Doodle maths | Mumsnet

FlamingoYellow · 2023-08-01T11:55:23+00:00

Has anyone got experience of using it with their child? I paid for a subscription for both my dcs to help them catch up over the summer holidays. They completed the baseline assessment and both got a doodle age below their actual ages, which I was expecting. My 7.4 year old started off with a doodle age of 5.11, but after a few days it got changed to 5.2! Surely this can't be right?? He got a scaled score of 93 in his maths sats, so I thought he was a little behind but not massively so. He's not enjoying the app at all and he is saying it's too hard so I'm going to cancel it for him. I already do all the usual stuff to help improve his maths skills - weighing ingredients for cakes, measuring things around the house, playing shop with play money, etc. Plus we practise sums together using number cubes. I'm not sure what else to do?

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RudsyFarmer · 01/08/2023 12:57

My children really enjoyed Math Seeds which is a stand alone or a package alongside Reading Eggs. I think it’s a fantastic bit of software and I was extremely grateful for it over lockdown.

Cryingbutstilltrying · 01/08/2023 13:12

We started using DoodleMaths during lockdown as the school provided very little. I found it very easy to use and my ds really engaged with it through the character that you can ‘buy’ items for. We started with it at y2 level but ds is able at maths so it scored him much higher than his age and he enjoyed the challenge. What I liked most was that after a lesson the questions remained mixed, so it wasn’t all on fractions or area, for example, it kept all the different topics ticking over and added in a new one each week. There is a help button on the questions if more guidance is needed but if the assessment is done, in theory it shouldn’t offer work that is too hard.
The age changing is correct, it’s to 2 decimal places not months, so he’s moved from 5.11 to 5.20 in your example. It increases as the new lessons are added in and more correct answers are given. A little bit each day was what I was after, that might not be your aim. Ds has a streak of over 1000 days now and I don’t need to nag at him to do it, so for me it’s been worth it. He’s been off school much of this year due to unmet Sen needs and it’s worked for us.

If your child is not interested then it may well be worth looking at other resources. A friend uses White Rose maths and has just subscribed to the year her child is in. It sounds more like each topic is done in isolation from what she has told me, but if you’re trying to catch up specific things that might work better?
If offline is preferred then Twinkl worksheets are good and lots of repetition, but may not have the teaching element needed.

Original poster

FlamingoYellow · 01/08/2023 13:54

Thanks for your replies. I think I might go for something offline where I can explain it to him.

Thank you very much @Cryingbutstilltrying for the explanation. I didn't realise about the way ages are shown, I'm glad he wasn't going further back in age 😂. He has deleted the app from his tablet in protest so I won't make him do it any more, but my older dc is still keen, so I will have another read of the help pages and see how I can make things better.

I know they use White Rose in school so I could go through that to target the areas where dc2 needs the most help I suppose. I'm just really surprised that the school haven't tried to offer more support if he's really working around 2 years below where he's expected to be 😕.

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GloriousSludge · 02/08/2023 09:59

Doodlemaths should set itself at a level where the child is getting about 90% right. So before giving up on it (since you’ve paid) I would try to work out if he’s discouraged because he’s getting 10% wrong, or if it is really set too hard for him. Given his age rating went up, I suspect it wasn’t set too hard and he’s very unconfident at maths and finds getting even 10% wrong too discouraging.

He will get things wrong, if he’s learning new things, so you will need to work on that being OK and part of learning, whatever method you choose.

anewdays · 02/08/2023 11:08

OP, do you know what specifically he is struggling with? I would assume he found the reasoning paper harder than the arithmetic one? If so, your main focus should be word problems on the areas he's secure in (e.g. if he's confident on adding, focus on adding word problems but if he's not confident with, for example, fractions, don't work on fractions word problems until he's confident with the basics).

Original poster

FlamingoYellow · 02/08/2023 14:00

I asked him what he found hard with doodlemaths and he said he didn't find it hard, he found it boring because it was the same questions over and over again.

I did some year 1 maths questions with him earlier and he got about half right. He didn't recognise number bonds of 10, how to find the difference between 2 numbers or how to times and divide. He understood quarter and half but no three quarters.

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Original poster

FlamingoYellow · 02/08/2023 14:06

anewdays · 02/08/2023 11:08

OP, do you know what specifically he is struggling with? I would assume he found the reasoning paper harder than the arithmetic one? If so, your main focus should be word problems on the areas he's secure in (e.g. if he's confident on adding, focus on adding word problems but if he's not confident with, for example, fractions, don't work on fractions word problems until he's confident with the basics).

I wasn't told what he got on the separate papers, bit he said at the time that one paper was really easy and the other one was 'fine', so I think you're probably right that he found the reasoning paper harder.

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Passerillage · 02/08/2023 14:08

I would be inclined to sit with him while he does it, really. My dd can be a little like this - quickly discouraged and needs to be sat on slightly to make the effort. If he is finding it TOO easy, then he can do the calibration test again, but my two found that particularly boring.

He only needs to do it for 10 - 15 mins a day. If nothing else, he needs to learn a tiny bit of resilience to "it's boring", even at 7.

It might be an idea to start him on Kumon in September. It's worth the effort now to make sure that he glides into year 6 and beyond easily. Kumon definitely helped my dd, especially with sticking at it.

Passerillage · 02/08/2023 14:11

We've done DoodleMaths, White Rose and Kumon - I told dd2 that she could NOT do Kumon if she did 15 mins of DoodleMaths every day, and for some unearthly reason she chose Kumon, but I think it did the job, because she's much more confident now.

Lovetotravel123 · 02/08/2023 14:22

Doodlemaths was really good for my child. So much so that his teacher at his (private) school couldn’t believe his progress with fractions. The app taught him better than the teacher!

Original poster

FlamingoYellow · 02/08/2023 14:42

Passerillage · 02/08/2023 14:08

I would be inclined to sit with him while he does it, really. My dd can be a little like this - quickly discouraged and needs to be sat on slightly to make the effort. If he is finding it TOO easy, then he can do the calibration test again, but my two found that particularly boring.

He only needs to do it for 10 - 15 mins a day. If nothing else, he needs to learn a tiny bit of resilience to "it's boring", even at 7.

It might be an idea to start him on Kumon in September. It's worth the effort now to make sure that he glides into year 6 and beyond easily. Kumon definitely helped my dd, especially with sticking at it.

Hmm...ok, I might try it again. I did try to bribe him with something fun to get him to do some doodlemaths today but he said he'd rather just do a worksheet. It's difficult trying to find the balance between stopping him from falling further behind at school and feeling like I'm putting on too much pressure at a really young age!

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Original poster

FlamingoYellow · 02/08/2023 14:43

Passerillage · 02/08/2023 14:11

We've done DoodleMaths, White Rose and Kumon - I told dd2 that she could NOT do Kumon if she did 15 mins of DoodleMaths every day, and for some unearthly reason she chose Kumon, but I think it did the job, because she's much more confident now.

What is Kumon? I've googled and it looks complicated!

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anewdays · 02/08/2023 15:14

FlamingoYellow · 02/08/2023 14:00

I asked him what he found hard with doodlemaths and he said he didn't find it hard, he found it boring because it was the same questions over and over again.

I did some year 1 maths questions with him earlier and he got about half right. He didn't recognise number bonds of 10, how to find the difference between 2 numbers or how to times and divide. He understood quarter and half but no three quarters.

I'd focus on multiplying and dividing since he doesn't recognise them. I have taught Y1 for a few years and have taught Y2 in the past so please feel free to DM me if you would like any specific advice about teaching topics or resources etc. I agree with PP that he needs to develop some resilience to boredom. 10-15 minutes a day of maths a day will give him more than enough time to still be a child, while also helping him catch up.

Have school mentioned anything to you about his maths?

Yusay · 02/08/2023 15:55

I could not make Doodle maths work for us at all, it just kept asking loads of very similar questions which were all way too easy for my child, perhaos I did something woring but for us it was easier to cancel than figure it out.

Original poster

FlamingoYellow · 02/08/2023 20:17

anewdays · 02/08/2023 15:14

I'd focus on multiplying and dividing since he doesn't recognise them. I have taught Y1 for a few years and have taught Y2 in the past so please feel free to DM me if you would like any specific advice about teaching topics or resources etc. I agree with PP that he needs to develop some resilience to boredom. 10-15 minutes a day of maths a day will give him more than enough time to still be a child, while also helping him catch up.

Have school mentioned anything to you about his maths?

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Thank you. I will send you a PM because I don't know where to start with it all!
I know 10-15 mins a day isn't much, but I've been trying really hard to keep it fun because I don't want him hating maths even more. I'll see if I can persuade him to get back to it.
School haven't said anything really. He has a learning plan in class but the only maths based targets have been learning to write the numbers (as in the figures, not the words).

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Busornobus67 · 02/08/2023 23:09

Thats scaled score is only 19 or 20/60 marks. Average scaled score is probably 104 or 105
personally i would sit down with a SATs paper and let him have a go. You ma y find he gets a lot of the arithmetic correct.
i practised with dd and she got 111. Which was higher than i expected.
School use mathletics which provides more practise.
cgp books are good too.

Original poster

FlamingoYellow · 03/08/2023 07:48

Busornobus67 · 02/08/2023 23:09

Thats scaled score is only 19 or 20/60 marks. Average scaled score is probably 104 or 105
personally i would sit down with a SATs paper and let him have a go. You ma y find he gets a lot of the arithmetic correct.
i practised with dd and she got 111. Which was higher than i expected.
School use mathletics which provides more practise.
cgp books are good too.

That might be a good idea so I can see which bits he is struggling with the most.
When he took the SATS paper he was sat on his own in a separate room with a teacher who read the questions out to him and prompted him, so it sounds like he was given the best chance possible to show what he could do.

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