As a full time home educator (we are not doing this because of the lockdown) I have been a bit overwhelmed by all of the educational resources that are suddenly available. And as we already know what works for our home education set-up we have largely stuck to that – I will admit I have downloaded some of the extra freebies that are suddenly available. But we know what works for our two, so I don’t want to mess with that.
For my daughter’s Maths (she would be Year 7 if she attended UK schools) we have been using Twinkl’s Secondary site a lot. I like using Maths resources where I can print out multiple copies if I want. I have always been a big believer in Maths practice so I like to reprint a page and give it to her a few months later to make sure she understands it. I also like the fact that I can use the website for both her Maths and her younger brother’s maths (he would be Year 4 at school) and I like that I don’t need to stick to a set Years activities like I would if we used workbooks. I often dip back for an extra printout and go forward in areas she is enjoying (we actually started using some of the Secondary Maths pages while she would have still technically been in Year 6). This flexibility that the site gives us is one of the main reasons that we keep coming back to use it again and again.
I will admit I took me some time to get comfortable with the secondary menus and where I can find everything but now that I understand the set-up I move around very quickly. However I still get surprises when I stumble onto new resources. A few days ago I was doing a quick search for 4 quadrant pages for my daughter and I spotted this “different” looking page it was called – Coordinates in 4 quadrants Home learning – now the home learning tag was not something I was used to seeing under KS3 Maths resources so I immediately downloaded it to have a proper look. And I really liked this new format. It had a quick explanation and then 2 exercises plus a challenge afterwards. I really like that it was wrapped up nicely in one document. (And yes there are answers).
I love this style – the explanation, followed by exercises. It means the kids can remind themselves of key facts and then try the activity themselves – if it something that we have already covered it means they can work through it independently. Love this.
And yes I will admit there are not a lot of exercises attached. But I don’t mind this. Once the kids work through the pages you can always do a quick search and find some extra activities – my daughter quickly worked through the 4 quadrant pages and then she had a go at some of the emoji 4 quadrant pages.
So I looked around some more and found the menu where they are storing these “home learning Ks3 Maths pages” here it is –Maths Home Learning /KS3
And it looks like they are adding more quite quickly. At the moment I could find a number for Geometry and Algebra. (I really liked the Algebra ones because we are moving onto that next).
I emailed Twinkl to ask what the plans are for these Maths pages and they have informed me that are going to stay on the site and that they are creating more – with the explanation and then the exercises in 1 document. Fingers crossed they keep this format going even after the schools go back.
ofamily learning together 