When your child takes his/ her first Maths SATs test, he/ she will only have been in school just over two years. Yet, during these early years, the class teacher will have covered a great deal in basic Maths. This includes work to do with numbers, handling money, telling the time, measuring, weighing and lots of other areas.

The SATs test the main things your child has covered in school, but they are only a 'snapshot' of what he/ she has learned. Many of the topics that are tested will have been covered in several different ways many times.

Repetition and practise help children learn. Schools do this all the time, and you can do it at home too. It doesn't need to take up a lot of your time, and you don't have to know all the answers but 'a little help and often' really does make all the difference.

Key Points

1. Make learning at home interesting and fun. Everyone learns better when he or she is happy.
2. Try to do something three to four times a week. If you miss one night - don't make up for it by doing double the next night - your child will lose interest if you try to do too much.
3. Watch the time. With younger children, 10 - 15 minutes in the evening on any Maths activity is long enough after a day at school, (especially as they may have words to learn or pages to read from a reading book as well!)
4. Talk to your child about what they have done in school so you have a starting point.
5. When you are helping your child with a Maths question, ask your child how he or she would work it out. Remember that they may have been shown a different method to the one you are used to. If you are unsure, ask the school about the methods they use, and use the same at home. If you try to teach your child your own method, it will just confuse them.
6. Resist giving your child the answer. Encourage them to think through the problem with you so that they can tackle the same problems themselves in the future.
7. Vary the activities you do and try to make them link in with something they have to learn for school. Using numbers (adding and taking away), simple tables, playing shop or weighing ingredients for baking are all practical and useful Maths tasks.
8. Concentrate on one area at a time. For example, if you are learning tables, stick to that.
9. Use computers, CD-ROMs, games, calculators or other resources that can help. These all add to the fun of learning.
10. Record some of the Maths education programmes shown on the TV during the day and watch these with your children in the evening or at weekends. The TV guide usually tells you which age group the programme is for.

The Exercises

The questions are graded so that the easiest questions are first. Remember this Key Stage covers two school years so you should not expect your child to be able to tackle all the questions if they are in Year 1.

Print out the questions to use away from the computer.

Go to the Exercises

The Answers

Print out the answers to use away from the computer.

Go to the Exercises

Resources

Useful items of equipment include: Dice, plastic cubes or counters, plastic money, weighing scales, measuring tapes, pencils, paper, squared paper

Books

Maths Games at Home and School - Pub Beam

Maths - What's It All About? - Pub. Nape

Children and Computers - Pub. NAPE

Helping Children at Home - Pub. NAPE

CD-ROMs

SATs Tests: Maths - Europress

I love Maths - Dorling Kindersley

My First Maths Adventure: Adding and Subtracting - Dorling Kindersley

My First Maths Adventure: Counting and Sorting - Dorling Kindersley

Jump Ahead Year 1 - Cendant Software

Suppliers and Publishers

BEAM
Barnsbury Complex, Offord Road, London N1 1QH
Tel. 0171457 5535

EARLY LEARNING CENTRE
(Look in yellow pages for local store)

NAPE
Queens Building, Barrack Road, Northampton, NN2 6AF
Tel: 01604 36326, Fax: 01604 36328

DORLING KINDERSLEY
1 Horsham Gates, North Street, Horsham West Sussex RH13 5PJ
Tel: 01403 833 200

Web Links

The BBC Learning Station
http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/schools/
This is a service for children, teachers and parents at school and at home.

Maths at Home
http://www.ed.gov/pubs/parents/Math/
Ideas for helping your child learn Maths from the US Department of Education. Activities include 'Maths in the Home, 'Mathland' and 'Maths on the Go'.

Cornerstone
http://intergate.cccoe.k12.ca.us/corner/sum_math.htm
From Cornerstone Family School, a page for parents with ideas and activities available for home use that incorporate mathematics into everyday routines.

NAPE
http://www.nape.org.uk/
NAPE is an association that promotes a partnership between parents, teachers, school governors, inspectors, education officers and entire school communities. It produces a range of information books and advice for parents.

You will find other Web Links in Learning Exchange at BTHomeCampus

Go Back to the Exercises