Advice on use

For any tutorial, look through the whole video first to get an overview of what it contains and its structure. (This is good practice when attacking any maths problem).

You can then focus in on any part or parts that address your needs and watch them as many times as you want. The tutorials don't answer back and tell you, 'I've shown you that six times already!'

And, of course, you can silence my voice when you've had enough of it.

Try not to be a passive learner. Try copying some of the diagrams/illustrations to help get images into your brain. When appropriate you could try using some of the apparatus shown, such as the base ten/Dienes blocks (look online for suppliers) or the square counters I use to show number patterns. This introduces kinaesthetic input to the brain

Try saying key facts or procedures when you are looking at them. There is strong evidence that, for some people, hearing information in their own voice helps retention. It’s called 'self-voice echo.' As with any strategy we need to remember that, ‘Nothing works for everyone’ so we try out different approaches.

Maths, builds so you may need to take a quick refresher look at a previous topic. One of the most frequent comments I have heard over the decades from parents and teachers is, 'You remembered this yesterday. Why don't you remember it today?' Again, the videos facilitate those refreshers and reviews.

That last advice links to another principle, 'Go back further than you think you should.' The foundations must be secure. For example, if you can't understand how 7 can be broken down into 5 + 2, you are likely to find that breaking down numbers when doing harder additions is difficult.

Maths is a great subject. Too many people think it is about remembering stuff and often it is taught that way, but …. you can use maths facts and concepts to work out other facts and concepts ….. that’s the way you should learn maths.

Order

Most likely the order for the tutorial topics should be (but do remember children and adults are individuals):

• Understanding number
• Place value
• Basic facts
• Addition and subtraction
• Decimals
• Multiplication and division
• Fractions
• Ratio
• Area and perimeter
• Algebra

(Note that algebra will be very difficult if you don't understand numbers and operations and is a prime example of the need to go back to the foundations).

This order applies to the worksheets, too, which are purchased alongside the pertinent videos.

Every video has a 'What will I learn?' button.

Worksheets

These make much use of the key numbers (1, 2, 5, 10, 20 ....) so that children (and adults) can focus on the procedures and the underlying concepts. Look at the wrong answers and try and diagnose the errors. There is a chapter on diagnosing errors in my assessment book, 'More Trouble with Maths.'

There are almost always two versions of a Worksheet so that you can track progress.

Design

The images in the videos, and the design of the Worksheets are designed to NOT be age specific

They are not cluttered so that the focus is on the concept, so sorry, no cute cartoons.

The videos can, of course, be paused, re-run, be used with sound or without sound. Not easy to achieve in a classroom/lecture room with a teacher! You have a large amount of control over the pace of your learning.

These are deliberately designed as instructional tutorials. They are not games or cartoons. They are for learning the basics and can be well supported by other input.