“Ok, yeah, Veronika, that sounds great; we’d LOVE TO move on from times tables, but isn’t maths about building knowledge on good foundations?”

Yes, indeed! But that doesn’t mean learning maths is a linearly progressing game with fixed levels, where you can’t move forward if you don’t pass the previous one or it’s ‘game over’.

Look at these two scenarios:

Scenario A: Pick a topic that’s interesting (instead of going back to a topic that already bored both you and your teen to death, just because mastery didn’t knock on the door yet). When you eventually spot missing skills, make a list and work with these until your teen masters that whole group of skills. At least now you see what they’re all good for, rather than learning each topic in complete isolation from one another.

Or, if you have a learning plan you’re happy with, simply move on from the topic you spent too much time on already. Once you hit the need to revise something from the past in order to make sense of the new topic, great — just do that. At least now you know why you need to know, learn, and understand this or that, while you’re still moving forward.

Scenario B: Find out your teen “forgot again” how to do long division. Or subtracting fractions. Or those bloody times tables. So, you rewind and stack a whole lot of resources for these pesky topics in front of your teen — again. Some of these surely must finally click, right? Right…? 👀

Which one would your teen prefer?

I’ll tell you this: No one universal rule works for everyone. But MOST learners are Team A. (I bet you’re not surprised.)

And Team A brings three extra wins!

Do you want to know what they are? (Well, who wouldn’t?) So, keep reading!

The three wins

In Scenario A, in either way I described, you’re creating little connected groups of maths skills that help learners see how maths is connected. And this way of learning works much better than learning topics in isolation.

Win!

And you also avoid your teen getting bored of re-doing the same skill over and over just because it didn’t fully click, or because they still need help working it out during their practice. Boredom doesn’t fuel motivation. And an unmotivated learner doesn’t progress as well as a motivated one. It’s as simple as that. Progress comes with motivation.

Win-win!

And! This way you ACTUALLY move forward, rather than being stuck on the same topic (or two or three)... Moving forward helps build confidence. Cool, right?

Win-win-win! (I love these triple combos, don’t you? 😄)

Ok, sounds great, so how do we do this?

I could talk way more about this topic, as my blog posts are usually rather long, but you know what?

What if, instead of just me preaching, we take action? I know people tend to ‘believe it when they see it’. And who wants to just keep reading about how to learn maths when you can actually learn maths right now? And see that it works the way I showed you… while claiming how it’s way better — well, I’ll let you be the judge of that. Fair? 🙂

Therefore…

Are you Team A? Want to just dive in and literally smash one maths goal this week? Just like that, forget what your teen forgot over the summer, forget everything they haven’t learnt yet and have fun with maths for once!

Pick a goal and smash it! Start moving, instead of rewinding. Get those three wins!

I can help you with it — here’s my treat for you:

Join me for one week, and I’ll help you smash one maths goal. It’s free, btw, so really, there are no excuses 😄

>> Give it a go and smash ONE MATHS GOAL this week! <<

 And when you’re done, evaluate how that felt. Better than what you were doing so far? If so, there you go! Now you know you can continue working this way week after week (with me or not — that’s up to you, no pressure).

Btw, if you loved smashing one maths goal with me, you can keep it for just £7 a month. What a bargain 🙃

However, this is where I’m ultimately heading with this piece: After you experience how we rock ‘n’ roll, you might be ready for a more theoretical dive into the ‘wonderful’ world of “How the heck can I actually support my teen with maths at home?”

And that, ladies and gentlemen and everyone, is what The Story is for. A great introduction to the learning philosophy I run my educational approach on. Yes, you can literally read about it for free. So this could be your little piece to read while your teen is smashing that next maths goal, so you can support them in the future even better than you’re doing now.

And I know you’re doing a great job — just by reading this piece to the end, I know you’re a doer, and that counts. I’m rooting for ya! 😎