how do you support/stretch Maths?

[ElizabethMedora]

My Y2 DC is showing a distinct preference for Maths. This throws me. I was a reader, and while I got my Maths GCSE grade B by the skin of my teeth my Maths ability is really quite minimal. If she was keen on reading, I would be introducing new books to her, chatting about our favourites etc. What do you do with a child who is into numbers?!

We have a lovely "look inside maths" book with flaps to lift, and that's started us on all sorts of mathematical digressions. DS is only yr 1 and some of the ideas are beyond him still, but he already gets lots out of it.

Play games? Things like go, othello, chess, monopoly, card games, memory, labyrinth, top trumps are quite mathematical in different ways. Lots of games are directly mathematical, and even if they're less so may appeal to the mathematical mindset.

Puzzles. Things like rubiks cube and similar. Or get a book of children's puzzles. I think you can get mini-sudoku like things these days. I used to love logic puzzles as a child.

Oh there's loads. I just deleted about a page worth as I was coming across as a total geek.

Oh no tell me more catkind, what you have said is great already!

is it this one?
www.amazon.co.uk/Maths-See-Inside-Usborne/dp/074608756X

Both of my ds's are very into maths (aged 6 and 4).

Exactly what Catkind said - I find that anything to do with puzzles or having to work things out just grab them.

Checkers, chess, monopoly, various card tricks (including simple card counting tricks...youtube).

DH has also recently taught them both how to play Blackjack and Poker . Not quite sure of the 'ethics' of teaching a 4 and 6 year old those (my mum was horrified) but they love it. Blackjack especially is fantastic for their mental maths - put any four cards in front of my 4 year old and he'll tell you the total in about 3 seconds - he gets it quicker than me!

If you have iPad or similar type of tablet, then I highly recommend the IXL Maths App - you can subscribe online too, but DD loved the App format

It's cheap, it's curriculum linked, they gain virtual prizes fir time put in, attainment etc etc, they get to see their own areas of strength & weakness which helps self management - they can also challenge themselves to older level work if they are that way inclined & you get a full easy to follow report yourself

DS (now yr5) has been a maths whizz since yr1 which is something I cannot really help with sine I am more literacy based.

Agree that learning chess is fab, DS gets maths whizz free from school but they sometimes have free month trials, tbh I used to get maths work books from £ land which DS loved.

He now uses u tube to teach him more algebra.

Luckily (for me) that DD (6) is more reading/literacy which I can do in my sleep

Algebra as a game is good. Just the basics. Preferably involving oranges or something similarly tangible to counteract the abstract.

That sounds so wanky. Sorry

Yes that's the book Elizabeth. Packed full of ideas and presented in a really friendly way. The science one is great too if her maths spills over into science - it has lots of experiments to do at home.

OK some more then I love this stuff.

Talking about number things. Small children are fascinated with big numbers, we seem to have lots of conversations about hundreds and thousands and millions. Did you know a googol is 1 followed by 100 zeros? "I'm thinking of a number between 1 and 100" played like guess who. DS is quite interested in square and triangle numbers through laying out squares or triangles of marbles or counters, or building triangles of lego bricks etc.

Collections of small things are good for investigating numbers generally. And we have a box of loose change that the kids sometimes get out and play with - shops, sorting, counting in 2s/5s/10s, circle packing, all sorts of possibilities.

We have a (very cheap ebay) set of dice with different numbers of sides. They're interesting mathematical shapes to start with, and fun to play around with. A box of plastic 2d geometric shapes - again only a couple of quid - sorting, making patterns, tessellations, symmetry.

There's lots of stuff you can do for cheap or free. But other toys that are very mathematical are construction things like e.g. magnetix/geomag or k'nex. Some of my more geeky possessions that DS has had fun with are cuisenaire rods (1-10) and dienes blocks (thousands/hundreds/tens/units). Mostly just used for building and making patterns at the moment, but number concepts pop up all over the place.

Paper and pencil games - 0s and Xs, dots and boxes en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dots_and_Boxes.

Measuring things. Set DS the challenge of working out if we would be able to get our sofa out through the front door yesterday - he had fun measuring both in various directions and came up with A Plan that involved turning it on its side. Recipes are good, specially if you need to double or halve quantities. But just setting them loose with a tape measure or a pair of scales can be fun.

Just remembered a lovely activity I saw at a National Trust place this year. They had printed out some regular shapes (triangles, squares, pentagons) then gave the kids rulers and compasses to divide them up in symmetric ways and colour them in. DS is a bit little for compasses but even with just a ruler he made some lovely patterns.

I was (am) very mathsy. I used to love playing solitaire type card games that involved maths, e.g. laying out the cards in a row and then if 3 cards came out that together that added up to 15 taking them out. You win if the whole row disappears.
Or, cribbage. Any card games that involved a bit of adding up.
Colouring books with symmetric patterns in.
Simple computer programming - it was BASIC on the Spectrum back in my day but now there is Scratch designed specifically for children.

I wouldn't say your maths ability was minimal if you got a B. Just saying!

iggly realised I sounded like a twat after I posted that - comes from having little interest in Maths plus going to a very academic school which meant I was in the bottom set for Maths so I have always considered myself practically innumerate. Obviously that can't be the case!

I also used to love doing puzzle books.

Have you thought about introducing a musical instrument?

There are strong links between maths and music -I don't really understand why but its definitely there

No I think it is a confidence thing - if you're told you're in the bottom set then not surprising!

I've got a mathematical child too. Luckily he has a mathematical Dad, so I don't have to think about this, but the thing DS loves that hasn't been mentioned so far is DragonBox which is an algebra + geometry app/game. There's an age 5+ version and an age 12+ one (although I don't think the age 12+ one is actually that hard - once they've worked through all the levels on the 5+ one, they are probably ready to go on to the 12+ one)

Oh and Sudoku (apols if already mentioned).

Ds2 loves maths. He is in year 2. On the way to school we look at number plates and use the numbers to make sums up with or get several together so he can tell me the place values.
He also knows the order of the planets so does sums in planets (eg mars x earth = 12)
Mathletics is a good app. The school have signed him up to it but I think you can do it without a school