Dr.
Des Rainey
PhD (Western Reserve,
Cleveland, Ohio),
MA (Victoria,
Wellington)
Contact:
Doc. Rainey Ltd.
15A Coronation Rd
Glenfield, Auckland
New Zealand.
Tel:+64 9 4198356
USA fax (208)4415510
Des started his career as a teacher. After gaining a doctorate in psychology at Western Reserve University in Ohio he worked in New Zealand in senior educational and clinical psychology positions including 10 years as head of psychology at Auckland Hospital.
Des invented the Flick Stick Fun-Abacus and over several following years developed the rich fund of games and activities that drive its use in almost all areas of early maths. He and his wife Diane formed Doc Rainey Ltd to market his products.
Des is known also for his talents as a singer-songwriter and his lifelong interest in folk music. A keen member of a Toastmasters he has won several awards, with humour his forte! He presently offers 'maths and music' evenings to parent-teacher groups.
In 2007 Des completed the children's musicals, 'Hoppity' and 'Bad Bad Sir Brian', based on the poems of A A Milne. Currently these are available only in New Zealand, where Milne is in the Public Domain.
Doc Rainey Ltd's award in the Great New Zealand Business Venture Competition of 2002 was in the face of entries from 1500 businesses. Judges were unanimous in praise of the Flick Stick and Des's innovative teaching methods.
Des says, 'I have been a one-man band but now have two daughters pitching in and as luck has it, they are both trained teachers. They have found my methods and materials excellent in their classroom teaching.''
Ceinwen Rainey is
the main presenter in our explanatory
Flick Stick video. Anna will be our presenter in a planned video
for parents of pre-school children.
New pre-school product
Trials are presently underway in kindergartens of our new 'Kindergarten' or 'Pre-School' packs. One is designed for home use and particularly suits where a parent has time to spend a little time now and again helping a child through maths games and activities. Another is designed for use in kindergartens, play centres, kohanga reo and similar.
New school product
Our new 'Early Numeracy Pack' - for children from New Entrants through all of Level 1 and beyond - is in forms to suit parents and schools. It takes children through preparatory activities then provides all the games and activities to develop basic fact knowledge to 10 then to 20 as well as get into almost all areas of early maths.
FROM ABU DHABI
'The parents of
children in my class
readily gave permission for the use of photos
of their
children! They were so pleased with Flick Stick and 'Kiwi Math'
results.'
Anna Baty,
Emirates National School, Abu Dhabi
'DREAMLAND
PRESS'
Dreamland Press Ltd, founded October 2007, takes over the marketing
of all Des Rainey music.