Well My Thomas has been plunging into the world of Algebra with help from our Tutor Paul and so here is my list of websites I will be using and manipulating to teach Thomas (and eventually Jessica and Emily) the sometimes confusing and illusive world of Algebra.

(to get to this stage Thomas has already covered areas such as counting to 10, 20, 50 then 100, Times tables up to 12,TH H T U. t  (thousands hundreds tens and units decimal place and tenths) Multiplication, division and subtraction of decimals, Shapes, Complex shapes, 3D Shapes and as ever my children don’t move on until they have acquired a full understanding of the previous step so Thomas can work with times tables both in pattern (2,4,6,8 etc) as well as out of order. He can divide quickly and efficiently without the use of aides and is comfortable with all the number families within the times tables. We will also be covering at the same time Time (as we covered time keeping and telling of time when they were younger in the 12 hour form we will be changing to 24 hour form now) Covering weights (Kg, g, Lb,oz, St etc out side of kitchen learning via recipes they haven’t done much of these to date), measuring distances, liquid measures, volume, Area and circumferences, Diameters etc. hopefully knowing what we have covered may help you decide if you want to do it with your children or if the Algebra sites listed would be too easy for your child.

I always feel it is important to forget about what is considered “normal” for their Age and I work to what is right for them something they pick up on quickly other thing take more time.

Introducing Algebra:

Algebra is all about using a letter to represent a number, then using that number to continue with sums making life easier.

For example:

A Gymnastics class has 37 girls and 24 boys in it.
G (girls)= 37

B (boys)= 24

now to work out the total (T) of children the sum would look like this

T= G + B
So T = 61

Simple right?

so now to the links

http://thomaswhitham.pbworks.com/f/Year7+Algebra+revision+book.pdf – a useful PDF to download and really helps understanding (or did for me) I read through this answer revision sheet and many others to ensure I fully understood what it was I was trying to teach Tom.

http://www.mathsisfun.com/algebra/introduction.html – a good site with a good explanation (better than mine) of why use letters in the first place. although its example of solving a solution seems a little extreme and overly complicated compare to the way I work out x but then that could just be me lol

http://www.softschools.com/math/algebra/ – not all of the links here are suitable for beginners but well worth keeping the link.

http://www.worksheetfun.com/2013/03/22/algebra-solve-solve-equation-5-worksheets/ – brilliant first sheets to get children to think away from numbers and replacing them with pictures or letters in a balancing layout

Algebra – Solve for m – Solve the equation – 6 Worksheets