My 6 year old DD cannot add or substract :(

[Krizlibear]

Hi! I have a 6 year old DD (just turned 6 last month). She is happy and bright, reads very well, no problems with that whatsoever. But she has zero concept of adding and substracting. She understands that number X means X candies etc but there it ends. We’ve tried everything - with candies, with fingers etc but she just doesn’t get the concept of ‘+’ and ‘-‘ on paper or in real life. She will start preschool this autumn (in my country school starts when children are 7, before that they attend kindergarten and/or voluntary preschool). What should i do? Or do i expect too much from her? Can your 6 year olds do maths?

Have you tried using a number line?

Does she have a tablet or do you? Our school used numbots and TT rockstars which my daughter loves playing.

I'm going to go against the grain and say that this possibly is a bit of a problem OP. My 6YO dd has had 2 yrs of school as we're in the uk but knows most of her 2, 5 and 10 x tables off by heart. She could do basic addition and subtraction and could conceptualise multiplication by age 3. She's only being told she's 'slightly above average' in Maths by her school teacher. (I dispute this but still..) I know your's hasn't had formal schooling but I would be a little concerned about a child who hasn't learned addition and subtraction by this age intuitively

I'd start by being very visual with it. Use counters/biscuits/grapes. Go for 'one more than' initially and 'one less than' also do lots of counting to 10/20 and counting backwards as well. The first thing she needs to conceptualise is that numbers come in sequence. Once she seems secure with this I'd do lots of 10's frames work and recognising and writing numbers. I wouldn't even try and present addition and subtraction as written equations until she's really secure with the above because it'll be meaningless.

I second the numberblocks suggestions. Fantastic little tv series and a couple of really nice games too that really help less enthusiastic mathematicians. My dd has loved it

I wouldn’t worry about it too much just now if she’s not in formal education yet

I remember being in primary 4 and having to use cubes to count whilst the rest of my class were on Long division! Fast forward to end of secondary school and I’d got an A in higher maths. Kids learn at their own pace x

I think the curriculum has changed so much. I don’t really remember doing it early either but my 5yo has been doing greater/less than in y1 and am pretty sure she did some last year in reception as well. In contrast through I think they spend a lot more time working with smaller numbers. They are still doing a lot within 10 and 20 but really pushing understanding of number bonds, patterns etc.

I just read your update- that she has a good concept of number but didn't know the symbols/written methods which you are now teaching her. So all sounds good!

Just to point out that it's subtract not subStract- but depending on the language of the country you're moving to that may not be relevant.

I suppose that we were doing bigger/smaller when I was that age, presumably? But it was just the language "greater than" and "less than" which has since been introduced at an earlier stage.

I did notice that a Numberblocks toy we have had these on it even though the rest of the maths within the toy seemed much simpler for very young children.

Makes sense for them to use the proper terminology from the start I suppose.

Children are not generally capable of abstract thought until they are about 7.

Op, try Mathseeds - it's a popular online programme here in the UK. We got it for our little one who is home educated and he's come so far in the year we've been using it. It also has the programs "fast phonics" and "reading eggs" including, which are also fabulous. It really is worth the £10 a month - but you can try it free for a month, I believe. https://mathseeds.co.uk/parents/signup/