I can't do ds home work year 4

[Dustybrain]

DS is in year 4. And I can't do his home work. Not literally. But unless I use a calculator I don't know the answer. But obviously I can't just give him the answer. But I have no idea how to explain how he could work out the answer.

I have learning difficulties so I don't know how to help him

Don't panic, you don't need to know the times tables, just tell him that he needs to do his 3 times tables until he gets to 27 and his 4 times tables until he gets to to 48 and thst number will be the answer - you can check his answers on a calculator.

Maybe Google shapes with perpendicular sides - a visual will probably help you out than a description.

Haha this is me trying to remember how to work out square root without a calculator yesterday! I have a PhD in biological sciences too 😂

Question 3:

I thought it meant add something to each of the numbers to make it easier to check. Eg. If you add 7 to 193, you get 400, then you'd need to add 7 to the other numbers too.

Unclear question IMO.

Is he asking because he thinks he’s struggling or because he wants to do homework / maths homework?

if you are providing that CGP book and he’s struggling in maths at school it might be worth going back a year or two to practice stuff he doesn’t know.

I remember helping youngest with maths in primary and I taught him the way I learned in school (which he got!) His answers were right but they marked it wrong because the workings out weren't the way they were teaching.

I ended up telling them there's not a hope in hell I'm learning a whole different way to do maths, so not to ask me to help him in that case.

If he doesn't understand it, I'd send a note in.

As a teacher, I hated giving revision style tasks like this for hw especially at the start if the year, because they often covered topics that pupils wouldn't have seen in months, since the previous academic year. One set of questions could pull from 10-12 different topics. As a parent it's v difficult to help, as you likely have to get your head around 10 -12 topics per question set also, so it's no wonder you are stressed.

I would say it is important that your sons teacher knows he is finding these tasks challenging. Encourage him to answer the questions he knows, maybe pick 1 or 2 extra questions to Google together, and send the sheet back with a note explaining.

Yes I can talk to the teacher. I will just be blunt . I won't talk to other parents though

That makes alot of sense thank you.

It seems madness to me. Why should things have to be done on a certain way . As long as the answer is right . Why complicate it. If the answer is right then it's right.

PhD in what?

I have just a degree in Chemistry and I can still help DS with top set year 11 maths...

You might have figured all this out to your satisfaction but I just felt the urge to stick my oar in and see if it's of any use to you.

It seems to me that there are a lot of ways of looking at maths. One is about ways of helping us do practical human things like trading eggs for bread or building houses that don't fall down. Another is about the joy of puzzles for people who enjoy puzzles!

You've probably already got a pretty strong intuitive idea of a lot of maths like driving cars in 2 or more lanes on a big road, parking between two other cars next to a pavement, getting four choc chip cookies for a pound.

If you draw a big square and get two toy cars put them on two of the lines and run them along. If they are running along the lines staying the same distance apart they are going parallel like cars in lanes on a road. If you try this with the other shapes some of them have lines you can run the cars along like this, others the cars will crash if they keep going or get further apart - not parallel!

Same with the cookies. 4 cookies for a pound, 25p each. If you wanted 8 it would be 2 pounds, if you only wanted 2 it would be 50p.
If you had £1.50 you could get six.
This is all times tables and dividing are on about.
Adding up how much for 3 cookies you add up 25p three times. 25 times 3, 75p altogether.
You got the price per cookie by dividing a pound by 4. One pound divided by 4, 25p per cookie.

I reckon you already get the basic ideas but when you look at it on the homework it looks like a foreign language. You'll be fine if you can get a good translator.

Why not get a big laminated poster sharing the times tables, then you and your ds can learn them together?

As a teacher, I wish schools would scrap homework. Unnecessary stress for parents, students and teachers. The only time it is useful is when students need to revise for exams.

We don't normally do it. It's only because ds asked to. And thought I can't really discourage him. I remember 2 years ago when my other ds had this same teacher and she used to get onto me about homework all the time . In the end I had to be really blunt because I was dealing with alot at home.

@Dustybrain
This is a link for a poster with all the Times Tables it's only £2.99 and could be put on your child's wall

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tables-Childrens-Educational-Numeracy-WallChart/dp/B01EW01X8Q/ref=ascdffB01EW01X8Q/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=696285193871&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=17749672414310654498&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9045963&hvtargid=pla-2281435177378&psc=1&mcid=c57f8d17c53e337393b13eb3fbbad43c&hvocijid=17749672414310654498-B01EW01X8Q-&hvexpln=74&gadsource=1

DD’s primary school had a homework club for struggling students. I’m fairly certain a parent could also ask their child to be added.

our local library also had free homework help 4 nights a week. We never used it, but it is an option to explore. It may have just been a pet project of our local library, but it’s such a helpful idea.