It's true:maths can become your friend

Everyone knows maths is dull and dry and,often frightening.Yet once you've got to grips with the basics it can actually be quite fun.

John Rees

Ask some children what their least favourite subject is at school, and there's a fair chance that most of them will say maths. If you persist and ask why you'll probably be told that it's boring. But maths can be a lot of fun, as you and your child will discover in the exercises below.
All too often, children only see it as dull because they find it difficult; it's hard to enjoy something that you don't understand or excel at. So grasping basic maths concepts and skills is essential, not only for an appreciation of the subject, but because it underpins so many other areas, especially the sciences. Maths also involves skills that are called upon in many different ways in daily life - as technology pervades more of our world from one year to the next, being confidently numerate has never been so important. Not surprising, then, that the teaching of maths has undergone some significant changes over the past 20 or so years. There is less focus on just coming up with the right answer; and an increasing emphasis reasoning and proof - being able to explain what you are doing and why you are doing it.
That said, your child still needs to develop a good range of basic skills,says Margeret Brown,professor of maths education at King's College London. "The numeracy strategy with its daily hour focusing on maths skills, has had a great impact on the way maths is taught at primary level," she says. "The focus has largely been on the mental maths skills that primary-age children need to develop in order to negotiate successfully the more applied maths at secondary level."
Maths really is a building-block subject and it deserves its place at the centre of the curriculum. So many other subjects rely on the maths skills that your children should learn at various stages. Also, it is worth remembering that, as the curriculum progresses, the maths always relates back to the maths that was done previously. Therefore, it is essential that your child's basic maths skills are as strong as possible they will not be able to progress as far or as fast as you would like.
The Introduction of the National Curriculum, in the late Eighties, changed the emphasis on maths in primary schools. "When the National Curriculum came in, it did carry on the earlier emphasis on doing investigation and practical problem-solving, but that rather got pushed out by the key-stage assessments, which tended to focus on written and mental arithmetic," explains Professor Brown. "However, there is some suggestion now of bringing in more work involving investigation and practical problem-solving at the end of the primary phase, giving children the skills they will need at secondary level." The new GCSE, for instance, features both a statistical and an algebraic investigation.
So, what does your child need to know? At Key Stage One, from the ages of five to seven, children need to concentrate on getting to grips with the meaning of numbers, developing counting skills, and learning how to add and subtract. They are also introduced to simple concepts in the use of numbers and in handling data, such as looking at how many things they've got, then counting and recording them, which can in turn lead to drawing up simple bar charts. They also do some basic geometry work on shapes, playing with those shapes to see what happens for example when they turn them round or over; and seeing how they fit together.
At Key-Stage Two, from the ages of seven to 11, the curriculum is divided into four core elements - using and applying mathematics, numbers, handling data, and shape, space and measures. Your child will cover the basics of fractions, decimals, proportion and ratio, as well as starting to use multiplication and division. In handling data, for instance, they learn how to use averaging measures such as means, medians and ranges, work that is carried on right through to GCSE.
Although many parents feel that using a calculator is somehow cheating, children do need to know how to use them properly and efficiently. For example, a fairly simple maths problem like drawing up a pie chart may involve division or multiplication sums that are too difficult or long-winded to do by hand. On occasions like these, it is better to use a calculator to crunch the numbers, leaving the child free to concentrate on the other aspects of the maths.
At Key Stage Three, from ages 11 to 14 the curriculum expands and diversifies to include the topics that your child will tackle in more depth at GCSE. Among these are place value and powers of 10, using coordinates, probability theory,negative numbers, linear equations,algebra,graphs and piecharts,and geometry.
Across all the different areas there is an increasing emphasis on proof and reasoning. At GCSE level,failure to show adequately how you got to an answer results in lost marks.

Who's afraid of all those big bad numbers?
Numbers and sums are much less intimidating and bewildering when you see them at work in the real world.And you don't have to look very far to find them.
1 Calculator games Find a calculator with big buttons and a large display, and challenge your children to replicate different numbers they find around the house. Help them find examples on things like your car number plate, your house number; LCD displays, serial numbers, even your age. The aim is for them to reproduce on the calculator display exactly the number they are looking at. This sounds very simple, but it is an excellent way to get younger children used to handling larger numbers, and help them to understand what we mean by place value.
You will need to explain how the positions on the calculator reflect how many units, l0s, 1005 and 1,000s the number involves, and your child will discover that, in order to get the right number on the display they have to put the largest digit first.You will probably find that younger children may need to start with simple, single-digit numbers, then progress up to those of two or three digits. 2 Weighing and measuring activities Children often hear things described as bigger or smaller than something else, and it's easy to assume that they know what that means. It's a good idea to think how you can use measurement words in context, enabling your child to understand exactly what they refer to. An easy starting point is to measure the height of each family member by standing them against a wall. For younger children, you could simply make a mark and talk about one person being taller or shorter than another; while for older ones you can actually take a reading with a tape measure. Other simple examples include comparing things such as a local river or stream and introducing the idea of width, or comparing different distances, say between one local town and another. Cooking provides an excellent opportunity to get kids thinking about weight and volume; again, with younger children you should keep it simple by just asking for the heaviest potato or the smallest saucepan, while older or more advanced kids can be entrusted with actually weighing up or pouring the right amount of an ingredient. 3 Learning about shapes Young kids love doing "I Spy"-type games, and shapes are an easy thing for them to recognise. Starting with the simple shapes like circles, squares, triangles and rectangles, take your child around the house naming each shape as you come across a good example of it. Then ask them to do the same. As they progress, you can move on to less common shapes like hexagons or rhombi, although you may find it more difficult to come across examples - you may find it easier to keep a few old magazines and get your child to cut out various shapes of different sizes while you talk about the fact that the same type of shape can be very different in terms of size. Another way of helping your child with these concepts is to make your own shapes from coloured card and use them to build up pictures. For a five-year old, this might involve making pictures of say, a house or a boat, while a seven-year-old could stick shapes together and see what the result reminds them of. You can also test out what happens when you move shapes around; are they the same when you turn them over or twist them about? It may sound obvious, but these are the sorts of concepts that children need to grasp at this early age. 4 Addition and subtraction games Darts provides an excellent way to get children using addition and subtraction skills, although conventional dart boards use rather too difficult numbers for Key Stage One. Instead, you could use stickers and put simpler numbers around the dart board, or dip into your pocket and buy a safer and simpler version like Early Learning Centre's Sling Shot (£6), which is less likely to lead to body piercing and involves a more limited range of numbers. Simply play the game, taking it in turns to throw three darts, and add the rest to see who gets the highest score. Moving on to subtraction, you can set a score such as 20, and take it in turns to throw one dart at a time to see who can reduce their score down to zero the fastest. As your child gets more proficient, increase the total to say 50 or even 100 to make it slightly harder. You can also throw two or three darts at each turn,then subtract their total from your score, thereby showing your child how closely addition and subtraction are linked.

Adventures for budding young number crunchers
One of the best ways to assist your children in understanding arithmetic is to involve them in practical tasks that show how useful maths can be in everyday life. So here are some tricks to have them making a cake out of ratios and fractions, or angling for treasure in the garden
1 Which would you prefer? At Key Stage Two, when children have mastered addition and subtraction, they move on to the more complicated functions of multiplication and division. But they don't just need to be able to get the right answer - they need a thorough understanding of what they are actually doing when they multiply or divide a number or set of things. One interesting way of getting this across is to set them some intriguing problems.Try asking what they would prefer: their height in one pound coins or their weight in one pound coins? To solve a conundrum like this they will first need to work out how high they are and how much they weigh, along with the height and weight of a one pound coin thus getting a chance to flex their measuring skills. Bear in mind that coins are rather thin and light to measure accurately so your child may find it easier to stack l0 on top of one another or put l0 on the scales, then divide the answer by 10.