How useful are maths apps to help children's maths

[Coffeep]

I was wondering how useful these maths apps really are at improving a child's maths? Would they be better than spending 20 mins a few times a week to go over maths questions in a book?

I am looking at ways to improve my son's confidence in maths. He is in year 2 and doing OK; his school stream the whole year so he is in the bottom table of the top class - I dislike that they stream so young. He finds maths difficult to understand and so is losing confidence in the class.

I was looking at maths apps but most of them offer practice rather than teaching and practice, so I am not sure how useful they would be if he doesn't understand the concept in the first place.

I sit down with him and go over some maths work, using Collins workbook, I have a white board, counters, base 10s and 1s etc and explain the concept to him and help him with the sums. He sort of gets it but will forget a few days later.

Would using an app for 15 mins a few times a week help him more than what I am doing? I don't want him to give up on maths at such a young age.

Hi, please check out this website, its great for primary 4/5 children with helping them do maths.
www.quizardo.com

I'd say very

@Coffeep as long as you are familiar with the methods and terminology relating to how they teach maths nowadays (eg 'ones' rather than 'units') and your DS is receptive to working with you, I think 1:1 support is better than online apps (though they have their place). It sounds like your approach, using a variety of methods including physical objects such as counters, is great.

I agree with people that suggest little and often. 5-10 minutes most days would be amazing.

You could change it up with a few games, and you could use online resources for the games, or for ideas for games to play away from the computer.

Nrich is a great resource. Here are a couple of links:
Nrich games aimed at lower primary
Nrich dice games

Online maths sites such as TTRS, Hit the Button etc, are good for building speed and fluency through repetition, and work really well if your DC is competitive, but at this stage, if you have the time, your own input would be more beneficial.