Helping Your Child With Maths at Home

Helping children feel confident in maths starts with confidence in basic facts. When students know their addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division facts off by heart, everything else becomes  much easier. Basic facts are the heart words of the maths world! Our goal for basic facts is that children can recall answers instantly, without resorting to counting. For example if a child was asked 'What is 8+6?' ideally they would respond, '14' and not need to count on from 8 to 14 in ones.

Being able to recall these facts quickly means children's brains don’t have to work as hard to solve bigger problems. This is called reducing 'cognitive load'. When the basic facts come easily, students can focus more on understanding what a question is asking and then move on to finding a solution. Practising basic facts regularly at home, through games, quick quizzes, or everyday maths moments can really support children's learning journey and help them to feel more successful in maths.

We have a resource available on the school website that will show you the basic facts that align with the New Zealand Maths Curriculum.  Children can engage with the facts at their level and of course also keep going with all their facts through to a Year 6 level.

Thanks for all you do to support children with their maths learning.

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