Dear Parents and Carers,

It is very easy when the children are at home to encourage them to develop their literacy skills. We can easily have them read their reader to us, read a recipe or set of instructions, or even write a shopping list or note. We sometimes forget that maths is a skill that needs practice and that there are lots of simple things you can do to help your child with their maths skills at home. Below are some examples that you may like to try with your child.

One of the secrets to being confident with maths is having a toolkit of different calculation strategies, and knowing when and how to use them. If your child is in Years 5-6, you can help build their maths toolkit by involving them in the maths problems you come across in daily life, using ideas such as these.

• Ask your child to calculate answers for you – e.g. ‘Could you work out how much edging we need to buy to go around the new garden bed? It’s going to be three metres long and 1.5 metres wide.’
• Ask your child to estimate answers and then check their estimates – e.g. ‘Petrol today costs $1.65 per litre and we needed 56 litres, so how much will that be, roughly?’
• Show how you choose different strategies by talking through maths problems as you work them out – e.g. ‘There are 10 kids coming to your party, plus us makes 14 people altogether, and this recipe makes 6 muffins. Double that is 12, which is not enough, so we’ll multiply all the quantities by 3 and end up with 3 x 6 equals 18 muffins – one left over for each of us!’
• Play the Four Card Century Challenge: draw four random cards (ignoring any picture cards), then arrange them in any order and use mathematical operations to create a calculation which equals as close to 100 as possible. For example, if you draw 2, 3, 8 and 8, you could make ’83 + 28′ [equals 111], or ‘288 ÷ 3’ [equals 96], or ‘(8 x 8) + 32’ [equals 96]. Increase the challenge by drawing more cards and/or raising the target number.

 If your child is in the younger years next time you go shopping with your child, encourage them to be your bargain shopper to save money. This will give them confidence as well as helping with their math skills.

• How much of a discount? Encourage your child to look out for products on sale. For instance, you might see a beach towel reduced from $12.99 to $6.99. Ask your child to work out how much money has been saved with this reduction.
• Older children can use their fractions skills to solve harder problems. For instance, ask them how much a $20 lampshade would be if it were discounted by 50%.
• Which brand is cheaper? Show your child a range of brands of the same product and ask them to work out which is the cheaper brand. Hint: check the shelf label for unit prices.
• Save in bulk - This exercise is good for an older child who is learning division. Ask your child if it is cheaper to buy in bulk. For instance, a single roll of paper towel is $4.00, but a package of three rolls is $10.00. Is it more economical to buy the paper towels in bulk?
• Have the children collect and count items as you put them in the bag or trolley.

Remember that mathematics is a skill we need for life and a subject that we need to show our students can be fun to learn.

God bless.

Rachel Smith
Principal