How many levels should my child do per week?

The books are split into levels. Your child should aim to complete one level per week. In the early levels, this means working on five pages a day, five days a week. Gradually, additional pages will be added, and the work will be completed over six days per week.

Can I receive 48 volumes at once?

If you purchase more than one pack, we will deliver one pack from your order every month. Please contact us if you would like to purchase all 48 volumes and receive them in one go.

The work looks too simple at the early stages. Does it get harder?

It's designed to be easy all the way through. Starting at simple number recognition is essential. If the child doesn't pass through these simple stages, later on you will see holes in the knowledge. Holes represent misunderstanding in the brain, which creates anxiety and fear. Fear blocks learning! Can you imagine your young child progressing from simple counting of dots to simplifying fraction in 48 weeks?

How are the different types of maths represented?

As the levels progress, you will notice that the work becomes more divided into sections. The first few pages deal with recognition of quantity, and counting forwards and backwards. Fractions are started early and simply, and you will see your child’s skills build from recognition of fractions to the addition of fractions within a short space of time. Counting progresses to multiplication tables, which then gives way to simplification of fractions. Addition and subtraction build and number patterns consolidate this.

There seems to be a lot of repetition. Why is this?

Think of repetition in the same way as learning a language. No practice! No proficiency! Encouraging your child and showing interest in what they are doing, as well as giving positive feedback each day, is an essential part of learning. Praise your child for their efforts each day. Give rewards and stickers when each level is completed. When they see it's important to you, their work will be important to them also. 

How long should my child spending working each day?

ViP learning starts with the basics and builds concepts step-by-step onto firm foundations. Your child will be confident and eager to work when they know that their work is easy and quick to do. Each day’s work should take no more than ten minutes to complete in the early stages, and 15 minutes in the later stages.

Can my child go quicker or slower?

Your child can take their time and do the programme more slowly. If they have special educational needs (and I believe that we all do), each level can be repeated until they are confident and ready to move on.

If your child finds numeracy easy, do not be tempted to skip the early stages as they are designed to put building blocks in place for the latter stages. For example, although your child may already be able to count to 100 and do simple addition or subtraction, they may not have fully mastered these concepts. During the process of mastery, your child will begin to build brain pathways which represent unconscious mental images of numbers and this will mean that the latter stages will be easy. Mastery means that concrete brain pathways have been built for that concept. Without mastery, gains are quickly lost and the your child is likely to come unstuck in the latter stages. This can be discouraging the child and may lead them to give up on the programme.

For the best results, start your child on the programme from the age of four give or take a year. It can be started up to the developmental age of eight years old, but even at this age, ensure that your child completes the beginning levels. I do not recommend going any quicker than two levels per week in the early stages as the information will be forgotten (remember the brain pathways) and will make the latter levels more difficult and less enjoyable.

Why are there no words in the programme?

Arithmetics and mathmatics can be viewed like a car. The arithmetic is the engine of the car and mathmatics is the car itself. Your child is the driver. The car won't work without the engine. The engine should work automatically once switched on. If we take time to build the engine, when we eventually learn to turn it on (the maths - word problems), everything should run smoothly.

After completing the ViP course your child will be confident with the building blocks of arithmetic. Arithmetic is the foundation of mathmetical problems. Without building this firm foundation, your child will find adding problems more confusing. The brain will work intuitively with numbers  from quite a young age, if practised often enough. Not so words. Words are abstract concepts for the brain and the understanding of words develops much later and at different rates. Think how some children easily confuse, 'in' and 'out', 'before' and 'after'. Mathmatic world problems require an understanding of language whereas understanding numbers is much easier for the brain. When more abstract concepts i.e. words,  are added to a solid arithmetic base your child will run ahead quickly.