KS2 struggling in maths

[Cette]

Hi all - new here and wanted a bit of advice! Im actually not a mum (shhhhhh!), but my best friend's ds is now almost 7, and in Year 2 at school.

She mentioned a few weeks back that he was struggling in school with maths, and that she can't afford a tutor, and that she doesnt really know how to help him. I did maths at University, so offered to come over once a week to try and help.

He can't yet do subtraction (even simple stuff like 10 - 7), and he needs his fingers to do even the most basic addition (4+4). Surely he should be at a higher level by now?

Having had no teaching experience ever before, I don't want to do more damage than good. Does anyone know of any good resources/useful websites/ ideas to help a child improve with his maths?

He doesnt have special needs or receive extra help in school - from what I can gather, its a struggling inner city school where he is in a class of many other children suffering with the same thing.

Any thoughts would be gratefully received!

[Niecie]

Hi,

Can I just say, that as he is in Yr 2, the little boy is actually doing KS1 at the moment. He won't do KS2 until he goes into the Juniors.

I am not sure the best way to help him but there are loads and loads of workbooks on the market. you can pick them up for a couple of £ even from most supermarkets. Perhaps start off by working through those to see where he is at.

A lot of the adding and subtracting is really about learning through repetition. They should just know the answers really. I would keep practising number bonds up to 10 to start off with - it is almost rote learning but the workbooks should help make it more interesting.

I was just looking for KS 1 target and came across this website which looks interesting. There are notes to parents on there too with ideas of games and activities.

Sorry all the advice we were given by my DSs' school has gone clean out of my head. I have one in Yr 5 and one in Yr 1 though so not necessarily a great loss to you in terms of helping with Yr 2!

[Niecie]

This looks a bit more offical here I think it is a government thing. Not a lot of detail.

Or if you think using a computer might make it more enjoyable the BBC website is usually pretty good

[Yingers74]

A good book to read just to understand how they teach maths now in schools is 'maths for mums and dads' by Rob Eastaway and Mike Askew. Alot of adding and subtraction is done by using number lines which may explain why he is struggling with mental arithmatic.

Agree bbc website is worth a look and mathletics is also good but you have to pay a subscription fee.

[thinkingaboutdrinking]

For computer games you could try www.primarygames.co.uk which has both maths and literacy stuff. For resources you could try www.primaryresources.co.uk whih will have lots of examples of teacher created worksheets - they usually state what age they are for to help you. There are loads of things that eg WhSmith or waterstones sell as well.
As a primary school teacher I would say PLEASE try not to teach him the "standard" written way of adding/ subtracting/ multiplying that you might think he needs to know. At his age it needs to be lots of oral/ mental stuff before he attempts written coloumn methods. Using number lines or 100 squares can really help some children, as can doing lots of "concrete" adding/ subtracting using objects. HTH

[Strix]

What about Kumon, which is generally cheaper than a one-to-one tutor.

[Cette]

Thank you all so much - those websites are great!! Those are exactly the sort of games etc I was looking for to help him! Fantastic. Thanks!!