The kids are back at school, and most are enjoying being back being able to see their friends and getting some face-to-face teaching from a qualified teacher. Home learning can be worthwhile, but it can’t beat sitting in a classroom with other students and a teacher for the joys of English, Maths and Science lessons. That said, now that they kids are back at school, they will have lost learning to catch up on and still have homework to complete, which still requires the input of their parents and carers when required.
Have you ever had to sit there and try to help your kids with their homework? Whilst you may have learned all the same stuff at school it might be long forgotten or you just can’t explain the concept in a child-friendly way for them to understand, especially as teaching methods will have changed for lots of things over the years. With biology, chemistry and physics where do you even begin? So how can you as a parent help your children with their homework? You don’t want too much involvement, effectively doing the work for them, but you also don’t want too little involvement so that it looks like you aren’t interested and leaving them floundering and drowning in work that they don’t understand. Well help is at hand with a range of books by Carol Vorderman with a parent’s guide to helping their kids with their homework, especially as children are taught different methods than when we were at school.
Carol Vorderman is the much-loved and respected maths wizard who co-hosted the popular television show Countdown for 26 years. She is an absolute genius when it comes to numbers and maths, if you have ever watched her work out the sums on Countdown it is just fantastic (especially with the speed she does it). Whilst she no longer works on Countdown, she does still work with education and has helped put together lots of educational resource books. She is the author of several educational books and is the UK’s bestselling educational author. She has helped created a series of books that will be a massive help to assist children and their parents, carers and even teachers understand the core subjects at school (Maths, English and Science). 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 science topics and all with a visual approach.
Help Your Kids with Science is a parent’s guide to help children in Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4, which is kids age 10 to 16 years old. It is an excellent visual guide that helps parents explain to their kids the concepts of different science topics and how they work, hopefully then helping the child make sense of their schoolwork.
Are you blinded by science? Wouldn’t know one noble gas from another? Don’t know you would begin to explain the force on a mass? Or maybe you would be flummoxed when trying to explain the human reproduction system to your high schooler? With Carol Vorderman’s Help Your Kids with Science you will be able to answer these questions, as well as lots more, using this unique step-by-step visual reference guide.
This 256-page book is the book for every frustrated parent that wants to do the best for their kids and help them get the most out of education. It covers the core science subjects of biology, chemistry and physics, broken down into easy-to-read colour-coded sections with lots of visual representations rather than just page after page of text. It will cover everything that children will learn throughout their high school career and is set out in such a way that it enables parents to help their children make sense of the subjects as well as being easy enough for the children to read.
It is broken down into three unique sections, each with an introduction into What is biology? What is chemistry? and What is Physics?
Section 1, Biology covers everything from cell structure to pollution, looking at animals, plants and human beings (including hormones, reproduction and even genetics).
Section 2, Chemistry covers everything from properties of materials to polymers & plastics, looking at things like gas laws, the periodic table, chemical reactions and lots more along the way.
Section 3, Physics covers everything from inside atoms to the origins of the universe and everything you would expect in learn about in physics such as the laws of motion, circuits, power and even renewable energy.
As you work through the book, the layout lends itself to an easy reading format with plenty of bold and colourful illustrations to demonstrate the topic. It is very well laid out, clear and concise with plenty of examples to follow. The book is put together very well so that you just dip in and out of it wherever and whenever necessary. It isn’t a book that you read from cover to cover, unless you really want to.
For those that need that bit of help or understanding with their science work this is an excellent resource book, not just for the children but for the adults helping them as well. Not only will it help the adult understand what and how the children are being taught at school, but it will help them demonstrate and discuss the problems the children might be having with their homework. It will also help to build confidence, reducing stress and makes the core science subjects clear and accessible so that science homework is no longer a dreaded task to be feared but one to be embraced and attacked with gusto.
If you are looking for easy but very informative ways to support your children with their home-schooling or their homework that supports the UK National Curriculum up to GCSE level, then we can highly recommend Help Your Kids with Science, along with the rest of the Help Your Kids With … series, as it is clear, concise and written in plain English and encourages students to work together with their parents to make sense of the science topics on the school syllabus.
There is even a very handy reference section including a glossary of key scientific terms and symbols.
Rating: 5/5
RRP: £14.99
Available to buy from Amazon here.
