What annoys me most ...!

Watching The One Show. Fiona Bruce mentioned what a torment it is helping her 10-year-old son with maths. Chatting things over with my son got me thinking about how to help parents help their children with maths, and how I need to teach teachers how to help parents do that ... I finally worked out what annoys me most! I'm glad that parents are being invited into schools to see demonstration lessons on how maths is taught. But I worry about how these lessons are presented. One Numeracy Consultant told me that she encourages teachers to focus entirely on how schools teach now and ignore all other methods. There is a problem with that, very clearly explained in Richard Skemp's wonderful The Psychology of Learning Mathematics: if you don't start where people are, you'll never get them on board! What a wasted opportunity!

I love pineapples ...!

Wow it's really amazing! Heard about how Farm Africa helped some farmers in Kenya increase their income from pineapples ... Decided to send off a mathematical activity for Farm Africa to use, if they want ... I do wish them well in all their projects! Must get on and prepare that pineapple ...

Hi! I'm back ...

What a year I have had ... I'm now a grandmother!! The 'little one' is so gorgeous! He's now 15 months old and growing so fast ... Parents trying to help their children with maths is being highlighted once again ... Must get on and send off my new book proposal to Bloomsbury on how parents and schools can work more closely ...