Helping your child learn at home

You don’t need to be a teacher. A few habits — short sessions, real breaks, stepping back when stuck — do most of the work. Here’s the how; the map handles the what.

You don’t need to be a teacher

Schools have lesson plans, whiteboards and thirty kids. You have one child and ten spare minutes. That’s not a worse version of school — it’s a different thing, and for practising one skill at a time, it’s often better.

Your job at home isn’t to explain everything. It’s to notice where your child is, pick the next small step, and keep it pleasant enough that they’ll do it again tomorrow. Every skill page on this map gives you the step, the signs they’ve got it, and a question to try together. This page is about the rest.

Little and often beats long and rare

Ten focused minutes most days does more than an hour on Sunday. Memory is built by coming back to things — practise a skill, leave it, return a few days later. If it’s slightly harder to remember the second time, that’s the practice working, not failing.

A good default at primary age: 10–20 minutes, one skill, then stop. Younger children sit at the shorter end. If your child wants to keep going, let them — but let them be the one asking.

One skill at a time

Every topic page on this map is one step. Pick one, and resist adding “while we’re here, let’s also…”. A child who nails one thing finishes feeling capable. A child who gets a tour of everything they can’t do yet finishes feeling behind.

The checklist on each skill page tells you what “got it” looks like. When they can do those things without help — not just once, but again the next day — move on.

Breaks are part of learning, not a pause in it

The brain files things away when you stop, not while you push. If a session is going badly, a snack and a run around the garden will do more than five more minutes of trying. Come back later, or come back tomorrow — the skill will still be there.

Watch for the signs that the tank is empty: silly answers, fidgeting, sudden fascination with the cat. That’s not naughtiness. That’s your cue.

Stuck usually means a missing step, not a lazy child

This is what the map is for. Every skill lists what it builds on. If your child can’t do equivalent fractions, the problem is usually not equivalent fractions — it’s something one or two steps back, like what the bottom number means.

So when you hit a wall: don’t repeat the explanation louder. Open the skill’s page, look at what it builds on, and check those first. Finding the real gap turns a frustrating week into a ten-minute fix.

End on a win

Stop while it’s still going well — ideally right after something worked. The last minute of a session is the feeling your child carries into the next one. “That was easy, we stopped too soon” is exactly the feeling you want.

If a session collapses anyway (they do), end it kindly and without a verdict. Tomorrow is a new session.

Mistakes are information

A wrong answer tells you precisely what to work on next — that’s a gift, not a setback. Try to react to errors with curiosity (“interesting — how did you get that?”) rather than correction. Children who feel safe being wrong attempt harder things.

Praise the work, not the brain: “you kept going” and “you tried another way” wear better than “you’re so smart”.

Working ahead, working behind

Both are normal. The ages on this map are typical, not deadlines — and not speed limits either.

If your child is hungry for more, follow the map forward: each skill lists what it unlocks. Going a year ahead is fine, as long as each step is genuinely solid before the next. Depth beats speed — a child who can explain why is further ahead than a child who has merely met the topic.

If your child is behind where you’d hoped, the same map works in reverse. Step back to the skills that are secure, rebuild from there, and ignore the year labels while you do it.

Keeping track of where you’re up to

Every topic page has an optional tick-off: not yet, getting there, or got it, plus the “how to tell they’ve got it” checklist. It’s entirely optional, and it saves only in this browser, on this device — there’s no account, and we can’t see what you record. Nothing is sent anywhere. Where we’re up to → is the setup page: name a profile, fast-forward to roughly where your child’s at, then watch their map fill in.

Because it only lives in your browser, it’s worth getting into the habit of exporting a backup now and then — a small file you can keep anywhere, or bring back in later. The site will nudge you to do this after you’ve ticked off a few skills.

If you use Safari and don’t visit for a week or so, Safari may clear what’s saved — download your file now and then, like keeping the fridge drawing.

A shape for a session that works

Not a rule — a starting point:

Same time each day helps more than you’d expect. After breakfast, after school with a snack, before dinner — pick one and let it become furniture.

This page is general guidance, not a program — you know your child. If learning at home is consistently distressing for your child or for you, a GP is the right next conversation — or their teacher, if they’re at school.