The ideas behind this set of cards – and others made by busy.cards – were conceived by teachers as a means of providing educational activities at home: on a one-to-one basis. This means finding time, preferably daily, to chat, meaningfully, about educational (and other 'life') matters.
'One-to-one' covers a wide variety of people (parent, child, mother, father, infant, uncle, guardian, carer, ward...). It is used here to point to the difference between home and 'school' – where the ratio is one-to-four or one-to-thirty. (We are, again, using apostrophes to ask you to provide the appropriate equivalents: play-group,kindergarten....). Cards are inapproriate youngsters and group use (in sandpits and water baths).
Maths is a highly structured subject. This means that the school maths syllabus can also be highly structured: and timed with extremely careful (and rigid) planning. (Targets must be met!)
If a child, through lapse of 'understanding' (mis-hearing, inattention, sickness, momentary distraction...) misses out on something then such a 'minor trouble' can 'cascade'. We are reluctant to quantify this 'glitch' because it varies. The author can clearly identify – with the hindsight of years as a maths teacher – the one missed lesson that caused tremendous problems for years.
If you have read this far then you will now understand my suggestion that some 'keep-up' time is to be spent, daily, with |mum| and child. If done daily, as routine, the child will build up a trust that will enable small difficulties to be sorted out - before they escalate. What an impossible task! Let's jump ahead a dozen years - andimagine the next paragraph.
Teenager comes home from school. Kicks off shoes. Chucks coat on the floor. Grabs biscuits. Disappears upstairs. Mum waits and goes up to enquire "What's up? Can I help?" – "No! Go away!".
I venture to suggest that – over the years – Mum was not around for these troubles. There is now no trust - "You never bothered asking about stuff at school before – why are you fussing now – it's too late".
If you think I have been too melodramatic then modify my drama. It could be magnified – to evetually reach the newspapers and 'police investigations'.
I hope these cards will play a tiny part in making life easier, and educationally rewarding, for 'both of you'.