Home education

Many years ago, in 1986, I started to learn Mandarin Chinese. I found the language quite hard to learn until I realised that you sing it rather than speak it, at which point it became much easier. At the end of the academic year, I felt that having been introduced to the language I was now ready to start studying it. I decided that I should repeat the year. So I went to enrol for the first year course the following September. Unfortunately, the Chinese language courses were on a two year cycle. One year the college would teach Beginner’s Mandarin and Advanced Cantonese, and the next Beginner’s Cantonese and Advanced Mandarin. So the first year course was not available to me. At this point I gave up, and went off to learn German instead. A couple of years ago, I met a West Indian gentleman who was an interpreter working for the National Health Service. He translated between English and Mandarin, and taught colloquial Mandarin. He explained to me that I should not have given up on my studies, I should have persevered. Had I done so, I would have spent the last 18 years working on the language, and I would by now be fluent. The drip feed over time would have made me competent. The same is true of maths. So many pupils struggle at maths, and then give up. If they were to keep plodding on, over time they would develop. But they don’t get the opportunity. The curriculum at school moves on year by year, and pupils who have not grasped some basic concept are not given the opportunity to practice that basic topic and achieve at that level, they are required to do new work. When that work relies on the foundation of the previous concepts, pupils who lack the basic understanding of the previous concept cannot succeed at the higher level. However, studying is not confined to school. If the school is not providing a child with support at the level the child needs then the child can make amends by studying at home. Unfortunately so often, parents are not well equipped to help a child study, and children are reluctant to do schoolwork that they don’t enjoy in what they consider their free time. Puppet Maths was created to address this problem. At Puppet Maths we provide a resource that supports parents who wish to teach their children at home and we engage pupils in a way that gives them the opportunity to learn in a fun manner, and to practice what they learn.