Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Education

Join the discussion on our Education forum.

Original poster

Need advice on whether to talk to teacher...

47 replies

Twiglett · 23/05/2006 18:47

DS is in reception year .. he has not been the quickest on the uptake with reading but he is quite bright

Over the last month or so I've noticed that his numeracy is quite far ahead of what is set in class .. in terms of adding and subtracting he can do it in columns and he's starting learning multiplication

anyhoo I asked teacher for advice on how to teach multiplication and she said she didn't know because they didn't do it till year 1

Now should I be showing teacher the types of maths he's doing at home (asking to do at home) and asking her to support that in school time or should he just be continuing to do the stuff they do in school as a matter of course (they seem to do single digit addition whereas DS is adding in columns of thousands, hundreds, tens and units . and has just started to take away in columns too)

I know that there's lots of tasks in maths that do not involve add, subtract, multiplication .. but he seems so thrilled by it I just want him to feel proud of what he can do at school too

OP posts:
Frenchgirl · 23/05/2006 18:49

do you think they might be open to him going to year 1 for maths? no point him doing stuff that's far too easy in reception

Whizzz · 23/05/2006 18:53

I would be persistant & ask again - maybe talk to the Y1 teacher?? Will he be moving classes in Sept- if so, there's not long to wait but agree it might be better to try & keep his interest up.
If you want to do stuff yourself - there is quite a bit on line with regards what & how things are taught in the national curriculum if you do a search.

Original poster
Twiglett · 23/05/2006 18:54

I think I'd just like his worksheets to not be ten sums of 8+2 = but to stretch him a little

I don't think he's ready for year 1 socially or in any other field tbh

OP posts:
Frenchgirl · 23/05/2006 18:56

don't you think he could cope in year 1 just for maths lessons?

BudaBabe · 23/05/2006 18:58

Sounds as if he is good at maths but really does he need to be stretched just yet??

My DS is in Reception and they do some maths obv but don't get maths work sheets home yet. If he is interested maybe try getting some games thar are maths related? Or some work books for you to do with him. My DS needs to work on his writing a bit so I bough some work books from WH Smiths at the weekend.

sparklemagic · 23/05/2006 18:59

Hi. If it were me I would approach the year one teacher and say what you've said here about his being so thrilled with the subject, but unchallenged at present, can she help you out with things to keep his interest up? Can't imagine any teacher would mind!

Or would you consider a home tutor for him once a week who could give more challenging stuff?

Wot a clever boy....

Frenchgirl · 23/05/2006 18:59

maybe as it's almost the end of year you'd be better off just getting some Times Tables exercise books, some of them are well done, and just do it with him?

TwoToTango · 23/05/2006 19:00

I would speak to the teacher again. Perhaps a year 1 teacher could give him some work sheets to do in class and at home. Seems a shame not to let him persue it when he is so good.
When one of my friends went to see the reception teacher about giving her dd year 1 books because her reading is so advance she was told OK and they hadn't done it before because they tend to concentrate on the ones who need help.

Piffle · 23/05/2006 19:21

WE had this with ds twiglett, we got some worksheets from yr1 copied and sent home - and we also bought some Letts workbooks and maths cd rom for the pc. All of which he loved.
The school did have to be nagged a lot, but ds was getting very bored in class... In yr 1 he went up to yr 2 I do not think they are keen on sending reception children up, but you may find a yr 1 teacher a little more helpful IMHO

cece · 23/05/2006 19:27

The methods for teaching addition, subtraction, multiplication and division have changed alot. Will try to find a link so you know you are doing the sme method at home.

hana · 23/05/2006 19:30

absolutely talk to the teacher - if the work is too easy for him then she/he needs to find something suitable and at his level - he could get bored and that's easy to do, esp at this time of year. there are lots of games too, you can make it fun, it doesn't all have to be worksheets
hope it works out

cece · 23/05/2006 19:33

look at page 27-30 for reception (foundation) and year 1 maths teaching objectives

www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/primary/features/frameworks/consultation/pns_035806_fwkrev_math.pdf

Original poster
Twiglett · 23/05/2006 19:35

the thing is he likes doing sums .. he asks me to write him a page of numeracy sums and to make them tough

its not that I'm looking for games around maths .. nor do I think he's gifted .. I just think he's proud he's got the hang of this ..

thanks for links .. will have a look now

OP posts:
robinpud · 23/05/2006 19:58

Twiglett- I would be a little wary of adding in columns at such an early age unless he has a really good grasp of place value otherwise he will be able to do the mechanics of computation but not have any idea of how big the answer is.
If he does understand place value and can partition 2 and 3 digit numbers and order them correctly, then I would talk to the mathematics co-ordinator and ask for some suggestions to stretch him. He/she will be able to explain how they teach mental calculation stratgeies across the school so that you can use those methods with him. If he can work really confidently with 2 digit numbers then multiplication will be good but he needs to be able to double numbers quickly before you really delve into multiplication. HTH Good luck.

LotosEater · 23/05/2006 19:59

they don't seem to do maths addition and subtraction in columns any more - my ds1 is in yr2 and I have never seen him use this method - they use 'counting on' instead.

Original poster
Twiglett · 23/05/2006 21:07

robin .. thanks for that

by place values do you mean .. this is the units column, this is tens, this is hundreds so 345 is 3 lots of hundreds, 4 lots of tens and 5 units or am I misunderstanding?

OP posts:
cazzybabs · 23/05/2006 21:16

Colomn naths is not to year 4 or beyond... I teach year 3 and we don't teach it (god know what they do above the school). Can he do mentally? Upto year 4 maths is all done mentally, informally written down on paper, none of this formal coloumn stuff! I would get him to know off by heart number bonds to ten (3+7, 2+8 etc). Teach him to count in 2s (rote learn it - by musical CDs - show him that 2X2 is the same as 2+2 and that 2X4 is the same as 2+2+2+2 etc ...link it to division as well - talk about sharing sweets!). Also what about doing other things like measuring (weighing - cooking, capacity - how many steps to the post office - could we count them? What could we use to count them?) How many pasta bits in this jar? How could we count them? Jigsaws are good for space awareness. What is he like at copying patterns? There are lots of good computer websites with maths games. Aim for breadth as well as depth!

Some teachers will be wary of pushing him on too far - what will they teach him? But a good teacher should be enouraging...Also is there anything he is less good at that you could work on at home! He certianly sounds like a bright cookie!

cazzybabs · 23/05/2006 21:18

OHH just read the other posts agree with robinpud - doubling and halving good! (4 legs bad :) )

peasinapod · 23/05/2006 21:20

In my Ds school they add the tens first and then the units or they take away the tens first and then the units total opposite of what i used to learn but I can see why they do this . And as a ps whats all this about a square not being a square any more its now a rectangle ,confused or what .

cazzybabs · 23/05/2006 21:21

A sqaure is a special case of a rectangle which is turn is a quadrilateral!

Although what is an 11 and 12 sided shape called?

Original poster
Twiglett · 23/05/2006 21:23

getting all confused now . will ask DS to read it to me tomorrow Grin

there is much else he is not bright at .. but he seems to get numbers and love them

I do not understand how you would add tens first then units .. what if its 19 + 31 .. how would you do that?

OP posts:
cazzybabs · 23/05/2006 21:26

(10+30)+(9+1)

except my kids at school don't use brackets they just know split the number into tens and units and add up the tens and units and then add them together

or do 10+30 then +9 then +1

LotosEater · 23/05/2006 21:26

you do 31 plus ten that's 41, plus 9 is 50

robinpud · 23/05/2006 21:41

Well actually if it's 19+31 you are adding, you would expect a child to consider either doing it as crazy babs shows or to recognise that 19 is nealry 20 and 31 is nearly 30 so answer is 50.
Twiglett what we are trying to gently say is check with the school that you are teaching ds the strategies they use otherwise, you run the risk of utterly perplexing him which will damage his confidence in the longterm. good advice in crazybabs post- emphasis on rapid mental calcualtion without need to write stuff down in key stage 1.

Swipe left for the next trending thread