School holidays are the perfect time to include mathematics in everyday life without formal lessons, worksheets, or pressure. In this conversation with Luke Stoley from Maths Pathway, we explore how parents can help children maintain their maths knowledge through simple, fun hands-on maths activities that are easy to implement into their day.
Rather than “planting” new concepts during the break, Luke encourages parents to simply water the plant by keeping existing knowledge alive, encouraging curiosity, and giving children meaningful opportunities to use the maths they already know.
It’s one simple way to help your child stay confident, curious, and connected to maths over the break.
Why Does Maths Over The Holidays Matter?
Over any break from formal school, children naturally forget information that isn’t regularly used. This is normal; the brain clears unused data. But with maths, that forgotten knowledge often forms the foundation of next year’s learning.
Luke explains that short, spaced exposure to familiar ideas is the most effective way to protect against this “learning decay.” The goal isn’t to teach new content or concepts, but to help children revisit what they know through real-world play and exploration.
A Quick Look at the Brain Science
Luke introduces a few key ideas that explain why these fun hands-on maths activities work:
1. Cognitive Load
Children can’t process too much new information at once. Keeping activities light, simple, and curiosity-driven helps them stay engaged.
2. Spaced Retrieval
Revisiting concepts little by little over time strengthens memory far more than one big practice session. Think a few minutes daily rather than a huge, long session just once a week. This rings true for maths lessons all year and not just in holiday breaks.
3. Prior Knowledge Matters
The stronger a child’s existing maths understanding, the easier next year’s learning will feel. Holiday activities help reinforce and organise this knowledge.
4. Maths Is Everywhere
Luke highlights the reticular activating system, which is the brain’s “noticing filter.” Once a child starts spotting maths in the real world, they begin seeing it everywhere. This is exactly what we want to encourage.
How To Help Your Child Build A Positive Maths Identity
One negative maths experience can have a lasting emotional impact. Over the holidays, we can create low-pressure, positive moments with maths by nurturing three key area:
Curiosity
Make use of encouraging questions like:
- Why does this work?
- What if I changed this?
- Is that always true?
Courage
Letting them take risks, try ideas, experiment, and learn from mistakes.
Kindness (to themselves)
Understanding that mistakes don’t reflect ability. Mistakes are a natural and essential part of learning.
What Fun Holiday Maths Could Look Like
Use Open-Ended Questions
Instead of a list of problems like:
4 + 6, 7 + 3, 8 + 2 …
Try one rich, open question that invites exploration, conversation, and creativity.
Example:
“How many rectangles can you make with a perimeter of 24 cm?”
This single question encourages children to:
- Experiment with different lengths and widths
- Think about addition and subtraction
- Consider perimeter, measurement, and patterns
- Follow their curiosity into deeper questions like:
- What is the longest rectangle possible?
- What about the widest?
- This transforms maths from worksheets into playful problem-solving.
To watch the full conversation and see some of the hands on examples referenced with Luke from Maths Pathway, click the video play button below.
Try Visual Puzzles
Luke also shares the activity:
“How many squares can you find in this picture?”
Children often start by counting the smallest squares, then later notice larger squares formed by combining them. These activities strengthen spatial reasoning and flexible thinking, which are essential maths skills that feel like a game.
Setting Up the Right Learning Environment
Luke encourages parents to:
- Remind children that their performance on a single task doesn’t reflect their intelligence.
- Avoid stepping in as the “answer key.”
- Encourage children to prove or test their own ideas instead.
Self-checking builds independence, confidence, and mathematical reasoning.
Maths Pathway Holiday Resources
Luke also shares that Maths Pathway provides a range of resources families can use over the break to keep maths active and enjoyable. These materials are designed to support spaced practice, real-world connections, and low-stress learning.
To grab a copy of the download provided, simply scan the QR code that is shown in the video or seek out the files in the HRF Community Group.
Holiday learning doesn’t need to be formal. With fun hands-on maths activities, you can help your child stay confident, capable, and connected to maths, all while keeping the holiday mood relaxed and playful. I particularly love that many of the games Luke shared could easily be played at the park, waiting in line for something or even sitting in the car.
Learn More About Maths Pathway
A huge thank you to Luke and the Maths Pathway team for providing another helpful session for our community. If you’d like to explore how this program can assist your homeschool journey, visit the Maths Pathway listing in the HRF directory for complete details and resources
