Maths Sense
Understanding maths through touch, sight and sound
Does your child find maths a joyless struggle? Have they decided they just can't do maths or has their school even told them this?
You know your child is smart, that they do well in other subjects, but they just can't seem to 'get' maths.
This website is here to help! I take children to the point where they actually start to enjoy mathematical concepts.
How do I do this?
Research has shown that multi-sensory learning can boost IQ and memory skills. I bring maths to life for children who can't handle cold abstract concepts well through using materials that use our sense of sight, hearing and touch.
Sign up to my my newsletter and every once in a while I'll deliver a round up of the best multi-sensory learning materials I've found online, and some things I've created myself.
Image: freeimages.co.uk
Resources
Some of the best multi-sensory maths teaching resources I've found from around the world.
The Slavonic Abacus
The Slavonic abacus has 100 beads, like an ordinary abacus, but is coloured differently so that the beads appear in four blocks of contrasting colours. This allows you to do maths with minimal calculation. For example you can quickly and easily work out 100 – 75 = 25 at a glance. Five rows of five = 25, three lots of five rows of five = 75. Download a virtual version.
Cuisenaire rods
These coloured rods, of varying lengths, were first created by Georges Cuisenaire in the 1950s. By making use of children’s natural inclination to play, and providing attractive material which shows the relationships on which maths is based, he found it was possible for most children to understand mathematical concepts.
They were later popularised by the educationalist Caleb Gattegno. Here is footage of him from the 1960s in a Canadian Grade 1 classroom.
The beauty of Cuisenaire rods is they are extremely simple in design but can be used to show the most complex mathematical concepts, including quadratic equations.
Download a virtual version of the rods from Nrich Maths
Teaching without words
Matthew Peterson is dyslexic and the creator of MIND's Math instructional software that teaches maths to students without using words.
The analogue clock
Learning to tell the time on an analogue clock is one of the tougher maths challenges children face, but it’s especially difficult for students who have poor spatial awareness.
In my opinion this is the best video for dyscalculics on how to tell the time. Dyscalculia specialist, Ronit Bird deconstructs and reconstructs the clock face in the most satisfying way. Watch the video.
School House Rock
School House Rock is a series of animated musical films from the US produced from the 1970s onwards. They covered a number of educational topics, including maths. The films on number are wonderfully whimsical and a great way to make number facts memorable through song and repetition. Watch ‘Zero is my hero’.
Learning in colour
A study from 2014 found that teaching people to read in colour (a phenomenon induced by the neurological condition, synaesthesia) can boost memory and IQ. Read more...
Some of my stuff
Supersensory maths
I've been experimenting with Powerpoint to create some multi-sensory maths materials. These videos show what I've created so far (though I'm still learning!).The original Powerpoint materials are designed to be clicked so the user sees, hears and senses the numbers.
My blog
November 26, 2017November 11, 2017November 6, 2017About me
Hello! I'm Catherine, a qualified primary school teacher who spent all of her school years being afraid of maths. It simply didn't make sense to me and from an early age I thought of myself as someone who 'just couldn't do maths'. I was placed in the bottom stream (of four classes) at secondary school and was predicted a grade E GCSE. Being reasonably academic in other things, I was happy to languish there while focusing on the subjects I enjoyed, particularly English and the arts. I had two more attempts to get a grade C, failing dismally each time.
My life changed course when I decided to train as a teacher; maths GCSE grade C was an entry requirement. The path to achieving my GCSE became a fascinating experience in learning as I began open my mind to a subject that had until then been quite alien to me. It was a struggle at first but began to trust my capacity to work things out at my own pace, and in my own way. I eventually achieved a grade B GCSE in less than a year without formal lessons, largely through teaching myself and studying text books.
I am also a synaesthete. Synaesthesia is a perceptual phenomenon described as a 'cross wiring of the senses' for example, for me sounds can have textures, shapes, colours and even flavours. I find my synaesthesia enhances my memory and my capacity to learn (recently confirmed by research) and this has led to my interest in the benefits of multi-sensory learning.
I hope you enjoy using my website.
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