Most teachers are happy if you want to make an appointment to talk to them.

Or the book "Maths for mums and dads" is useful.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Maths-Mums-Dads-Mike-Askew/dp/02240...

https://www.amazon.co.uk/More-Maths-Mums-Dads-Askew/dp/02240...

Maths for Mums and Dads:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Maths-Mums-Dads-Mike-Askew/dp/022408...

http://www.amazon.com/Maths-Mums-Dads-Mike-Askew/dp/02240863...

The Number Devil is often recommended:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Number-Devil-Mathematical-Adventure/...

http://www.amazon.com/Number-Devil-Mathematical-Adventure/dp...

How young are the children? What you can do for very young children is get some small stones and paint numbers and letters on them (use child friendly paint, obviously) and then use a toy dump truck and toy loader to move them around, and start recognising the numbers and letters, and start very simple spelling and arithmetic. Or you can paint numbers onto toy cars and use paint numbers onto a car park.

Cuisenaire rods are fun and useful.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Legler-Multiplication-Sticks-Educati...

Sometimes they come with books and you probably want to ignore most of the book. (Because knowing that green + red = blue is not useful.)

You can bulk buy dice. Chessex sometimes sell "pound of dice", and these are lovely tactile clicky clacky things. You can use these for games or rewards.

Amazon.com:

http://www.amazon.com/Help-Your-Kids-Math-problem/dp/0756649...

http://www.amazon.com/Math-Power-Child-Dover-Mathematics/dp/...

http://www.amazon.com/What-Help-Child-Math-Myself/dp/0974168...

Amazon.co.uk

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Help-Your-Kids-Math-Problem/dp/07566...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Math-Power-Child-Dover-Mathematics/d...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/What-Help-Child-Math-Myself/dp/09741...

My favourites are the Rob Eastaway / Mike Askew books:

http://www.amazon.com/More-Maths-Mums-Askew-Eastaway/dp/0224...

http://www.amazon.com/Maths-Mums-Dads-Rob-Eastaway-ebook/dp/...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Maths-Mums-Dads-Mike-Askew/dp/022408...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/More-Maths-Mums-Dads-Askew/dp/022409...

(Amazon: Please have some really easy way to give me a clean url for sharing. I am literally sending potential customers to your website.)

I thought that too. My mistake was in confusing the speed of the "wave" or signal (which travels at about 50% to 99% the speed of light) and the speed of the electron, which is quite slow.

I think I'm confused about waves because of early childhood text books that had person A's mouth, then some lines increasing in size (like the lines on WIFI symbols) and then person B's ear. I now think of waves as moving forward, pushing forward, rather than up and down.

Is there a version of "Maths for mums and dads" that covers science?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Maths-Mums-Dads-Mike-Askew/dp/022408...