could someone tell me..

[loosinas]

how addition is introduced in reception ? want to help my son but not confuse him !!

Without wishing to sound flippant - why not leave it until the teacher introduces the subject? Or ask the teacher? Or just leave it well alone - your son is only 4 or 5, he's spending 6.5 hours per day on this stuff without doing more of it at home and he will get LOADS of homework by the time he's in Year 2. You'll be ruing the day you ever offered to help with homework then

it has been introduced. he's using the associated vocab and im wondering if i should be showing him how to count on.... using a number line.. or combining objects. my child is initiating this. so maybe someone can help without sounding flippant

Well I have no idea how it's introduced but we have always just done counting, adding and now minusing games at home (dd1 in reception, dd2 is 3 and just doing some basic addition on her fingers). Don't tell me it's like reading and there is a certain "way" to do it, please! We just do it for the fun of it - I wouldn't if they weren't interested.

I did say that I didn't mean to sound flippant! That's the trouble with the written word.

He's in Reception. He is very young. If you want to help without confusing him, why don't you speak to his teacher? He or she is the only person who can tell you how he or she is teaching the curriculum to your son.

In my experience (and my son is older than yours), they really don't need to be doing very much maths at home at such a young age, unless the teacher specifically asks you to. If your son is initiating the conversation, just follow his lead. If he is confused, he will tell you.

Our school did a couple of workshops (maths and literacy) last term for the parents of P1 (= reception equivalent in Scotland) children, which dealt with how they start to teach maths and reading/writing, and gave parents some ideas for things they could do at home. Perhaps you could suggest it to your school (if not for your benefit then for that of future parents)?

As a former primary teacher, I would be inclined to just do it in a 'fun' way rather than number lines etc. Just do it conversationally as you go about your daily business...eg 'Let's put our shoes on. Look, you have 2 shoes and I have 2 shoes. How many shoes are there altogether? [pointing] 1, 2, and 2 more, makes 1, 2, 3, 4' You could do this with all sorts of things.

Or yes, do ask your son's teacher, though you will probably find that he/she will be using a range of different methods to suit the different learning styles of all the pupils, IME.

They have been doing it in ds's class by showing the children 2 groups of objects and asking for the combined total. They are using mathematical terminology like add, equals etc.

Number lines were introduced in Y1? Many Reception children can't even write the numbers 1 to 10 so number lines are premature.

If you want to know the terminology and methods used in schools, I recommend the CGP Study Guide for Maths Key Stage 1.

Don't worry about how the school are doing it. Just play games! You can use the language naturally.

Give him some sweets buttons, and count them up, put them in different piles, ask how many, add some more or take some away.

Before you know it you'll be discussing how to share them out fairly - voila! Division :o

They also break it down using number bonds - often starting by grouping objects/counters ie how many different ways to make 10 (1+9, 2+8,3+7 etc)

My DD is also in reception and she came home with a maths target this term to learn the number bonds to 10. I used number cards (1-10) gave her the top one, and asked her to choose the card she needed to make 10 - she loves this game. I also bought a pack of cubes and number dice which again make the learning a game. Hope this helps

thanks everyone so much theres so much helpful stuff on here !! mumof2littlegirls i cant see your link sorry ?

In reception they are taught addition by combining sets of objects

here