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For those thinking about setting up a maths club...

My girls' school offers 'clubs' twice a year where teachers/parents offer a range of clubs to students - this might be screenprinting, museum visits, karate, etc. Clubs is offered 2 hours a week for 3 weeks. Despite the protests from my girls who wanted me to put on a cooking club, I offered to run a maths club. Only 2 students signed up, both girls. While a little disappointed initially with the uptake (although I faced tough competition from scrapbooking, stained glass windows and the baking club!) I ran this little club with great gusto. And loved it.

One of the teachers approached me to keep the club going each Monday in her class (happens to be Miss 7's class). Fabbo! And then I approached Miss 5's classroom teacher and offered to run it in her class too. She gladly accepted and wants me to offer extension maths.

I'm hoping that this is the foothold into a permanent maths club at the school. It doesn't take much effort and it's very rewarding. And so goes the ol' adage... "if you want something done, do it yourself!".

jojo

Congrats!!!! Way to go!!!!

What do you do for maths club? What's involved in running it?

This sounds like something that could be fun for DS, who loves math and is having trouble finding friends. We homeschool so I'd offer it to the homeschool community locally...if I even had a clue what to do.

G'day JoAnnQN,

It's not that hard to set up. I find that routine really helps, so I always start the sessions in the same way with a group activity like "guess the number" (someone picks a number between 1-100 and kids get to ask questions to deduce the answer). I then set-up a "circuit" of activities - some movement activities (like hopscotch for timestables), a card game like uno, a worksheet, a board game of snakes and ladders, a scavenger hunt, etc. and let the kids have 10 mins at each station.

My current format is that I pull 2 kids out of class and for 40 minutes we:

* played pick the number (1 turn each)
* rolled dice and added, subtracted, multiplied, add then doubled the numbers shown
* did 1-5 timestable game on www.multiplication.com
* Beat the Clock timestable worksheet

The session moves quickly and the main focus is on developing mental maths strategies and timestable drills (without the kids knowing that they're getting drilled). I wish I could offer it every day...

jojo

I'd be trying to start a homeschool club, specifically for my son, who is 7 and going into 5th grade math. So, I'd be shooting for kids who already know their basic math facts though long division. I was thinking of math games/movie followed by contest book questions from a source like The Math League.

Do you think that would work?

Absolutely that would work! The kids I'm working with are 7-9 years old and range from year 2 to year 5 extension maths. There's a wide range of abilities. I'm only tasked to do mental maths skills (add, subtract, multiply, divide) and timestables. So my focus has been on creative and timed drills to develop maths facts and mental maths strategies. I'm keeping things targeted and tailored to each child so that they really get something from the session. This means learning on the run about where each kid is up to, so I choose scale-able activities (like having up to 8-sided dice so I can make something like the dice game challenging for every ability).

Don't know where you are JoAnnQN, but have a look at your local council and see if they have a community grant that would help you set up a club at your local community centre. You could use the grant to pay for room hire and equipment and an advertisement in the local paper that might help you attract other homeschoolers interested in maths. A $1,000 grant will be enough to make the club sustainable. It sounds complicated, but it's not.

jojo

Sounds complicated? Uh, yeah! And a tad bit overwhelming especially since I was thinking about 6-8 kids max at my home. Of course, part of that is due to the fact that I've never done anything like that and part of it is due to the fact that I'll be homeschooling with a newborn/infant next year. I think trying to make a big, public club like that would be taking on way more than I can handle next year. But I'll keep the idea in mind for the future. I would have never thought of it on my own.