Maths is always the subject that everyone gets a bit concerned about. And I know there are lots of workbooks out there and we have used workbooks and might still bring spme workbooks in this year but our main Maths resource for Year 8 is actually going to be the Twinkl website. It was our main Maths resource for Year 7 and it worked really well for us.
The main reason why I like using a website for Maths is that I can print and reprint worksheets as often as I like. You can do a worksheet and then reprint it a few months later so they can practice again and even reprint it again. But the point is if they are struggling with something you can print more and more page for practice you are not limited by the number of examples included in a workbook.
And the main reason why I like the Twinkl website for secondary Maths is that it has been well planned and set out. The menus on the left-hand side make finding the different sections really straight forward.
And if that does not work you just type in the some key words into the search bar at the top. But I must admit for Maths I actually stick to the menu on the left-hand side and just drill down.
Over the summer I used their Maths Curriculum Map to create my own general plan of what we are going to cover and I then went onto the site found the Maths sections and downloaded the lessons.
The reason why I altered their maths map is simple. The KS3 Maths curriculum is split over 3 years but how you split it is up to you and it just happens that last year we covered a few items that Twinkl have included in their year 8 and we missed out 1 item that they have included in their Year 7. So no big deal, we just took their plan and made a few adjustments, I extended some time in some areas and added in some bits and pieces and we ended up with our own personal version of their curriculum map.
I must also add that since I did my planning exercise Twinkl have actually reworked their Maths curriculum map and have now included lots of links back to suggested resources. It really is becoming an amazing piece of planning that is very useful for home education.
So what do I do once I have my basic plan in place?
Well this week we started with revising Place Value. So the weekend before I logged onto my computer and printed off the different activity pages and worksheets and placed them in a file all ready for my daughter to start. Easy. My daughter likes me to do any Maths explaining, so I tend to do that but Twinkl do have PowerPoint docs which do all the explaining of the maths concept and they tend to create one PowerPoint for each lesson.
When you find the Maths section that you want to cover you normally see an option which they call Unit of Work. Now if you click on the Unit of work you will only see the lessons set out for that section. Some people may like the Unit of work option but others might prefer seeing all the other extra activities.
I also have to highlight the worksheets that they have created and stored under their Curriculum Map and resources section, the call them walkthrough worksheets. These worksheets are in a slightly different format to the other worksheets that they have included in the main maths sections but we LOVE this version. This set has an explanation included on the first page (sometimes 2 pages) and is then followed by exercises. Really Love these.
I used the Twinkl Secondary website for our Maths last year and I always found what I needed plus lots of extra examples and activities. I like the way they have ordered the sections with the menus and their new Maths Curriculum Map is brilliant at giving ideas on how you can split the Maths curriculum between the years.
ofamily learning together 