10 minute maths books?

[familyfun]

has anyone bought the carol vorderman 10 minute maths books? are they any good?
dd1 is 5 (year1) and doesnt find maths easy and i wondered if these books would be worth getting?

Hi familyfun:

I haven't used these but my advice would be to go along to a big newsagent/ book store and see what they're like in person.

Also - consider what it is you'd like to be practicing. Is it concepts (your DD doesn't understand the principle of addition/ subtraction) or is it practice (she gets it with objects, but needs practice with real numbers). It may be both.

Once you're clear on what you might need to practice - then take your DD with you (because her opinion about the books will help) and have a look at the various maths books for ages 3-5 or 5-7 (unfortunately there can be a split in level at age 5 - so you may have to consider what level your DD is at).

There are a lot of books out there - some are just sums with very little illustration, and others have lots of step by step advice, pictures, colouring tasks, etc.... So it is really worthwhile spending the time to decide what style suits your needs & your DD.

HTH

Not tried the Carol Vorderman ones but DD (also year 1) likes the Gold Stars workbooks, mostly on the basis that she can stick a gold star on each page as she does it (as long as it's right!). They're fairly simple compared to others for the same year that I've seen, nicely laid out and colourful which I think helps.

I don't keep looking for books for my dd in infant school. I use number cards and printed out some number lines, 100 squares and word problems from websites for her. I do about 5 or 7 minutes maths with dd before moving on to reading at bedtime. I believe numeracy/maths requires regular practice just little and often. In the last few weeks dd has learned all the timetable up to 12x. So now when we go shopping I encourage her to apply her timetable knowledge in supermarket e.g. 4 custards in a box if we buy two boxes how many custards will we get. I also bought a cheap small kitchen scale and plastic measuring jar so dd can help me with measure thing like pasta or water. I am not an expert but just here to share some ideas.

Just to add................. I think it is important to make children to understand how maths relevant to our daily life. Even just a watch or clock is full of 5 timestable. Also how they can apply maths to help solving simple problems e.g. how she can spend 30p on two packets of sweets of different types /prices. Then how much changes will she get etc. Hope this doesn?t sound patronising but it did help my dd find maths more interesting.

My daughter is nearly done with the 3-5 one and she really likes it. She is 4 1/4 and starts reception in September. But it isn't really what I'd call maths, lots of colouring, odd one out etc .

have done some maths with her this week while on holidays, she can halve numbers, she can halve shapes, she can do multiplication based on 2,5 and 10 times tables as thats all theyve learned, she can do division on small numbers like 12/4, she is struggling with addition of double digit numbers and mixes up hundreds tens and units so definitley needs work on those, she cannot understand a verbal problem like 1 bag of sweets is 3p how much is 3 bags of sweets?

im going to go and look at some books, she has done some letts and goldstars when younger but got bored after a while but maybe some for her age might help.

she is average at maths according to school so not behind and im not worried but it doesnt come easy.

I haven't tried these, but when DS was that age we found good stuff on-line, e.g. www.topmarks.co.uk or com? and a few similar sites. Now DS is in Y3 and I subscribed to UBrainy for a month and printed off lots of worksheets.

But for a 5 year old, maybe ask his teacher what he could be practicing and then find a couple of games to practice it.

If you DD is in Y1 she may soon do Xtables. My DS loves Times Attack (there is a free version of the game which I find sufficient).

familyfun - just read your last post, your DD seems absolutely fine for a 5 year old in Y1!! I don't think she is struggling.

its just the addition that surprised me really, 50 + 33 = 53? 50 + 50 = 10? she totally muddles the tens and units and doesnt realise it cant possibly be right.
school gave them snakes and ladders which se loves and memory game and sums to learn which she learned off by heart and then forgot.
shes not behind and is summer born so doing well to keep average i suppose, im just worried that if she cant grasp the basics it will be easy to get left behind and she has no confidence so i dont want her to feel bad.
she loves to read and write and puts more effort/concentration into them wheres me and her dad find maths easier and im not sure how to explain things to her.

Place value was a difficult concept to grasp for my DS. I thought I just tell him, show him, we practice and that's it, but it took a very long time (6 months) form him to really understand it.

There is some nice stuff you can practice place value on some of the websites, e.g. topmarks and others.

ok will have a look thanks, she automatically gets pen and paper and starts a story or gets a book and reads but i need to encourage a bit of maths.
think il get her a book so she can sit and work through it and play some more games.

quick update, bought her the carol vorderman book, she loves it, she does a page most nights, it has taught her to slow down and concentrate and it is giving me an idea of what she gets and what she needs help with so well worth it.

Hi familyfun:

Just saw this and your description of addition of 2 and 3 digit number problems.

This may be best taught visually:

use grapes and raisins. Tell DD 10 raisins = 1 grape.

so 53 + 33. Get one plate and put 5 grapes and 3 raisins. Get another plate and put 3 grapes and 3 raisins.

Ask how many grapes - answer = 8
Ask how many raisins - answer = 6

Then work out - so 8 grapes = 8 x 10 or 80 (you can count by tens as well) and 6 raisins = 6 x 1 or 6 (or count). 80 plus 6 = 86.

When doing it on paper - try using color paper (2 sheets different colours) and big cut out squares with digits.

So on one sheet (say pink) have tens and on white sheet (have units).

This will help her to visualize different values of digits by their position.

• Finally - consider trying mathsfactor (also CarolVorderman) - just type in mathsfactor. It's a subscription on-line maths tutorial. We've used it to great effect with DDs - and it explains all of this kind of thing beautifully.

HTH

Personally I don't rate the Carol Vordeman books. If you want to support what your daughter is doing at school then ask the teacher for extra sheets that she can do at home. Do a little everyday so it stays in her mind. If you wanted to get maths books, I would suggest Letts.

thank you both, she is clicking a bit with addition now as long as they are written underneath each other so the units are in line etc. she can even carro over the tens now. but in subtraction she is struggling if the lower unit is bigger than the top unit in the sum.
she has never had maths homework but I might ask the teacher if any sheets are available.