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Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

Primary education

KS1 Maths help

15 replies

thebird · 12/04/2011 21:04

DD1 is in Y2 and has been struggling a bit with her maths. In particular I have noticed she struggles with adding and taking away double digit numbers (e.g 56 + 27=) She is tries to count on in 10s and then add on 1s and gets in a pickle with it all and can't remember where she was and then gets stressed if she gets it wrong.
I have just shown her the old fashioned colum adding way which she picked up straight away and now she is so happy and finds adding this way really easy. I know at school they do mental maths and use number squares which help. She is confident at doing this for smaller numbers or where she knows the number bonds 2,5,10s etc. Is it ok for DD to add in the 'old fashioned' way as long as she gets the right answer?

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NoWittyName · 12/04/2011 21:13

As long as she understands what she is doing and can explain how she does her calculation then any method that arrives at the correct answer is fine.

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thebird · 12/04/2011 21:21

Thanks nowittyname. I've just been so frustrated watching her struggle with the ways she has learned in school and felt like I was cheating showing her the 'old fashioned' way. She gets the concepts of adding on but she just not that accurate when working it out for big numbers. Surely they must learn this way at some point?

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cat64 · 12/04/2011 21:28

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Feenie · 12/04/2011 21:33

Column addition often doesn't help unless there is a basic grounding of place value in place - that's why it is taught mentally first.

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Jezabelle · 12/04/2011 21:41

Column addition comes later when the child has already got a good grasp of number and adding and taking away 2 digit numbers. I would wonder how well she really understood the concept of exactly what she is doing when using this method, dispite being able to do it IYSWIM. I understand that it is frustrating to see your child struggle, but just try and build her confidence slowly. Lots of adding of low 2 digit numbers initially and counting in 10s starting from any 2 digit number.

Have you got a 1-100 number square? You can get them on Ebay (or Amazon I imagine) and would be useful to have up in a prominent place in the house.

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PoppetUK · 12/04/2011 21:45

DD at this stage and just starting to get it. She also could do columns a few months back.

Keeping going with her method and it will come.

(56 + 27 would be 56 + 20 = 76 then add on 7 = 83.

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PoppetUK · 12/04/2011 21:48

Sorry I hope me putting the sum there didn't look silly. I've just seen a couple of posts showing it like that and it helped me understand better so thought it might help someone else and not aimed at OP exactly.

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thebird · 12/04/2011 21:54

By place value do you mean 10s and 1s? Because she does get this and I have explained the columsaim this way also. I understand why they need to be able to add mentally but in school they also use a hundred square to help. She can do it mentally it's just as the figures get bigger doing it without a hundred square is harder and she is often 1 or 2 out. It's also about confidence - she likes maths but panics about this and thinks she is rubbish. Now I've shown her this way to use for bigger tricky numbers she's just so happy because she can do it right.

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PoppetUK · 12/04/2011 22:42

there was a thread a few weeks ago about the way it is taught. will see if i can find it

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RoadArt · 12/04/2011 23:31

As cruel as it sounds you are not doing your DD any favours by teaching methods that are ahead of what they are teaching in the curriculum. Your DD must understand place value, and how to calculate mentally. This can be a hard concept, but it is so important for all calculations in all areas of maths.

Does your DD recognise that

55 + 27 is 50 + 5 and 20 + 7,
so 50 + 20 = 70
and 6 + 7 = 13
therefore 70 + 13 = 83
or even 70 + 10 = 80 + 3 = 83

(This is an alternative way to the method PoppetUK showed which is also correct).

Children also need to learn different strategies so they can adapt and choose the one that helps them.

As a parent I couldnt understand why schools didnt just teach columns - like they did when I was at school - and throughout my life I have always been hopeless at maths. I have been relearning how to do maths and now understand the current methods and they do work. My mental maths is fantastic now and its so easy - when you know how.

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thebird · 13/04/2011 17:56

Having considered, I guess I should persist with the current method and was being a bit hasty teaching columns. I just felt it hasn't done me any harm learning this way and so have millions of other people so it cant be that bad. I dont think all the old ways were so bad, there seem to be a lot of fads and fashion in education which like everything else seem to come back around.

She can do it using the above methods but when doing this mentally without writing anything down she sometimes she cannot keep the first bit in her head and then by the time she added the 1s shes forgotten the first bit! We will keep practicing and hopefully she will get it.

Having said that she is good and muliplication, fractions and other concepts its just this area that lets her down.

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PoppetUK · 13/04/2011 20:26

I totally agree with Roadart. My mental maths is getting better now after understanding how DD is doing it

Understanding partitioning, place value and number bonds really has helped DD. I'm sure she'll be quicker at mental maths in a few years than i am!

:)

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sarahfreck · 14/04/2011 13:28

Have you considered getting some Cuisenaire rods. They are really good for teaching this sort of arithmetic.

56 is 5 orange "10" rods and a dark green "6" rod
27 is 2 orange "10" rods and a black "7" rod

Add up the "10"s rods = 70
Put the "6" and "7" rods in a line and see it is the same as a "10" and a "3" rod.

70 + 10 + 3 = 83

I think we often ask children to move too quickly onto abstract number work. Some practice with concrete equipment really helps to get the picture of what they are doing into their heads more clearly.

I don't think there's anything wrong with teaching her the column method if she can do it accurately and consistently. But I think you should persevere with the "mental" methods as well - using physical equipment for as long as needed, as this will help with developing strong maths concepts - needed for building on harder concepts in future years.

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wheelsonthebus · 14/04/2011 14:56

If your child prefers colums, stick with them. I am not a fan of the new methods. I think they're counter intuitive for beginners. Fine for older children. In a few years' time, there will be an outcry about the new maths methods as there was about the way literacy was being taught (and schools then reverted to back-to-basics synthetic phonics) - and schools will revert to the tried and trusted column maths method IMO.