As a mum of a child with special educational needs, I always ponder the ‘what skills does he need for life?’ question when it comes to his education. This thinking lead us to deciding that mainstream school was the best place for Lance - for life he will need understanding of social rights and wrongs - and what better place to learn than from a classroom full of peers who will keep him on the straight and narrow!

Now with my The Maths Mum® hat on too, I am asking the question ‘what maths skills does he need for life?’ and is the national curriculum content right for him? I don’t know if Lance will sit a GCSE in maths or not. I’m not really bothered either way. But does Lance need the maths skills to enable him to live independently, to manage his day to day finances, to understand the value and cost of every day items, to know that he will need more that £5 to take his girlfriend out for a coffee, to read the bus timetable and get to work on time, to remember my birthday and get me a present… hell YES! To all of this and much more!

So when Lance’s Learning Skills Assistant (LSA) asked me to help with the differentiated curriculum for maths, I jumped at the chance and I’ve waded in to my neck. I never do things half heartedly. What started as a little project is quickly becoming a maths toolkit for the rest of Lance’s time at school. I am now mid way through writing a ‘maths for life’ curriculum for children with Down syndrome (DS). Taking it from the pre-number concepts through to number sense and place value; from counting in bigger numbers to calculator skills.

I am pulling together information from books published all over the world - books on children with DS, books on learning difficulties and maths, books on early years intervention, book on inclusive maths exercises, and books on dyslexia and dyscalculia as well as following the national curriculum guidelines as published by the government.

I’m making ‘Blue Peter’ type resources along they way to help with the learning. Children with DS are very visual learning and sometimes we need enhance the classroom resources with something very specific. Like the place value mats that I made at the weekend. Unlike the ones that are in the classroom these have got individual markings on them to aid with the visual learning. I am taking them in on Thursday to do a lesson with Lance and his best friend (who also has DS) and train the LSAs on this approach to teaching place value.

The Maths Mum® is passionate about bringing the love to maths to everyone… including those with learning difficulties. I will keep you posted on my progress and if you are interested in being part of an extended trial group please let me know.

Place value mats with my laminated ‘sticks’.

Ping pong balls and pop cake silicon moulds for number recognition and basic addition and subtraction.

Maths for LIFE... not for GCSE