A few minutes on facts your child already understands is usually more useful than a long worksheet once a week. The aim is for the facts to come to mind easily, without pressure.

Choose the right facts

Ask school which small set to practise. This might be number bonds, multiplication facts or related division facts. Do not introduce a set the child has not yet understood in class.

Practise for three to five minutes on two or three days. Suitable activities include:

• turning over two cards and making a target total;

• rolling dice and stating a related addition or multiplication fact;

• matching multiplication and division cards;

• answering a short set, then correcting errors together.

Respond to mistakes

Ask how the child could work the answer out from a fact they know. If 7 × 6 is forgotten, use 5 × 6 and add two more sixes, or use another relationship taught by school.

Timing is optional and should come only once they are getting the answers right. Compare the child only with their own previous work and stop if timing creates anxiety or guessing.

If the same facts are still hard to remember after several weeks of short practice, ask school to look again at how they are being taught, rather than doing more practice at home.

Games and resources

• A pack of playing cards and a dice are enough for most fact games.

• Hit the Button is a free one-minute online game from Topmarks for ages 6 to 11. It covers number bonds, doubling and halving, and times tables. It is timed, so save it for facts your child already knows well.

• If school uses an app such as Times Tables Rock Stars (paid), ask whether your child has a login to use at home.

• The National Numeracy Family Maths Toolkit has free activities for using number at home. You need to give an email address to get them.

Talamo has no commercial relationship with any of the organisations named here. We suggest them only because we think they could be useful to families.