Some children find it hard to :

learn times tables

see shapes and understand fractions

understand how numbers build up

Making numbers real can help a lot.

Cooking with numbers

Try making some cakes with your child-you can talk about the language of mathematics while you do so:

What is heavier or lighter

More or less

You can talk about weights

Counting the numbers of spoonfulls you need to put into the mixture

Number of times needed to stir

Pouring out half the quantity

Once the cake is made-you can talk about slicing it into quarters/halfs

If you give half to one person… how much do you have left?

Other ways of making maths real:

Playing with dominos

Playing darts and scoring

Numicon is also a useful pack which can be used to increase understanding of numbers ( www.numicon.co.uk )