Jim, you seem determined to be agressive to every poster on here.
Most of us are just trying to give you some answers to questions you have raised.
by the way, it is helpful to put the name of the person you are replying to.
yes I am an ex teacher, and now I do 11+ tuition.
I am well aware of the failings of schools, and how some kids fall through the net. I am also aware that school works most of the time for most kids.
I used to teach in a place where we had a lot of kids come in to school having been home schooled. I often foudn kids who had a really good ability to number crunch. They could do column addition with exchange with their eyes shut. BUT they didn't always have that deeper understanding of number underneath, so they couldn't tell you that 32 is made up of 3 tens and 2 units, and that then fed in to their ability to problem solve, and to make reasoned and sensible estimations, and to check if their answers were within a sensible range etc. I still come across kids likt this in my 11+ tutoring sometimes, and the 11+ questions expect the kids to see numbers and make the connection, make the link, etc, not just number crunch.
So, the emphasis should not be on doing column addition (or whatever) it should be on levels of understanding of maths concepts.
I actually think the national curriculum is pushing further and further awya form this, as best practice is loads of practical maths in the early years (up to 7 or 8) and the NC requires evidence in paper maths.
I applaud your input with your DGD, I wish all parents would take an interest and make sure their kids are understanding what they do in school. I am a realist though, and at my dds primary school, they struggle to get parents to do even the basics, let alone extra maths input. I I still stand by hwat I said about the reasons why school say don't teach. If you do want to teach more, you should do it WITH the school, ie, find out their calculation policy, follow it, ask your DGD what they are studying this term, follow up on that, get her to show you what she has learnt in school and then practise it, rather than startign from scratch teaching a new method.
Hi, thanks for the comment but I an fully aware of how to understand and do basic arithmetic. Just because I am a grandfather doesn't mean that somehow I have lost the ability to do simple maths calculations, but thanks any way for the tips........
^^ was this addressed to me? I didn't in any way tell you how to do bsaic arithmatic, or suggest you were unable to do anything as you were a grandfather, I was illustrating the point about deepening concepts as opposed to learning how to add on paper.