Year 2 maths - what can I do to help?

[Wellhellojonsnow]

I have just had parents evening and my summer born DD is below expected in maths (yr 2). Does anyone have suggestions on websites, books etc that I can use to help?

I’ve heard Singapore maths is good but have no idea about resources to use... 🤔

workbook

education city (a game) is also good but i think you have to pay. you can get a free trial though!

Just practice Maths every day, just like you do with reading. You don't need resources just a pen, paper and 15 minutes.

One thing you can do is go to the book shop and get her to choose some work books. There are many kind, she may find ones she likes.

If you want her to work on repetition, I do recommend
IXL, follows the curriculum, very tedious but covers all the basics. You can use it for free up to 10 questions a day, or about £4.99 a month for full access.

Another one which could be quite fun and free is prodigy, which is more game based maths practice. You may need to get parent account(free) to set up the level for her if you want her to do certain level, since it adopts to the child, though it may be a good thing if she start from easier/lower levels to gain confidence.

Thanks for the replies.

Yes, I think the key is doing a little bit every day (like we did when she was learning to read). I will take a look & register at one or two of those websites - they can then compliment some workbooks.

I’m an accountant and feel quite bad that I didn’t realise that she was struggling (with what I expected to come easy to her) Hopefully we can get her back on track....

I bought the abacus text books from amazon and they have helped my Ds no end.
He wasn't always able to explain it to me but he could show me in the book and thrn we would practice..

I think Kumon might be a good fix for your problem

Don't worry OP. Both my parents had maths related jobs, and I didn't get maths until my dad sat down and started doing some work with me when I was 7/8 years old. It wasn't too late.

I find that DS doesn't get on well with apps because none we've tried yet have realistic content for a year 2 child. It's a shame because apps were brilliant for phonics but it's useless if 90% of the times tables q's are for stuff he won't learn till year 4. I haven't tried the ones above yet so will give them a go - would be interested to hear how your DD finds them OP!

Mathsfactor been good for my children - partly becuase as you said it was easy to get some done every day as I'm only needed when they got stuck so I could be around but reading with another child.

www.khanacademy.org/ free might help or BBC - mine used to like the Dick and Dom games with potions and sharing.

I do totally second Khan Academy too. It's the best teaching site I ever came across. Maths, science, Grammer, history, anything other than Foreign language. But it does need a bit of navigatng skill to use this site efficiently, for teaching a child who needs basic understanding of something, without too much parental involvement, just because it's such a huge site.
But I thinks it may work well, if she systematically works from early maths to higher levels, the tutorial videos are just amazing.

I would second Irvine's recommendation of IXL. We used the free 10 questions per day for a while, but soon moved to a subscription and it's really useful because it covers all the topics in the curriculum per year group. Your DD can then go over the ones she struggles with a few times if she wants: it doesn't stop you repeating them. It will highlight clearly to you where she's fine and where she struggles. My DD finds it fun to get certificates for number of sections completed, questions got correct etc and getting the little online 'prizes'. It suits her because there is not really any time pressure, unlike some maths apps.

Ha, I'm so glad others like IXL, LetItGo. It was recommended to me by other MNetter few years ago(who goes by different name now so I don't say it here), and ds loves it. We renewed yearly subscription recently. Not just Maths, English is great and reasonable too. And no, I don't work for them!

Haha Irvine, me neither, and we have the English too. DD doesn't use it as much as I would like, due to busy lives, but we both like it.

I think the yr2 maths is surprisingly challenging- i also have a SB dd in yr 2 (and maths alevel). It's really not appropriate for 6yos.
Mine mainly cant do the partioning etc.
I quite like mathseeds as it teaches as well as Q.
I think school homework for maths previously would have helped us, as you say a little bit daily.

First you need to identify what particular areas your DD is struggling in - number bonds? Time? Times tables? Place value? etc...

Once you have identified the areas needing work it will be much easier to find suitable resources.

My DTs (p4/yr3) are behind in maths and we identified the 3 key areas where they were struggling - number bonds, place value and time. I have actually got them a private tutor because I knew the computer based tutoring wouldn’t work for them for a variety of reasons. (they HATE education city because of the bloody clock in the corner counting down the time!) The tutor has said that they are actually very capable of the more complex maths, but it’s some of the basics they are missing - ie the problem is that they missed key teaching earlier on in school and that is holding them back - not ability. That has been hugely helpful to know.

For now they see their tutor once a week for an hour and do 20min of maths before school each day. We bought a Numicon set and a place value set from Amazon and we also already had 200 snap cubes which are brilliant. Using those on a daily basis has helped massively.

Mathseeds is good as is mathletics

Oh and doodlemaths

Use maths language

Talked about halfs and quarters
Talked about CM and M
Talk about guessing weights and measure - make cakes help with cooking - let her weigh the carrots!!

The language is usually the main barrier to maths

Just sat down to catch up on messages and there’s loads! Thanks everyone for taking time to reply with your recommendations. DC are now in bed so I can spend the evening looking at them all. I’m quite excited!

Thanks for the reassurance irvine

We started on a bit this morning (basic pen and paper work) and have half term to get stuck in. Watch this space...

Also think about getting a numicon set Amazon £30 - look on the Numicon New Zealand website for ideas

Example plus and minus one, odd and even numbers adding odds and evens addiction and take away - it's a great visual aid and they love playing with it

Top marks maths has some good maths games

I am having the same issue but DD is winter born.

We have been doing 2, 5 and 10 times tables plus some simple sums but I do feel overwhelmed on where to focus. She doesn't get counting in 2s, 3s, 5s etc from a number different to that from the times tables. Or sums such as 7 + 6 or subtraction. It feels like she is way off the end of year expectations.

I'm flitting between books, hit the button, twinkle, matheletics etc and don't feel focused.

She gets no maths homework.

IceniSky, have used the things like Numicon(I think twinkle had pritable paper version), lego pieces, abacus, etc?
Or something like thinking-blocks?
Visual aid is quite helpful.

Iceni - I’ve been speaking to a KS1 teacher friend today and he’s recommended this book:

www.amazon.co.uk/Plus-Introductory-Coaching-System-Success/dp/0953981215/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ref=plSrch&keywords=plus+one+maths&dpPl=1&dpID=41deESCrXcL&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&tag=mumsnetforum-21&ie=UTF8&qid=1539805990&sr=8-1

It starts off quite easy, and then once they’ve got a page they move onto the next one, progressively getting harder. He’s found it very effective with children who struggle as it gives them base confidence and gradually builds knowledge. It only requires a little bit every day. Maybe worth a look?

my DS in reception and DS in Y2 both love Mathsseeds.