Am starting to have a slight panic attack about helping dd1 with her maths

[nutcracker]

Dd1 is 9 and in year 4. Went to her parents meeting tonight and she is doing great in everything especially English.

Her teacher said that her maths is also great but that she lacks confidence and always assumes that she will get the answer wrong before she even starts. Thing is, when she does do it she is nearly always right.

She has started to do fractions and she was doing her homework last night and she got stuck and started to get upset and I wasn't sure what the answer was and so couldn't help

I am awful at maths. Like dd I assume I cannot do it and start to panic before I have even finnished reading the question.
Also though, like dd, if it's explained to me properly and I do it a few times over, then I get it, only thing is though that I forget it again quite easily.

Dd is gonna need help to be confident with her maths, and how can I do that when I don't how to do some of it now and she's only in yr 4.

[Hallgerda]

I wouldn't assume the help necessarily has to come from you. I have a Ph.D in the subject and my parents would not have been either confident or competent to help me with maths homework (my father failed O'Level and my mother got 45%.) Encourage her to tell the teacher if she has a problem (but to explain clearly what the problem really is. If she is thinking clearly enough about how to explain it to the teacher, she may sort it out for herself in the process).

If you have problems with Year 4 maths, perhaps you could look into basic maths classes for yourself (to improve your own life, not for your daughter).

[nutcracker]

Yes maybe I should, makes me feel so thick though.

Everyday Maths I am fine with and given the time I can work out most things, but in a class situation I fall apart and normally end up close to tears.

For example, last year I was meant to go back to college (didn't in the end but thats another story). As part of the interview we were all given a maths work book to go through as the course would contain some maths.

I flicked through it and felt ill straight away. I toko it home and a friend of mine sat and went through it with me and it was great. Once she had shown me a few times, I got it and could do it easily and quickly (it was long division or something).
Fast forward to when I actually went to the first maths class and I just fell apart, couldn't remember what to do, and was nearly in tears, felt so so stupid.

I want to be able to help dd, especially as she does panic too.

[popsycal]

let me post a link
parents help booklet
not being patronising - it is great

[mamama]

Part of the problem often is that children are taught things differently now. I would ask the teacher if she has anything to show you how DD is being taught fractions etc, so you can see the process that DD has to go through to get the answer. When I was teaching (Y4), parents would sometimes come in and say 'Can you show me how X is supposed to do this? It's different to the way I was taught and I don't want to confuse him' etc and I'd go through it with them. I'm sure your dd's teacher would be happy to show you.

There are some good websites that explain primary maths quite well but I don't know them. I'm hoping other MNers will pop along soon and put links in for you. I'll have a look online later and see what I can find for you.

[nutcracker]

Oh that would be great Popsy, thankyou.

[popsycal]

open and print the 4th and 5th links especially on that page
also give me a shout......
i teach year 5 maths

[mamama]

There you are, popsycal is already on the case!

[Whizzz]

I think there are quite a lot of sites online that can be of help too
like this stuff

[nutcracker]

and mamama also

As soon as her teacher mentioned the fractions, tonight I felt myself start to panic and my throat went all tight, so silly really but I was terrified she'd think I was so stupid.

[nutcracker]

Ahhh thankyou they will be great, will print off now.

Popsy, you may regret telling me that

[popsycal]

the third link is alos good - I use them as a basis to send home homework help sheets for parents and our parents LOVE them

[popsycal]

am here most night between 6:45 and 7:15 at the very least

[mamama]

I'm sure the teacher won't think you're stupid. I had to relearn how to do all this stuff when I began teaching & I'm sure other teachers had to as well, so don't worry. It is worse when parents pretend they know what they're doing and end up confusing their child because they won't ask for help.

My school used to hold a maths open evening to show parents how maths is taught these days- we gave handouts so they could refer to them when helping their children at home.

Have a look at the link popsycal put on - and you can always ask specific maths questions on here if you don't want to go into school - there are lots of primary school teachers on here!

[popsycal]

tell me what fractions stuff she is doing?
is it factions of numbers? (think that is coming up soon...)

[marthamoo]

Ooh, I've bookmarked those links - ds1 is Year 5 too and the maths he has is very hard (well, it is to a non mathematical person like me). I've had good help on here when he's been stuck with a particular thing and I haven't been able to help him, nutty.

[popsycal]

thiose lnks really ARE very good
do shout though if you need something specific
it does start to get tricky in year 5

[marthamoo]

You're telling me, popsy...I really struggled with blimmin' magic numbers.

[popsycal]

[nutcracker]

I can't get your link to work Whizz.

I'm not even sure I know how to explain what she is doing in fractions. She is doing halves and quarters and eighths....that doesn't make sense does it ??

See I started to panic just trying to explain that.

[popsycal]

that does make sense nutty
hwat exactly is she doing with them? do you have an example of the questions?

[spudmasher]

Use practical things like cake and pizza to help her enjoy fractions first of all. Cut a cake in half, four quarters, then eighths .Ask her if she would rather have one eighth or one quarter! She will soon get that the bottom number means that the fraction is smaller!!!

[popsycal]

I have been on a course today about how maths and english will change from sept. And I am sorry to say that I think year 5 maths will become even more demanding of the children

[nutcracker]

Sorry, meant to reply last night but had a problem with the printer and ended up having a tantrum and switching the whole thing off

Dd has handed her homework book in Popsy but as soon as she gets it back tommorow then I'll let you know what the questions were.

I don't remember doing fractions at her age, but maybe I have just blocked it out. I used to try and get out of school every friday because we had maths tests

[nutcracker]

That website is great Christie, dd has just tried some of the games and we've bookmarked it so we can go back to it later.