Maths and I Are Definitely Not Friends

I remember sitting in a Maths class as a teenager wondering why on earth I needed to know half the stuff I failing to learn. I had no grand plans to be a mathematician or to do anything clever with numbers. It wasn’t till many many years later I found myself sat at the dining table trying to explain maths to a very bored 15 year old son that I realised that was the I had to learn maths all those years ago……to teach my children. To say maths and I didn’t get on is a bit of an understatement. I hated it, couldn’t understand it and I was sure I didn’t need it.
Now having teenage children myself I do wonder how different my life would have been if I had got on with maths and understood it more. I have been a seamstress, shop manager and an accounts manager in my time and all use maths. I can’t say I have been held back but I also wasn’t skipping around in life quoting pie or working out percentages. Life would just have been easier, more manageable and I might have more money than I do (or don’t to be correct).
But the biggest regret is that I can’t help my children. They are both good kids and eager to learn..its just I can’t help them. I sit down with them and a pile of books and ten minutes in I am out of my depth. There are many good things about being a single parent like having the whole bed or being in charge of the tv remote but it also means there is one person around to cook tea and help with homework whilst do the housework and sneaking in a cup of coffee. The maths, pun so intended, don’t add up. One parent, child/children, homework, tea, housework etc. I am not the only one as I know their Dad is the same on the nights the children are at this.
I guess this is why some very clever person thought up the idea of tutors. Such a godsend and completely out of my single parent reach…well that’s what I thought. I am at a slight disadvantage as I am in the sunny depths of Cornwall but if your London way there is a fantastic scheme happening.It’s called Tutorfair and in a nutshell it works like this – for every fee paying child, they provide free tutoring to a child whose parents can’t afford it via a one-for-one programme in some of London’s most deprived schools. You can see which locations here. I can only imagine how much help one to one tutoring in a subject will help a child. The child who is too scared to ask in class, the child who just can’t get their head around something, the child who thinks they will never be clever…all have a better chance. The parents that know a tutor would help their child but can’t afford it now have some hope. It’s such a simple idea it’s brilliant.