Improving my sons maths problem solving skills

[Tead]

How can I help improve my sons maths problem solving and reasoning skills. He is in year 4 and whilst his arithmetic is very good, he struggles with worded maths problems.

He will sometimes multiply numbers instead of adding them. Sometimes he won’t understand what is being asked in text. I have purchased some CGP books which will help but I am also looking for any advice to help him.

How's his reading comprehension? If that's an issue in English, it'll be an issue in maths. Could he possibly be dyslexic? Processing speed is a big issue with word problems. If that's not an issue, get a CGP or Collins book for the year below, some easy word problems that he can work through and get his confidence up. Summer is a perfect time for this.

Something like this is good as it mixes up maths and English.

Year 4 Maths and English KS2 Targeted Study & Practice Book: Ideal for use at home (Collins KS2 Practice) https://amzn.eu/d/hZgotsp

His reading is fine but his reading comprehension isn’t that great. We are preparing for the 11 plus and I have noticed that his comprehension isn’t that good. But the worded problems use fairly basic English.
I am trying to improve his comprehension as well.

Improve reading comprehension.

Drawing pictures to help.

Imagine himself doing the activity

Simplify the numbers until it is 'obvious' what to do.

RUCSAC method

learning what key words will mean (eg share generally means divide, lots of means multiply)

Practice at home with practical maths - sharing sweets, measuring bedrooms or walls, how much paint, gravel or whatever.

suggest you sit with him a few times each week and solve problems together by breaking them down into multiple parts

I forgot 'common sense' check at the end. Does the answer 'seem' plausible?

Also, though this may be specific to my DDs, if you can't work out which operation, it's probably divide.

Have a look at Stride Ahead, the comprehension part of toe by toe. If you do it over the summer, it'll put him in good stead for the 11+. It doesn't matter if the maths problems aren't complicated, it's the understanding what the problem is asking you plus figuring out what to use that's tricky. The figuring out what to do is normally the issue and thats to do with processing and practise. Your best bet is to do something like stride ahead with him in the summer, plus daily word problems from Y3 and 4. Half of the issue will be confidence, so you want to start at a level he's comfortable with and build up.

Also, get a maths illustrated dictionary. They're brilliant at showing what maths words mean in a clear and simple way. Maths vocab is tricky for a lot of kids.

Thanks for this

Talk over things in the day. Take him shopping and get him to add up the cost of the shop as you got round etc. in the holidays, do cooking and get him to work out the weights in the recipe. Especially if you double or half the quantities. The more you talk maths and use maths in daily life th e better.

He can add up points and bonuses etc in computer games too.

Agree with @parietal And add problems in, eg “how much do I save if I buy pack of 4 beans vs 4 single tins?” “if we average 60mph how long will it take us to get to xxx, 32 miles away?” I did this from a young age and both my 2 developed great maths and logic skills.

Hi @Tead I was wondering if you ever found a solution to this issue, because it's identical to mine ☺️

@IsIroningEssential

What I'd do is a mixture of asking him to solve things (depending on his personality, you can do it to "help" you) in every day life and setting something with a reward at the end.

So everyday life:
"I don't want to spend more than £5 here, and I want to get 2 types of green vegetables and three of those yoghurt pots." Which green veg can I afford to get? When he's worked that out... How much change do I get?

The washing takes 2 hours 14 minutes, can I get two washes on before we have to go out at 3:45?

If he can't do it, then stop him and say "let's work it out together". Get out a pencil. So 2 hours 14 minutes, how long will two washes take? Discuss with him how long you need to leave between them if you want. So it takes 4 hours 28 minutes, give 7 minutes to swap washes. Let's see what time we need to get it on by. What's the time now? How long do I have to get it on?

Then set him a challenge that he has to do written ones 5 in a week. He can choose to do one a night, or all one night. Have a reward for doing them.
You can have some fun ones - Smarties are good for this, as he can eat them afterwards. Get a packet of Smarties (or ideally a few) and you can do things with the different colours - do a graph. Calculate what the average number per colour is. How many more would he need to have the same number in each colour as the biggest? How many to take away to have the same number as the smallest.
Are any of the colours in a multiple of 5? 6? 7? What about the total? Can he work out any factors of the total of the smarties.

If he does all five then he gets a small reward (you can do it as a sticker chart), and extra sticker per one that's correct. See if there's something he really wants and give him a challenge to get enough stickers for that (eg say September to Christmas = 100 stickers; if he manages to do it for 12 weeks in that time, he'll get 60 for doing them, and then between 3 and 4 right per week)