"We didn't do maths today we made cakes instead"..

[JakeBullet]

So says DS aged 9 blissfully unaware that he has weighed, measured, added, subtracted and got the ingredients in the right quantities.

DS has some mild learning difficulties and is anxious about numeracy but if you make it functional he learns without even realising it. Wish maths had been like that in my day.

Oh. That's really lovely. I thought this was going to be a rant thread about schools changing the timetable.

Me too Mardy. That's great Jake. Did he get to bring any home?

very lovely

Love it!

If only they did the same in KS3...

I like stories like that!

Hope he enjoyed his cakes.

I once had a parent storming in because she thought we weren't doing maths that week. We were 'faffing around making rock buns. Pissing about with water and making milkshakes.' They weren't much happier when I said we were learning about weight, capacity, units of measurement and scales.

I'm glad to see some parents understand!

We make ice cream in KS3 Science. And pancakes.

alphabite. Did they not get it?! Stupid people.

I've had the same argument with DS1 about his numeracy homework not being numeracy because it was "just about money"

Baking is a fantastic teaching tool.

A few years back, I did baking with my intervention group. My 'grandma' and I had a recorded phone conversation in which I told her I'd damaged her sacred recipe. She 'couldn't remember' the exact recipe, but remembered a whole load of random clues about it!

First, the children had to piece the recipe back together, using grandma's clues (half of weight of one ingredient to the other, etc). Then, we made them (accurately reading scales). Then, after they were baked, the PTA wanted them iced in different fractions of the batch.

So a whole load of maths. I was grey by the end of the day, especially as I let them lick the icing off the bowls, but they loved it.

juniper - that sounds like an amazing lesson. I think it helps enormously to make maths less abstract.

No they didn't fuckadoodle. Maths is just about adding and taking away (in their eyes!)

I find that very sad, Alphabite. I can't believe that any child wouldn't learn at least some maths from a baking session. And, if they knew it all before, it does reinforce the lesson in a practical application. My DD is in Y10, but I would've loved her to have done this sort of thing.

I was about to tell you off op, thinking you were a numpty parent on one who couldn't see all the mathematics going in in baking.

I use baking to teach DS his times tables.

I thought it was going to be a complaint too. Well done to the school.

My dd is H.ed and we do all our lessons (well as many as we can) through practical applications. Its so much fun and she is learning alot.Hope he enjoyed it Jake

A colleague has been advised by her mum to get some little maths books for her DS (3.5) so he will "be ready for school".

I suggested baking, counting out one biscuit for everyone in the family, that kind of thing. Much more fun, and much more meaningful!

Great thread indeed. I was trying to explain this week that my tiny 3.5 year old learnt best from experience and context not rote learning.

Smug Mummy's with kids who remember letters, number sequences etc much more than my DD.

They soon saw that my daughter, who can't count to twenty quite perfectly, can count up to six items by sight alone, no fingers needed. Baking /cooking/counting fruit in to bowl etc used a lot in this house!!!!

I hope my DDs school is as inventive as yours Op.

My 3 year old can add and take away by the use of chocolate buttons. It's great. :o

Oh I bloody love my DS's school, he is autistic and they are so brilliant about adapting things for him.

Yes he bought home chocolate cornflake cakes (two). Did he share with me? Did he heck lol.

Yes, I got it alphabite.... cannot believe parents don't.

No definitely NOT a moaning thread, I think my DS's teachers are brilliant. He is in a mainstream school and I know they differentiate really well for children right across the board academically. My son might always struggle with numeracy but if he understands it well enough to weigh and measure ingredients then he can at least feed himself .

I'm a TA and I had a parent insisting that she saw me the other morning. I was bricking myself, thinking she was going to tell me off for being silly during our literacy intervention sessions.

Her son is a kinaesthetic learner. so I'd put together all sorts of physical games to play, word related of course, so he could learn his on-sight words more thoroughly. Luckily she was chuffed that he was happy in at least one of his lessons. I felt so sad that her son valued the 20-30 minutes he had with me twice a week more than the rest of his working day... :(

Flapper. That is sad. What's a kinaesthetic learner?

wow, brilliant. is this very unusual or are lots of schools this creative in teaching maths? can't imagine my dd taking to it unless in this kind of practical way. (she is in year one and I have NO idea what she does at school...)

I am trying to find more ways to make DD's learning more practical. As she seems to be more visual learner (Asp/ADHD combo). The school are fairly good anyway, but we do a lot of things like baking and sorting out lunchboxes and filling fruit bowls and deciding how much money we need to save for certain things we want (and how many week's pocket money that is - pocket money is worth it for this alone!).

Juniper, that sounds like a FANTASTIC day (I hope you had plenty of buns to recover!!).

And Flapperghasted, I am delighted the parent not only saw the good in what you were doing, but TOLD you as well.