Now be honest, you expect your children to learn to read. We take it for granted that regardless of how hard children find reading that they need to master the skill.
Yet for some reason this is not true with number work. In fact we often send them the wrong messages. How many mums tell their children to ask their father for help with maths? It does happen. But what are we saying to children? We are saying maths is ‘man thing’. Is this the right message to send to children? Is it the right message to send to girls?
The other thing we do is say’ I could never do maths when I was your age’. It is meant to be sympathetic but again it sends the wrong message. We expect every child to read and we need to have the same expectation for number work. If we do not, we are blighting their future. Do you really want to do that to your own child?
