I have a son called Jonah, who is currently in the first year of his GCSE studies. Up until the last year or so he has been doing well at school, but the usual distractions of a boy his age are now starting to have an effect. As a result his school work has suffered a little, however it is his understanding of maths that is causing me the most concern.
Maths has always been a bit of s struggle for Jonah, with his strengths lying in more creative areas. Unfortunately with two other kids under the age of 10 and a husband that works long hours, I simply haven’t been able to give as much time as I would have liked to sit with Jonah and work through the important areas; so have been looking at a few online resources to help.
This first site that I stumbled across was www.schoolworkout.co.uk which has a range of revision notes, questions and old papers. Although though the site is quite dated in its appearance, we did find some useful stuff here. The only problem was that as soon as I left Jonah to his own devices he would easily become distracted by something else.
BBC
I decided to look for something else that had a better chance of holding his attention for longer and at the suggestion of a friend we gave the BBC site a try. I have to say that I was most impressed with their Bitesize vehicle that allows you to tackle topics in manageable portions. Many of the topics have the option to first revise, then do an activity before completing a test at the end. Unfortunately my son doesn’t quite share my enthusiasm and even though the BBC site includes videos and interactive capabilities, he still gets distracted if I leave him alone for too long.
Online Math Tutor
I figured that maybe the best solution was to see about hiring a maths tutor for a couple of hours a week and had a look for one in the local area. Whilst I was looking I came across a company called iTutorMaths that provide online maths tutor services.
We signed up for 10 sessions that each last an hour. So far Jonah has sat through the first two, and whilst getting information out of him is pretty hard, he seems have to benefitted from them. The fact that he knows we have paid for the service and possibly because there is a teacher involved seems to have motivated him a little and he is giving it a chance.
The classes are delivered over the internet using VOIP and an onscreen whiteboard that the tutor and kids can all write on. I’m hoping that the fact the others taking part in the session want to learn will have a positive impact on my boy. At least he won’t be getting distracted by other kids that aren’t interested in learning. Fingers crossed it works out and we end up with mathematical genius, although I’d be more than happy if he just gets a decent GCSE out of it.
Article by Patricia Jackson
Patricia Ellen Jackson is a housewife and mother of three, who one day hopes to get back to her career. For the moment she is content to focus on providing a stable home life for her children and husband. Amongst the bedlam of family life, Patricia is striving to improve her skill base for her return to work – especially her writing abilities.
Patricia has written 1 awesome articles for Natural Family Today.
