Recall of number bonds/tables

[redskyatnight]

Just wondered when it would be "expected" that a child could recall number bonds and times tables rather than working them out every time?

If asked a question such as 5+2, DS still laboriously counts on his fingers. If asked a question such as 6x2 he counts up 2,4,6,8,10,12 to work it out.

He's in Y2, so my thinking for a while has been that it's good that he understands how to work things out and that the recall will come with time - but should he have "got" it by now?

He's on the top table of the top maths set at school, so I realise he is doing well, but I'm starting to notice now that he is much slower than his peers who do have instant recall of number facts and that is beginning to frustrate him.

it depends n the child. my dd is in year 1 and can recall the number bonds to 10, the 2x sums and sdoubling numbers to 20 straight away but would have to work others out.
as long as he can work it out though in a resonable amount of time he is fine, i would only worry if he couldnt do it at all.

I don't know when a child is expected to know them but my DS is 7 and in Y2. He still counts 3,6,9 etc for the 'difficult' timestable of 3 and 6 but is confident with 2,5 and 10 as. Its the same in division.

Practise Practise Practise and it will soon happen. I found that getting DS to play timestable games on my iPhone helped a lot but you can get these ganes on computers.

All children progress at different rates so you shouldnt compare.

however, I would be tempted to practice lots of games so that your dc can start to remember these instantly.

Use counters up to 10, and move them around so that you get 1-9, 2-8 3- 4-6 5-5 and vice versa.
Use counters starting from 5, then add 1,2,3,4,5 etc.
Keep playing different games but dont put the pressure on. The sooner he gets this the sooner he will find other maths easier to do.
Play doubles and halves as well to increase this knowledge.
Using physical objects like counter, toys etc can be extremely helpful

grapes, raisins and if no-one is looking smarties are a great way of teaching maths. doubles take aways (eating the taken away ones), groups of (x) seems to work for dd. she is happy to get double kisses too but a y2 boy? probably not!

As said above, all children progress at diferent rates. I did A'level maths , but it wasn't till I worked in a pub that I had quick recall of number bonds!

At DC's primary school they seem to aim at them having quick recall of tables in Y4 or 5.

We teach 36 number bonds by memory with the ultimate goal that children will have instant recall. We use something called Big Maths and do a weekly Learn It's "test" My Y2 children have 90 seconds to complete 40 mixed addition and multiplication calculations with the aim of improving their own score each week.

try number bond ping-pong in the car...

you "ping"
DS "pong"
you "ping!"
DS "pong!"
you "5"
DS "5"
you "8"
DS "2"

etc etc,

can be made hard by using number bonds to 20, easier by using bonds to 5, can also use doubles, halves, whatever.

Mine love it, especially shouting out the answers really loudly!!

For number bonds to 10, we made up a song to "Row row row your boat"

Nine and one are number bonds
Eight and two are friends
Seven and three, six and four,
Five and five are twins

Ok I know Elton's not worried about my songwriting skills but it helped my DD's remember!!