Maths - reception age

[retropops]

Hi all,

My son is finding it quite hard to 'get' maths, addition, subtraction etc

He is able to count to over a hundred, count in tens, 2's and establish which is smaller and greater

Is there an online system like reading eggs he loves that, or any online games/workbooks that anyone can recommend?

He is in reception prep and is 5.

I recommend smarties :o (or raisins if you're feeling healthier).

have you tried an old fashioned abacus or counting beads on a string?

When you say he can count to over a hundred do you mean he can recite numbers in order or count more than a hundred objects?

He needs to understand what the numbers mean and the best way is to use physical objects smarties and chocolate buttons or counters or an abacus help at this stage.

He can count to 100 of the top of his head or from counting objects (moshi monsters in our case) 3 weeks of Easter hols on this and we're no further on with the addition/subtraction

so if he has 8 buttons in one hand and 5 in the other he can't tell you how many altogether?

Reception is more about number bonds than sums IYSWIM.

(Actually, Reception is more about playing than formal learning, but hey.)

Keeping doing "how many more to make five?" or "how many more to make ten?" to hammer home number bonds will help. Those are the building blocks with which he can do formal sums once he has more confidence.

Examples would be "hmm, there are four of us eating dinner tonight; I've got three plates out; how many more do I need? Yes, one, because three and one is four."

If he adds from scratch yes he can, but if I had 5 then gave you 10 no he hasn't a clue without counting out things, he's picked up reading so quickly we thought maths might be the same, sounds normal so think we'll keep at it.

The reading eggs has helped him progress so much we expected a similar things for maths

Thanks will try the dinner plates tomorrow

I think that's completely normal for his age, actually. Give him a big pile of identical objects (raisins, Smarties, lentils, dried beans) and let him play with them. It's fine to count up from one when adding two numbers at 5 or even 6 or 7. It is more important to develop a sensible meaningful internal concept of what numbers mean than to be able to recall the answer to a sum at that age.

My

Do adding up and taking away with your fingers. My 4 year old DD likes this. 2 fingers plus 2 fingers (show them), make 4 fingers. Simple but effective. 4 fingers take away 2 fingers makes 2 fingers. You can do lots of number bonds up to 10 like this. Is this too simple?

My DD is in reception and has got the concept of one more/less than pretty easily. But only in the last couple of weeks has she got the idea that 15 +3 is 18 without counting from 1 (getting into a muddle and having to start again several times before finally getting to the answer in the end).

I think it comes when they are ready and she would not have a clue about counting in 2s or 5s let alone 10s

He sounds like he's doing we'll to me! My dd can't do that and she's in reception. Or school don't start any times tables until year 1!!!

I agree with the others about making it concrete by talking about or using real objects (my son could add custard tarts long before numbers) but wanted to mention the website Komodo maths which we've been doing since the end of reception (now Y1) and found v helpful for reinforcing number bonds etc. It works a bit like Reading Eggs, monthly or annual subscription and lots of short lessons. I think you can do a free trial now. We also like the iPad apps maths 3-5 and 4-6 which are good for the non- arithmetic stuff like time, directions, shapes.

If you are looking for some on line practice then mathletics is quite good. It won't teach new concepts but has some good visual ways of learning - putting numbers in the right order. Sharing. Etc etc. so reinforcement rather than teaching.

montessori have nice range of maths materials, very tactile, things like the pink tower, step baords, scales, solid objects, you'd need a teaching guide too as some of the items like the beads squares can be used on multiple levels.