Teachers, can you spot a difference between kids who use maths websites and those who don't?

[Iamnotminterested]

Am just curious as there seems to be sooo many sites out there vying for parents money and, dare I say it, preying on our insecurities.

Do they make a difference to a childs' classroom ability?
Do they speed up mental maths recall?
Do you recommend them?

Thanks.

I used mathsfactor for a couple of months with DD when she was in French grande section (aged 5) and couldn't read and write in English at all to teach her how to count and to start doing basic addition and subtraction. It really helped and it allowed us to move on to things like reading number plates on motorbikes and cars, and house numbers etc. There was no way she would have made such rapid progress without mathsfactor.

However, nearly two years later she can read and write and much prefers to do Bond papers (and their French equivalents).

We also play plenty of Monopoly etc and I think that really helps, especially when she plays with her parents/older brothers who play so much faster than she does - it's a good incentive for her to speed up her addition/subtraction/multiplication;

I also invested in a lovely set of brass weights and a pair of old-fashioned kitchen scales!

MrsHeffley - you have my sympathies with the time issue. With a slightly heavy heart I went to FNAC this afternoon (the DCs broke up for a fortnight this evening) and bought four French CE1 workbooks for DD - one revision one, and three more detailed teaching ones, which I will resort to if and when she has obvious gaps in her knowledge once she has completed the revision one.

She's generally quite co-operative, but I know I shall have to work hard to get through it all.

MrsHeffley I'm female

Bonsoir the most able child I've known in maths (reception) played dominoes and whist with his grandparents and did lots of baking (weighing and measuring ingredients) with his granny while mum and dad were at work.

LOL mrz DD played endless dominoes with my mother when she was little and all sorts of card games.

Lego is also good when they are little and don't read - following the pictorial instructions and counting dots before placing the bricks.

Funnily enough I was just recently thinking we'd reached the end of Junior Monoply and I ought to buy the classic one,saw one in a nice wooden box somewhere. You've inspired me,will sort it out this week as dtwin 1 has been nagging.Also it's one of the only games aside from Uno I can tolerate without wine!

I played Canasta with my granny from being tiny so had to be able to add numbers into the thousands to keep score for which I am very grateful

Awwww!

Just ordered it from Amazon-wooden nostalgia version £22!!!!Dp is going to kill me.

My father called it monotony

MrsHeffley,

Although its maths value is negligible compared with Monopoly proper, we have very much enjoyed Monopoly Deal as a good family card game which doesn't last forever, and has some quite interesting strategies rather than pure luck. Vaguely Uno-like in some ways, which is why I thought of it from your post.

Mrz,

I also played cards with my grandparents - and darts with my brothers - with resulting decent metal maths skills. Board / card / now Lego games of all sorts are one of my favourite things to do with my DCs, too - they're both pretty good at maths.

Thank-you feenie for defending me. I can brush off bitchy comments from anonymous strangers online. People seem to think the barrier of the internet gives them free rein to be far more unpleasant than they would be in real life.

To be clear: I did not, at any point, say that I would stop a child from using a method simply because I didn't like it. I would, however, ask parents to not contradict what is happening in the classroom as it confuses their child.

As an example, I have a lower ability child whose mum doesn't understand our methods. I spent 30 minutes after school with her, showing her how to add and subtract on number lines, and how to solve multiplication and division by repeated addition and subtraction. She was very thankful that I had shown her, as she had only been taught column methods, and although these do get an answer, for a low ability child aged 8, it is not the best method to be using. Said child doesn't get the relative size of numbers, and so she will not know when her answers are wrong.

A point to the teacher bashers on here- we teachers come here to try and offer help and advice. We do this in our spare time, and (at present) our holidays. There is no incentive to us other than to try and share our knowledge and help others.

I appreciate lots of parents have little knowledge of what happens behind the school gates, and I appreciate this would make anyone anxious, but the educators here are trying to explain what happens. Being snapped at and insulted is not going to get a positive response, and it just means people will stop replying.

Well said juniper

As well as board games like Monopoly or Game of Life, I would have thought giving your child a small amount of pocket money each week would contribute greatly to their mental maths and understanding of money. They can then take responsibility for saving or spending on a small scale, budgeting for small birthday presents for family members, working out change, going to the counter themselves to purchase their item, etc.

Juniper - not bashing but genuinely curious - my dd2 has learnt long division using a fiendishly cmplicated method - don't know what it's called but my old fashioned way she calls the bus stop method. I admit to having tried to get her to use my way because hers seems to offer numerous opportunities for mistakes which are usually made - so thought my method was easier.

are there really children who find the long method - involving subtracting any sum from the original total AFAICS until the solution is reached, easier than the old method??

breadandbutterfly I teach year 3, so yes- lots of children would cry (genuinely!) if I asked them to do long division as it stands. I don't like repeated subtraction myself, but that's because I see it as an adult. My class love it, though.

rabbitstew My mum used to give us 20p for sweets each week. We could carry it over for 2 weeks, but then lost the lot. Casbury's eclairs were 8p each. I learnt my 8 times table using this! Incidentally, she was a year 2 teacher for 38 years so there might have been some unintentional teaching taking place.

Ah, my dd is yr 5 and made of tougher stuff - I am happy for her to use any method as long as she's getting the right answer!

I am in my 40s and maths still not my strong point.
I cried desperately about long division at playtime once at primary. Other children told the teacher who was irritated with me but did have me up the front of the class explaining 'old fashioned' method. I 'got it' but never really understood it.
Failed maths comprehensively later on- didn't understand the basics.

I for one have registered my children on on-line tutorial programmes as well as using the free ones. The main reason was my children were bored stupid at school and very demotivated and I paid for a tutor for one term - which remotivated their interest. Due to the high cost I investigated online programmes and have used Whizz, Maths Factor and Mathletics as well as Coolmaths and many others (over a period of years).

They are not stretched at school, and they will not complete worksheets or books at home (dont blame them) but the teacher often just gives them worksheets in the classroom because they dont have time to spend with my children

I have found Whizz to be fantastic at teaching various methods and my children do have good sound knowledge of all the different strands of the curriculum.
Mathletics is useful for revision but not for teaching, Mathsfactor is very boring and uninsteresting.

My children's teachers know I am interested in maths and know I help my children and they are more than happy with that because they are not learning alternative methods that contradict anything they are learning in school.

Computer sites only work to a point though. Children still must do practical maths and learn how to problem solve - something that gets overlooked on computer programmes, and practice all other aspects of maths so they really understand it.

So in my opinion, I dont care whether the teachers approve or not, I know that there were huge gaps in subjects that were not taught in school and by using computer tuition programmes many of these gaps have been filled

Do the online tuition sites,like Mathwhizz, teach different methods too as schools do? So will methods like recognizing near doubles,compensating,bridging,e.t.c. be taught too?

We could really do with just a list of the strategies and a simple explanation for each.I wonder if all schools use the same strategies,surely they do. Just don't get why schools or OFSTEd don't just publish a simple explanation sheet.If we're all supporting kids with maths homework unless you have some simple explanations or preferred strategies I worry that I could do more harm than good.

With my dd(Y2) it's confidence(she has a lot of very able mathematicians in her class,able brothers at maths and seems to have 3 different teachers) so I'm going right back to no bonds to 10 getting really rapid recall then I'm gradually bringing it up to bonds to 20,trying to get a rapid recall. Have also been firing adding/subtracting 10 or 20 to any given 2 digit number,going over doubles. Kind of stumped as to what else re strategies as I say I've been out a while and still got baby brain.

I've just done a CGP order as I quite like their books,Not all shiny and glossy and seem more in tune with schools as opposed to a publishing house iykwim. I liked the KS2 English so have just ordered a load of KS1 maths.Will work through them from now until the end of the summer hols.No idea if they're exactly what dd needs but I figure just the continuous practice,praise and maths thinking 20 mins a day )will help.I looked at the sites and don't like them. Too fast for my dd,expensive and I just can't fit in the time for us both to sit in front of the computer.I'd want to be with her otherwise I'll have no idea how she is progressing.

Personally I think school should be handing out lists of strategies and methods and communicating with us as parents more but until that happens I can only do my best which is the above. Kind of hoping something is better than nothing.If it's any comfort I loathed maths but was in the top groups by the end of primary and I think an increase in confidence played a big part.I'm v quick at mental arithmetic and got my maths O level,was in the 2nd highest group in secondary.I don't want dd to be in the top set or anything I just want her to have confidence,not think she's shite at maths,not have her in tears and for her to be pushed at her ability so my needs may be different to others on this thread iykwim.

Ask your school for their calculation policy - this sets out which methods they teach and in what order.

Oooo thanks,hadn't thought of that.Dp and I are asking for a 'chat' next week so will ask for it before.

I've never bought workbooks or subscribed to online programmes tbh just made numbers part of everyday life. So when they were small they'd count out items in the shopping basket, as they got older they'd help me work out whether I had enough eggs to make cakes when I also needed some for breakfast too. Then when we went shopping I'd need their help to work out whether I had enough money to buy what we needed and to check whether I'd got the right change. We played lots of games Orchard Toys were good when they were small then dominoes and cards (they loved crib when we played for pennies) monopoly and scrabble. On journeys we'd count the red cars, then we'd add the numbers on registration plates, as they got older we'd multiply them.
My children aren't really the sort who will happily fill in worksheets tbh so tended to sneak knowledge into them when they weren't looking.