Top Tips for Helping Your Child with Maths

Parents are always looking for ways in which they can support their children and help them with their academic progress. This is easier said than done for those who don’t feel proficient in the subject they’re trying to help their child with. However, you can still support your child’s learning at home using the following tips from a Junior School in the Cotswolds.

Believe it or not, even just singing nursery rhymes with your child when they’re young like “10 Green Bottles” or “One, Two, Buckle My Shoe” will help them with their numeracy skills. It’s also crucial to maintain a positive attitude towards learning.  

Avoid saying things like “I was rubbish at Maths when I was your age” because it will only make your child more fearful of the subject.

 

Try and incorporate maths into everyday activities. Cooking/baking, certain board games and paying for goods at a shop are all great ways to help your child practise basic equations without even realising it. Once they’ve grasped the basics, they should be able to tackle the more challenging questions. 

You could even try and find some games online to help maths seem more fun for your child. If your child understands how crucial maths is in daily life, they might feel more obliged to pay attention during their lessons. 

 

If your child is a visual learner, it might benefit them to have posters up around the home with things like the time's tables, so that they can look at it on a regular basis. Auditory learners might prefer to listen to the time's tables in song form. 

Have a look on YouTube for some options. Understanding your child’s learning style, and therefore how they absorb information, is a great way to support them academically because it enables you to provide them with the right tools to learn. 

 

Get in touch with your child’s maths teacher if you are struggling, as they will be able to talk to you about the curriculum and perhaps even suggest a few resources you could use to help with home learning. Building relationships with your child’s teachers will show your child that you a committed to helping them learn, which might encourage them to try harder.

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Top Tips for Choosing a School for Your Child

 All parents will have to go through the process of choosing a school for their child, at least once. 

It can be a stressful experience because there are so many different things to think about; 

• What are the facilities like?  
• Did the school receive a good result in their previous inspection report?
•  Is the location convenient? 
• Where do they rank in the league tables? 

The list goes on. 

To help relieve some of this stress and offer you some guidance, I have teamed up with a prep school in Somerset. 

 

Start by discussing your priorities with the rest of the family, including your child, and then preparing a checklist. 

• Does the school need to be within walking distance of your home, or on route to your work? 
• Is your child keen on sport and therefore in need of decent sporting facilities? 

Once you have a list of your main requirements, you can start doing some research online and ruling out any schools that aren’t suitable. 

There will be photos of the facilities on the websites, along with things like previous exam results and Ofsted reports.

 

Once you have established a few favourites, you can start to visit the schools. There is no better way to determine whether or not it is right for your child than to have a look around and ask lots of questions. 

• Consider whether or not the current students seem happy and well adjusted. 
• Are they welcoming? 
• Think about whether or not the school feels safe and clean and ask the staff about their pastoral care. 

 

Your instincts will play a huge role in the decision, as you know your child better than anyone else. 

Do you think they are likely to fit in? 

Take them along to the open days and see how they respond to the environment and the people. 

You also shouldn’t be afraid to chat with your family and friends for some advice if you feel out of your depth. 

Hopefully, this helps a little when it comes to your time choosing a school for your little one.

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Top Tips that will Help you To Adjust to Life as a New Parent

If you are a new mother then you will understand how life-changing this can be. At times you may feel as though all you need is a few hours’ sleep and at other times you just need to be with your child no matter what. The bond that you have with your child will be unlike anything that you have ever experienced before and at the same time, you are exhausted like never before. If you want to get some top tips that will help you to adjust to being a new mum then here are some hints that will help you to get started.

You Don’t Have to be Super Quiet

Believe it or not, you don’t actually have to be super quiet when your baby is sleeping. This is because in the womb, things are pretty loud and newborn babies are really used to that level of noise. For this reason, you shouldn’t be afraid to watch television if this is what you want to do and you should also not be afraid to vacuum up either. If you need to wash the dishes then get it done or even speak on the phone when you know that the baby is sleeping. In fact, if you are able to get your baby used to sleeping with some level of noise then this can really help them in the future and you may even get to the point when you can vacuum up while they sleep when they are over a year old. If you feel bad about making noise then this is completely normal, but the sooner you are able to get around this the better it is for you and them as well.

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Try and Soothe your Baby

When your baby cries, you may feel helpless and you may also find it hard to know what to do. One thing that you can do is try and pat them on the back in a heartbeat rhythm. This will help them to burp much more quickly and it will also help them to relax much more as well. If they are crying because they don’t feel secure then this can work wonders. If this doesn’t work then try and swaddle the baby, hold them on their side or even swinging them from side to side. The more you can do to try and provide them with some level of comfort, the better so you do have to try and keep this in mind wherever possible.

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Latching On

if you are a mother then you may find it hard to get your baby to latch. It is more than possible for you to use breast shields to help you with this and there is no shame in admitting that you find it difficult. It is also important to know that it is okay to be frustrated at this point but what is happening is completely normal. So many mothers go through things like this and it can be a difficult phase for you to try and get through. If you would like to try and get some support nursing when you are out and about then the best way for you to get around this would be for you to try and look into things such as the best nursing tops. This can provide you with a lot of confidence and it can help you to nurse your baby when you are out.

Prepare

When your baby is around a month old, there is a high chance that the days and nights will become more predictable. At this point, you will be able to focus completely on your newborn as well as yourself. It is so important that you are able to take into account your own stress levels and you also need to focus on preparing your own meals as well. If you are struggling to do this then one way for you to get around this would be for you to prepare your meals way ahead of time. This way you don’t have to prepare too far ahead and you also don’t have to worry about how you are going to cook when they are crying. Little things can really help you out here, such as putting a glass of water next to your bed before you sleep and even watching your favourite TV show. When you do things like this to try and look after yourself, you would be surprised at how much energy you have in the day and you would also be surprised at how much you can de-stress as well.

Keeping your Baby Awake

This may sound like a strange concept because most of the time you will probably be trying to get your baby to go to sleep. If your baby is eating slowly and trying to sleep then you can try and massage their cheeks. When you do this, it will help them to suckle faster and this is sometimes all it takes for you to try and encourage them. So many people find that this works and it also helps to stop them from waking up again soon for another feed. When babies are able to fill themselves up before they go to sleep, they can then feel more relaxed and there is also a high chance that they will be calmer as well. This is great if you are struggling to get them to sleep for longer periods of time and it also gives you way more time to try and get things done as well.

So there are plenty of things that you can do to try and keep your baby in good health and when you follow the above tips, you can be sure to keep yourself in good health as well. After all, sometimes you only need to take a few simple steps to really turn your life around and when you are a new mother, this is really helpful even at the best of times.

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