Maths practise Yr 2

[Monkeymonstermum]

I have a year 2 son - fairly bright I think (but no genius). He’s always found things fairly easy at school and is doing well but the last few weeks he is a bit disappointed that a few of his friends have jumped up a maths book ahead of him (he’s generally been the first or second to go up a book).
We’ve talked about the fact that everyone does things at different rates etc etc that it’s nothing to worry about (and I suspect some are doing a lot out of school, including tutoring already..we are def not going to do this).
Just wondering what you’d recommend in terms of cementing things over the hols and beyond. He’s eager and keen to do extra (unlike his lazy mother...).
Any apps etc? We have a times tables CD we’ll play on Christmas journeys. I’ve heard of khan academy but don’t know where to start on it.
Don’t worry, he’ll be doing loads of fun things but if we have a bit of spare time would like to just improve in fun, easy ways if we can.

Thanks in advance.

My year 2 son is very into playing blackjack at the moment. Lol. He loves the gambling - but it makes him do mental arithmetic too. We also play games with money in - like monopoly - so they have to work out change, and multiples of dice etc. There are lots of apps you can use/download for maths.
Can you make and play multiplication bingo? so you either write the sum on the bingo card and the answer on the 'ball' - or the other way round. Make sure you include some times tables he doesn't yet know. We have a game called Hoo-haa. I wouldn't say it's the best in the world - I bought it cheap in a sale - but it makes us think about our 7, 8 and 12 times table - although I haven't yet played with my year 2 as he's a bit young - he's still on 4 and 6 times table.

Thanks (I will need to look up the rules for black jack 🙈 - once upon a time I knew them)!!
Any specific Apps? There just seem to be SO many out there!
Will hunt out the monopoly he got bought at 2 yrs old....was a bit premature so was put away and never used!
All other ideas gratefully received 😃

Our school uses DoodleMaths app for that age group.

Thanks Dauphinois - just had a look, it’s £5.99 a month. Would you say it’s worth that? Any other ideas for free Apps?

We play dominoes - "fives and threes" is good for addition and multiplication. Just play like normal dominoes, except each turn you add up the ends of the snake and score for what they add up to, in multiples of five and or three. If they add up to 10 (e.g. a 6 and a 4), score 2, because 10 = 2 x 5. They add up to 9, score 3, because 9 = 3 x 3. If they add up to 15 (e.g. a double-6 and a 3), score 8 because 15 = 3 x 5 and 5 x 3. Play with double-6, double-9 or double-15 dominoes to make it more challenging.

Squeebles is good for mental maths and quick recall

Dd used to use Khan Academy quite a bit, but now (at A level stage), tends just to watch videos now and then, as Sal Khan is very good at explaining maths. When she started, it assessed her level and automatically set her maths to suit her. She loved collecting the badges. So it is well worth signing up to and it is free. Perhaps someone who has joined it more recently will be able to help, as the site keeps changing and can be difficult to negotiate at first.

Nrich is another good site.

Mystical Maths and Enchanted English are a couple of good book series by Letts, as they involve colleting stickers for a scene at the end of the book and go over some of the things in the curriculum.

When I taught dd maths at primary age I used revision guides and workbooks. (Both Letts and CGP do these) and got coloured pens and a graph paper book. Then just sat with her making the maths colourful and interesting as we went through the books.

Khan academy is great, and it does look rather complicated until you get used to it.
You can use it to learn certain skill, or master skills for certain year groups or choose to master maths subject like arithmetic/pre algebra/ geometry, etc.
They have apps for early years(free too).
The best feature of Khan is the tutorial videos by Sal, that you can watch again and again until you get it.

If you use Khan efficiently, I am sure your child will be ahead in the end. There is no limit for learning up to high school level(A level, I think), and video teaching is superb, with community to ask questions if you needed to.

For maths in Y2 he can improve his speed knowledge of times tables and additions. It's difficult not to make this too boring and put kids off - there are various apps or rock star maths or skoolbo online, this basically helps speed and accuracy in doing calculations.

The other thing to do is improve his reasoning ability. This is when the calculation is embedded within a real life problem. For example there are 56 people on a train 18 get on at the next station and 21 get off how many are now on the train? Again this is just practise - but is a bit easier to incorporate into every day life. For example he can practise handling money; play monopoly or similar or just let him help with real money. How many of these sweets can he buy for £1? How much change will we get? etc

If he's quite bright he might like to try some of the earlier maths challenge problems - these do get tricky but are fun for kids who like maths.

My son also loves the maths quest books - they are fairly advanced for Y2 both in terms of reading and maths but definitely fun for a child who enjoys maths.