Addition & Subtraction
A number bond is a pair that makes a target: 7 and 3 make 10, 60 and 40 make 100. Know them without counting, and every sum and difference after them gets faster.
This path builds the whole of addition and subtraction, in the order that builds: from the bonds, into written column methods, all the way to negative numbers. Start wherever it feels right and work along the line.
The path
Each step is a short game you can play in five minutes. They start with the bonds everything rests on, put them to work within a hundred, move into the formal written column method, and end where subtraction goes next: below zero.
The foundation
Number bonds are the quiet engine behind mental maths. A child who knows that 7 and 3 make 10 can work out 17 plus 3, 70 plus 30, and 100 minus 3 without slowing down. Miss them, and every later step carries a hidden counting tax.
Five minutes a day along this path builds the fluency the curriculum quietly assumes. When these feel easy, the rest of the games by year are waiting.
Keep exploring
Each path takes one strand of maths and lays its games out in the order they build, the same way this one does.
From doubling and the first tables to long multiplication and long division, table by table.
Follow the path →
From sharing a shape in half to converting freely between fractions, decimals and percentages.
From counting to twenty all the way to reading, writing and rounding numbers in the ten millions.
From recognising coins and notes to adding amounts, solving problems and working out change.
From o'clock and half past to reading an analogue clock to the exact minute.