How can I best support my child with maths at home?

[Eileen101]

My 5 year old is finishing reception as "emerging" in maths. I've asked the teacher what I can do differently with him and her answer was that she's not worried, but I am!
I'm hoping to do some maths games over the summer, but I'm unsure what.
My ideas so far:

1. Patterns with 'what comes next'
2. Lots of counting things
3. Recognizing numbers on the scales when we name.
4. Basic sums with counters etc

I'm trying to stay away from screens/apps

What else can I do that's pitched around reception/year 1?

The home learning books you can get in bookshops or on Amazon are great, my kids love them. A page or two a day will really help, and they’re just quick exercises set out in colourful inviting books. Some come with stickers for putting on each page which is completed which my four year old loves. They’re about £4 each I think.

But yes all your ideas will be great. If they’re not into sit down learning then incorporating numbers into everyday chat is great. So if you’re baking, get them to help with weighing and talk about adding more or taking some away to get to the right amount. Things like that!

Numicon is a great tool for early number work as it makes the operations concrete and visible. The sets are not cheap though but you should be able to download various games and activities to do with it. Learning the number bonds of 5 and 20 would also be useful to add to your list.

School provide us with access to mathletics. I know you said no screens but it is a really good app.

There's some good Orchard Games that help with maths - Times Tables Heroes is one and Bus Stop. My kids enjoyed those.

I also got them the Collins workbooks although they're not as 'fun' but the extra practice helps.

I think the basic and most important thing is to make sure he is confident with his times tables. That is what really helped my son and he didn't really do that until year 3, when they started using something called TTRS... Times table Rock Stars.

Maths work books with lots of stickers
mathletics if you can
definitely times tables - there are some good singing versions

Number bonds and composition of number are crucial. KNOWING that 3 add 1 makes 4, but so does 2 add 2 and remembering these facts, not needing to work them out. Knowing these facts for all numbers to 5 and some for numbers to 10.

Don't focus on counting to solve simple calculations - encourage them to use these number facts.

Board games - with one dice, then 2 dice. And orchard games.
Baking - better still if you can half or double recipes.
Adding numbers. Lots and lots of adding numbers.

Carol Vorderman's website is offering a free 6 week maths adventure here: The Maths Factor Summer adventure with Carol Vorderman I saw her mention on Twitter but haven't used the website before so can't say what it's like. Says it's aimed at children 4 to 11.

Playing cards always worked with my children. Especially if there is an incentive - small treat

Workbooks are good, ideally with stickers for motivation. Home bargains often have them very inexpensively, or Amazon currently have the CGP ones for a few pounds.
Have him use something tangible to represent the sums - Lego /teaspoons/small toy cars/blocks to help him group and move them and add/subtract. Numicon is expensive and he’ll be fine using his own toys to practice.
Focus on reinforcing the number bonds between 0-10.

I know you said no screens, but numberblocks is great - might be an option for days he’s resistant to more obvious ‘learning’.

Play cards or just let him enjoy the holiday .

Reading car Reg plates and talking about door numbers is good too. What the next one will be, is it even, what's one less.
Numbers bonds to 10 (google it) is a good start but do with apparatus (even dried pasta shapes) so he can see theres always 19 there but that the groups are arranged differently.
Think of times tables as another way of counting.
Ensure he knows how to count up to 100- what after 19, 29, 39 etc. 100 square us really good. You can print fit free. What's one number more, less, where are the numbers on the 10 times table.
Make it gentle and short sessions. Could be 5 mins twice a day- better than 10 mins once per day.
Osborne do nice lift the flap maths books too.

Lots of counting and recognising numbers - definitely up to 10 and ideally up to 20. You could do flashcards.

Practicing adding and subtracting - again, definitely within 10 and ideally up to 20. I teach my class (Y1) to draw circles to help their counting.

Sum swamp is a good board game at this age.

we have had a cubie subscription for the past year, and highly recommend. Simple workbooks with a sticker chart, but really well laid out and we find the cadence really good for learning - lots of going back and revisiting core concepts so that the learning really sticks. It is more expensive than workbooks you can buy, but I have found it really effective and my dc enjoy doing it each day.

having something physical you can manipulate is really important at this age - number cubes, counting sticks, make a ten - grid with tokens, etc.

DDs favourite was when we set up a snack stall on the dining room table, gave her a tub of change and priced everything. She had to pay for all her snacks, so she had to read the number on the price sticker, add up the totals, figure out the change....

We started easy with everything being 1p, or 2p and then as she got better at adding, subtracting and reading the coin values we made things more pricey.

You need to do addition and repeated addition (and learn numbers beyond 20) before multiplication.

Count constantly. Upstairs. Downstairs. How many things you can see.

With my nieces and my own i would ask them how much change they would have every time we were in a shop buying something. That was probably older than 5 though.

card games with numbers, like top trumps.

number jacks on CBeebies if that is still on.

give him spending money he earns though age appropriate chores. Different amounts for different things.

Have a bedtime chart on the wall. Slightly different times. Refer to it at bedtime and ask him what time t is. How ling until bedtime. Get a special teaching clock.

My daughter loved playing with her post office. Thats all finance!

Numicon is good. Workbooks can be very dreary at such a young age. High quality educational apps are really valuable and used by very good schools for practice and homework.

Numberblocks as already mentioned is great and aligned to the national curriculum. Squeebles also has high quality math apps.

Orchard games are good. Things like the mini sandcastle game. Numbetblocks on ceebies. Have a look at the early years goals to see where she should be. Some of the things suggested on this thread are well beyond nursery and would be greater depth for a child at the end of year 2. The Twinkl website is fantastic, they have a few free activities.

We got some at work from ebay, worth a look!

As a primary school teacher of 25 years, I would recommend Numicon At Home.

https://global.oup.com/education/content/primary/series/numicon/home/?region=uk

@Raindancer411 "I think the basic and most important thing is to make sure he is confident with his times tables. "

HE'S 5 YEARS OLD!!!!