yr1 struggling with maths

[Ispywith]

My DD in year 1 is beginning to struggle in maths. She is a very good at phonics and reading and really tries hard. She came home last night really worried that she couldn't do number lines and has kept saying her tummy hurts (something she does when worried). I had a really bad time at school and had a phobia of maths as was really bullied by my teacher.

I have read up on maths and have tried to make it fun and learn the basics over and over. She really enjoys counting in 2's, 5's, 10's and ordering numbers with 10's and units, but really struggles at simple adding and taking away. It just doesn't seem to come naturally to her like the reading and is now causing her to worry! I have asked the teacher for a number line that they use so we can have a go at home. My question is can anyone give a link to what they should be expected to know at this age? Googled it there seems to be so much! I never show her my dislike of maths and am quite enjoying learning over with her! I just couldn't bare her to go through what i did as it affected my whole schooling. Even if she is at the expected level I want to learn myself the next stage so I can help her. Thanks in advance if anyone has any ideas.

Try googling "mumsnet mathletics mathsfactor mathswhizz"

I don't know the websites myself but mumsnetters are always talking about what they can all do for struggling maths children.

Have you got a 30cm ruler? My son uses it as a number line for his homework.

I'm not a teacher but in my experience as a mum of 3, schools are happy for children to use the method that they find easiest and in Y1 it's perfectly fine to use physical objects like coins/cubes to work out sums.

My son also likes 100 squares as an aid to maths.

Play lots of games such as snakes & ladders or shut the box where adding is just part of the game.
Also, santa could bring a game of top trumps (moshi monsters, hello kitty, ice age), really good for just ease of using numbers.

if she can count in 2s, 5s, and 10s and order numbers up to 100 then she is not struggling at maths this early in year 1 (many year 2s find this hard!) Instead she probably needs practice at mental arithmetic i.e. to learn her number bonds, one easy thing to start with is to get her to guess what will be on the other side of a rolled dice, this will give her her bonds up to 6.

My yr 1DD is the same, fantastic reader and writer but struggles with maths.

Having said that, yours is definitely doing a lot better than mine if she can do all the things you say so I wouldn't worry.

I have been told to try and work on "one more" "one less" etc. it's still an ongoing project in our house!

Thankyou for replies. That's the thing I don't really know what she "should" be expected to be doing. I just desperately don't want her to worry or fall behind in maths as like I found catching up is much harder. We have snakes & ladders so will try that more (just tricky as 3 year old brother not very helpful).

Dr Seuss has simple maths books which are more fun than the usual activity books.

Your Dd sounds like my DD and you sound like me
I've just signed her up to Maths Whizz. We'll try to do it together 3 times a week and take it from there. At least it is structured lessons which helps me too, rather than having to work out what she should be doing next and coming up with activities. HTH

You could also be talking about my dd! She also finds the concept of adding/taking away more than 2 quite hard but can count in 2's, 5's and 10's. I'm feeling a little relieved a few others are the same! We do lots of Snakes and Ladders and also counting using sweets (to keep the interest going!).

I found this quite a good guide to see what they should be aiming for in YR 1www.lancsngfl.ac.uk/curriculum/primarymaths/download/file/PDF/Year1Icanstatements1.pdf

www.lancsngfl.ac.uk/curriculum/primarymaths/download/file/PDF/Year1Icanstatements1.pdf

Link didn't convert for some reason!

Excellent list of what we should be aiming for . Thank you

You can combine practical with theory by using a pair of digital kitchen scales (set to read grams, of course).

Weigh several small objects and put them on the scales in various combinations and let her work out before each one how much the combination will weigh.

Just one thing to be careful of. Scales will weigh only to the nearest gram, so sometimes the answer will be one gram out. For instance, if something weighs 5.4 grams, it will show as 5 grams on the scales. If another object weighs 8.3 grams, it will show 8 grams on the scales. The total weight is 13.7 grams which will show as 14 grams and not 13 as they will calculate.

To start with just explain that no scales are perfectly accurate and praise her if you know her answer is correct but it shows one gram out on the scales. Later, when she understands the weighing process in more detail, you can explain this little idiosyncrasy. It's also good practice at understanding that measurement is never a 100% accurate process.

You can do lots of exercises with water. Put a jug on the scales and put just enough water in so that the whole weighs 200g, say. Ask her to top this up so that the whole weighs 260 grams. How much water did she put in? I am sure you can think of many similar examples once you get the idea.

The idea someone suggested of using a ruler is very good too. With my grandson of 5 we use a measuring tape, but you really need one that shows in metric (cm) only and they are not easy to find. You can find them on the internet. Here's one for example and I don't have any interest in the company - only in education: www.tooled-up.com/Product.asp?PID=149160&Referrer=googleproductlisting&gclid=CI2F5ajv2bQCFcbLtAodJRkAgw
Do be careful when letting the tape run back into the holder. Adult supervision required.

someone on MN recommended Shut The Box as a good adding game so I got that for DD (also y1) and she enjoys it.

Can I do a slight hijack and ask about mulitplication and division? DD is bringing home homework on Education City which is basically multiplication and division disguised as word problems (eg each game needs three referees - thirty referees turn up so how many games can they do?). DD struggles to understand that a) this is a division problem and b) how to do it. If I got out thirty raisins and told her to split them into groups of three and count the groups she could do it but is that the right approach? It feels like I'm leading her too much.

I think they've done this at school in a rote way but she needs help to convert it into real life. Is this just too advanced do you think? She's 6 (old in the year) and excelling in reading and writing but - perhaps not struggling with maths but certainly not at the same level in maths. I'm wondering whether just to leave it and assume they need to reinforce the lessons at school or whether we should be doing raisin-counting at home!

Really interested in people's impressions here of what would strike the right tone. I definitely don't want her to get the idea that maths isn't her thing.

drjohnson,

(I don't know if the hijack is alright or not) But here's my answer to your question. No you are not leading her too much. The knack to getting word based arithmetic questions answered correctly is practice. How can a child answer the question properly if she doesn't know how and how can she know how if she hasn't been shown? For an adult the answer is done in the head by visualising the problem. It's no different from getting the raisins out on the kitchen table except the adult is familiar enough with the type of problem not to need raisins any more. After a sufficient number of word problems your daughter won't need raisins any more. My advice is buy more raisins.

drjohnson. I think you are doing exactly the right thing to help your dd. If she can imagine that the raisins are referees and split them into groups of 3 she is modelling the question with tangible objects. She may need to do this for quite a while yet! Don't worry about "leading" her. What you are doing is showing her a practical way to understand the problem. Once she has done enough problems this way, she will begin to see how she can do it more quickly by eg using times tables. If you wanted to take it a bit further, I'd emphasise "You are sharing out the raisins/referees. 'Share' is a word that means the same as divide."

IMO sometimes children are asked to move from the concrete to the abstract with maths rather too early. I work as a tutor and see children losing confidence in maths quite often round about year 2. Often lots more practice with concrete objects really helps. I find Cuisenaire rods really useful and there are 2 really good key stage 1 games; "Bus Stop" by Orchard Games ( for adding and subtracting - you need to keep talking while playing the game "How many more people have you got on your bus than I've got on mine. How many fewer are on the top that the bottom" etc and "Sum Swamp" by Learning Resources ( all 4 operations)

If you can, make things as fun as possible!

Got a daughter in year 1 as well for addition say if you have 5 + 9 mine always put the biggest number in her head then add 5 ontop of it that is by starting by the next number after the number you put in your head. For substraction say you have 9 - 5 she starts after 5 and counts using her fingers until she reaches 9. I found this way a lot better because they can counts any number really and my daughter has started adding big numbers like 29 + 39 I do not know whether your daughter counts this way but worth a try and it is so easy once they start doing it.

Really helpful, thank you so much for replying

Will get the raisins out tonight.

Actually on a similar point, at first I was concerned that she was too reliant on the number square but I've noticed recently that she's got really good at it. She knows where numbers are in relation to each other by thinking about it on the square. So what feels like a prop (cheating almost) is actually really helping her to embed her understanding -ditto the raisins and the games.

Thanks again - really appreciate it.

My dad used to talk about cheating and not doing things properly. I'm pretty sure that his opinion of learning was sitting in rows chanting facts. But personally I think that if you understand "how" something works then you don't need to sit and chant.

"Actually on a similar point, at first I was concerned that she was too reliant on the number square but I've noticed recently that she's got really good at it. She knows where numbers are in relation to each other by thinking about it on the square. So what feels like a prop (cheating almost) is actually really helping her to embed her understanding -ditto the raisins and the games.""

YY - that's exactly it! If they get enough practice with the concrete materials (whatever they are - raisins, 100 square etc) they begin to make the transition to doing it with out the props concrete materials. If she still really doesn't "get it" without the concrete material, she still needs to use it! In time she will be able to do the same operation without the materials

FWIW, I think many schools move away from concrete materials too fast for some pupils. Richard Dunne is really interesting in the way he teaches maths - try googling to see some clips of how he works.

PS It isn't cheating!!

Thanks educating. REally good to have a professional's perspective.

I signed DD up for the Maths Factor in Sept and she went up 4 sublevels in one term. It starts with addition and subtraction and has moved onto times tables. It is individually marked and tailored accordingly. She has gone from hating Maths to saying its her favourite subject.

Can't recommend it highly enough.

Ditto what Taffeta said. DD1 left Y2 unable to subtract 1 from 10 and is now in Y5 and flying high mathematically. It may seem overkill signing up your kid for an on-line tutorial - but it seriously was the best decision I've ever made!

Hello everyone! My DS went through this a little while ago, so I thought I would offer my advice. Playing games and helping children to see Maths as fun and as a puzzle really helps. DS used to dread Maths lessons at school and used to tell his teacher he was unwell so that he could go to the sick bay; it was a real problem for us. I took some advice from my sister-in-law and took DS to a lady who helps with Maths anxiety. We went to her for a couple of months, and we have seen a noticeable improvement, with DS no longer skipping Maths classes! I'm sure that it is something parents can do themselves, I just wanted to see a professional because I was a little worried that I could make things worse rather than better. The key is to make Maths fun again, so that it's an enjoyable challenge. Hopefully, the days of Maths anxiety are behind us, and I wish you the very best with your DD!