With three balls of wool and lots of ingenuity, this mother gets down to work and sparks a small revolution.

Each unit in the "New Abacus" programme begins with whole-class teaching. All the direct teaching to introduce a concept is on the front of the Teacher Card; the back has: further teaching; references to differentiated practical activities, workbook or textbook pages and photocopy masters.

"What's up? What's happened? What's wrong? How do you feel?" Pan, the hero of the story, never stops asking questions.

This text provides thorough coverage of algebra and number, carefully graded exercises to give pupils all the practice they need, and clear explanations of mathematical ideas to help understand them.