Category: About Curriculum

  • Something that I see a LOT in my tutoring business is kids who have decided that they’re dumb. It’s really tragic and breaks my heart every time. Often, the kid is actually fine and has no real learning problem. They just learn some things at a different pace to their classmates. But, truth be told: keep reading

    The Year 9 Student Who Wasn’t Allowed to Learn Year 8 Maths
  • I’ve been seeing a lot about AI in homeschool groups on the socials lately. Many times it’s suggesting AI as a tool for planning or preparing reports for registration. If you’re careful about it, AI can definitely shave a few hours out of those tasks. But the thing that virtually terrifies me is when I keep reading

    Should You Trust Your Kids’ Education to AI?
  • In our last article we looked at how to use Sumstix and number bonds to teach your child to add and subtract single digit numbers . These tools work brilliantly for totals up to ten, and those facts are non-negotiable to make sense of higher level maths, like fractions and algebra. But what happens when keep reading

    The Great Subtraction Debate
  • What do controversial AI chatbots, the manual for your latest “big kid toy” and your child’s maths homework all have in common? The answer is the humble algorithm. The word is becoming fairly commonplace today but most people have a very sketchy idea of what it actually means. In fact, if you’re over thirty, I’m keep reading

    Algorithms, AI, and Homeschool Maths: Why “Just Do It” Works… Except When It Doesn’t
  • I’m just going to drop the bomb right at the head of this article. There’s actually NO SUCH THING as a pure mastery curriculum. There I said it. But can I defend it? Absolutely. You see, every single year of any maths curriculum will have an outline that looks something like this: Every year the keep reading

    The Shocking Truth About Mastery Maths Curriculum
  • When my big boys were newborns my husband and I couldn’t get over the designs printed on newborn nappies. At the time beautiful watercolour images of Winne the Pooh or Snugglepot and Cuddlepie were the thing and they were just that, beautiful. But what purpose did they serve? Did they do anything for the newborn? keep reading

    Is your maths curriculum too PRETTY to be USEFUL?
  • Photo by Okra Amps on Unsplash If you’re new to homeschooling you’re probably getting dizzy learning about homeschool styles. There’s Charlotte Mason, Classical, Steiner, Montessori, unschooling and traditional just to name a few. You’re probably also wondering which one will be “right” for you and your child. Well, I’m here to tell you that it’s keep reading

    What style of homeschooler are you?
  • The only way to learn mathematics is to do mathematics. Paul R. Halmos In our post The Surprising Truth Behind Math Phobia we learned that mathematics is a language. Today we are going to begin exploring how this realisation should impact our teaching (and learning) of maths. Our First Language If maths is the universal keep reading

    Are Your Kids Learning to DO Maths or Just ABOUT Maths?
  • If one hundred homeschooling parents were asked what subject they most dreaded, feared, or felt least qualified to teach, the vast majority would probably reply, “maths.” It’s a sad truth that one of the most fundamentally important skill-based subjects is also often the most feared, least understood, and poorly taught of all school subjects. But keep reading

    The Surprising Truth Behind Math Phobia