Ha! My 7yr old is an imaginative, knowledgeable, fluent, delightful, well-behaved little boy but

[Ormirian]

...his numeracy skills are about a year behind where they should be.

e's getting extra help every day. But it doesn't seem to go in. I think his teachers are a little concerned now. He seems to grasp the basics but then it all evaporates.

His literacy has come on in leaps and bounds - one of his teachers was almost in tears telling me how proud she is of him (I think DS is a bit of a marmite child ).

Everything seems to be such a struggle for him.

If he is progressing in other areas I wouldn't be too concerned. Let school deal with it but at the same time encourage fun maths stuff at home -try to bring in numeracy skills into everyday life.

Thanks scurry.

The teacher is going to give us a list of things to practise to complement his work in class. Problem is that trying to teach/help DS with anything he isn't ready to learn is a waste of blood, sweat and tears.

He doesn't retain anything until he sees a purpose to it. Currently trying to find a way of making numeracy animal-based

To be honest I don't retain anything unless I see a purpose either .

If he likes cooking,I find that can cover many numeracy areas (and literacy).

ormirian, i was about to post exactly what you said in your second post!

children learn best when they WANT to learn. if he isn't ready to "get" numbers then he probably won't. when he is ready he will be interested and want to learn and that's when it will all go in

so i wouldn't worry. just keep encouraging him gently, and when he shows an interest then go for it.

Start giving him a little pocket money in small change?

Play Junior Monopoly and tell him you'll cheat if he doesn't check the money?

Animal numeracy - you can do some multiplications by asking how many ears/legs do a dog and 3 puppies have - that sort of thing?

This sounds like my DS. He's behind in numeracy and blossoming elsewhere. Don't give up trying, it will sink in.
My son was, and is, really far behind and he's in year 3. We've had lots of support and understanding at school and we've 'talked maths' lots at home in a casual way, plus he's had a tutor who has started to plug the gaps in his maths and slowly he's putting it all together.
It's a bit expensive getting a tutor but he's confident with her because he's on his own and they can work at his pace on stuff that he doesn't get. Have you considered a tutor?

It's entirely possible that he just isn't ready yet; however there is also something called discalcula (sp)

My friend (at uni) had it & described it as like dyslexia but with numbers

katymac - I did wonder about that, in fact the word was on the tip of my tongue last night but I stopped myself. It sounded a little bit too much like finding an excuse and he was like this with just about everything last year. So I think it's a question of finding a way to make maths relevant to him. As DH pointed out, he didn't like reading until it became easy for him to read whole sentences fluently at which point he saw a benefit - ie he could access stories for himself.

treacle - my son is also in Yr3. It is a bit worrying that he's taking so long but I am still hopeful.

grimma - we did the animal legs thing in the car this morning! Worked quite well - he turned it around and gave me some problems to solve! I had to lop off a few legs though to make odd numbers

So give it anther year, then revaluate

Is your DS a physical (kinaesthetic) learner?

You could try resources like numicon and cuisenaire rods perhaps?

thanks freudian.

I had cuisenaire rods as a child. Loved them. Might try some for DS.

Orm, good to hear that your ds is doing well in general. He's always sounded a lot like my dd (who is still in yr 4 struggling with writing because she can't see the benefit because it is so hard to write a sentence . . .)

Animal related maths - could he do something like keep chickens; buy feed/sell the eggs/work out how much he needs to charge to make a profit/keep accounts ?

< Remembering a friend who home schooled her dd & had to make everything relevant to horses in some way >

Orchard Toys have great games: Pop to the shops; Piggy in the Middle; Magic Cauldron; Tell the Time. My DS learned confidence and skills playing all these games (after a slow, reluctant start - then enthusiastically after lots of praise and a broken TV !)and didn't even realise it was "MATHS"!! Things then started to click with him.

Could the 'Deadly 60' be a resource? There are cards etc with it and you could do work with 'how many cards have you got' etc/taking away and adding. My friend has an animal crazy little boy a bit older than yours and he is OBSESSED with all the Deadly 60 stuff.