need to see that maths skills are something they can use and understand on a day-to-day basis – at the shops, in the kitchen or during their playtime.

Maths should not always be about sitting down with pencil and paper. Studies have shown that if you learn by ‘being told’ you will retain 5% of the information. If you learn by ‘reading’ you will retain 10% of the information. But if you learn by ‘doing’ you will retain 75% of the information. That’s quite a huge difference.

So if you would like to give your young child the very best start in developing competent maths skills, use practical activities that are relevant to your daily lives. When something is relevant it is much more likely to be understood. The tips below will give you a start on how to do this.

Have fun!

Play board games such as Snakes and Ladders. Children learn about counting on and back, adding and numerous other skills without even realising it.
Bake a cake. Encourage your child to help you weigh out the ingredients and measure the cake tin.
Play shops using real or pretend money. Familiarize your child with each coin and its value.
Put a height chart up on the wall and measure your child each month so they can see how they are growing.
Give your child empty plastic bottles and containers to play with in the bath. Ask them to predict which one will hold the most water.
When you eat a pizza, a cake or a quiche, talk about what fractions you are cutting the portions into. Are you each having a half, a third, a quarter or a sixth?
Give your child 10p or 20p to spend in the sweetshop. Encourage them to look at the price of each sweet and add up how much they are spending. They will take this very seriously!
Give your child jobs to do in the supermarket as you are walking round the aisles. Can they find the cheapest packet of biscuits or a loaf of bread that costs less than 50p?
Set fun investigations such as ‘guess how many peas you can fit in a matchbox. Ask your child to estimate their answer and then to actually try it.
Point out numbers wherever you go. My daughter has learned to read multiples of 10 by looking for speed limit road signs and asking me whether I am sticking to them!