Help Your Kids with Maths by Carol Vorderman Review

A unique step-by-step visual guide

Maths

With millions of children now missing out on full-time education whilst schools are closed during lockdowns due to the Coronavirus pandemic, home-schooling is a MUST. But home-schooling, especially with subjects like maths, is easier said than done and can be quite a challenge, not just for the children but the adults as well as they now have to become teachers and help the children with any online work set by the schools (some schools are even doing live lessons) whilst trying to supplement what they already know with new things. Whilst education is important, at the moment the way we approach it has completely changed.

Maths and English are at the core of any learning, whether at home or at school, and these can be quite difficult and intense to teach, especially for a parent or carer that is not a trained teacher – it is not a case of giving them a workbook or even a printout of something the school has supplied. Children will still need input from an adult to help understand the work they are doing. So how do you help the kids with things like maths? If like me you were taught a different way and system than the kids are today and let’s be fair probably forgotten most of what you were taught anyway, then you need some extra help.

Carol Vorderman, the much-loved maths wizard who co-hosted the popular television show Countdown for 26 years, as we all know is a wiz when it comes to numbers and maths. She has created some books that will be a massive help to parents and children (as well as her The Maths Factor website) and be of an immense help in helping everybody understand maths problems. Her Help Your Kids with … series of books are reference books that encourage children, teenagers and their parents to work together, giving step-by-step instructions on different maths problems and all with a visual approach.

Help Your Kids with Maths is a unique step-by-step visual guide into the world of mathematics. It has been designed for children that are struggling with their maths and parents/carers that are finding it difficult to understand what is being taught. It is an excellent resource book for all, after all, how can you help your children without understanding their homework problems and how to explain it to them?

Carol Vorderman’s Help Your Kids with Maths covers all the maths core subjects with numbers and arithmetic, geometry, trigonometry, algebra, statistics and probability. It is for children aged 10 to 16 years old (Key Stages 3-4) and will cover maths taught by schools to children in that age bracket. It allows children and adults to work together, understanding the problem and learning to solve even the trickiest of maths problems.

We have been using this book at home and it really is of great help. Before using, if you just open it up on any page and look at the visuals and amount of information that there looks to be on the page it looks like it can be quite daunting, but trust me, it isn’t and really is quite easy to use.

Each section has an introduction, explaining what it is that you are looking at and what it is you will be doing. The book is then laid out with a lot of visuals that are very well explained and quite easy to understand (I have enjoyed using it just as much, or more than, the kids as it really is an interesting book).

This is not a book that you sit down and read from cover to cover (unless you really want to) but should be as a reference book to dip and out of when you are looking for help to explain or understand a particular problem.

For anybody struggling with maths, just needs that bit of extra help or even a refresher, then this is excellent book to help. It not only helps you understand a problem but teaches you how numbers work so that you really do understand how they work and apply to specific problems, helping you solve them whilst understanding how you did it. Once you start understanding how numbers and formulas work you will be able to work out even the trickiest of maths questions that you will come across in your school career. Once you start using this book it will not just give you an understanding of numbers but helps build confidence and reduces stress for the one doing the maths problem and the parent or carer that is trying to help.

 

The visuals, diagrams and illustrations, on each page are excellent in helping to understand the concept of a maths theory and problem, giving a much better understanding and alleviating the frustration that can occur when you can’t understand what you are looking at or what you have to do.

If you are currently home-schooling your children or just want to help them better with their homework in the future when they are back in school, then Carol Vorderman’s Help Your Kids with Maths is a book that you should definitely invest in. It is an invaluable resource and explains things in an easy to understand fashion that will help you grasp the concept and apply it to all maths problems.

An excellent, easy to use and understand book that explains the concepts of maths with ease and will help any parent or carer support their children with their schoolwork (I have learned a lot from it, as have the kids) as it explains things in a way I just can’t. By owning this book it means that when asked by your children how to do something, excuses like I wasn’t taught it, I forgot or even you have to work it out yourself just won’t wash and you can actually sit down and help them learn something (or even learn something together) without the frustration and stress and reducing the time spend on maths homework.

Rating: 5/5

RRP: £14.99

Available to buy from Amazon here.

DISCLOSURE: All thoughts and opinions are my own. This review uses an affiliate link which I may receive a small commission from if you purchase through the link.

Click here to read more reviews of books by Carol Vorderman