Arithmetic book for year 2+

[Kittlewittle]

I have a very bright and keen year 2 child who loves maths. He particularly likes arithmetic. Any ideas for books for him? Most maths book have a variety of things and are quite wordy, and he really wants to do lots of pure maths. (We do other kinds of maths on the Doodle maths app).

I have ordered some kumon books, but these aren't easy to find, and I am wondering if there are any others. For ideas of level, he is doing column addition/subtraction, problems involving negative numbers, fractions, multiplication etc.

Following with interest as I have a year 1 child who is also way ahead of National Curriculum expectations in maths!

Hopefully someone will be able to offer suggestions. My son's maths is well ahead of his reading ability, so he wants just maths rather than wordy problems. Kumon is all I have found so far.

Yes I know the problem - DS is very average in reading but miles ahead in maths (knows all.times tables, can do column addition up to the millions) so the word problems that schools love to emphasise are useless to him at the moment. I will look at Kumon, thanks for the suggestion.

I’d have a look at the CGP books. Look at Year 3 or 4 of he’s ahead.

Ensure your child can understand problem solving questions based on arithmatic before you move on. You know, Jonny has 75 packets of toilet roll each with 134 rolls. He gives 6 to Jemima, 3 to Peter and 24 to Fatima, how many are left etc.

Times table rock stars.

Maths is one of those things which is highly frustrating as a parent of a bright or gifted child because the jump in each year is so minimal. Year 3 might be HTO and Year 4 THTO in column mathematics. There's no difference really. If they get it, they get it.

Teaching them to explain their answer mathematically and in words. We were hauled into school because our DD kept writing "because it is" when asked to explain her working out. She is a walking calculator and didn't need to show working out. They keep saying at some point she'll need to not do it in her head but she's Year 6 (doing Year 9 maths) and she's still not showing her workings.

Also other things like chess can help. If your child is that way inclined, they are usually pretty solid at chess and it's a good extra curricular.

Can you go sideways.
Rather than more maths, get kids suduko and other number style puzzles. Ideally mixed books, but that becomes easier as they get older.

Rubix cubes - maybe a pyramid first, the magnetic fidget toy things (can't remember then name - about £20 but endless entertainment here), chess, intro to programming style games, board games and individual puzzles like the ones from IQ Smart.

Getting further ahead with the curriculum just sets them up for further boredom in class!

Am an oxbridge maths graduate and have a y2 child who is ahead of year by some way so have some interest. Don’t dismiss the maths problems, they are making it into practical use - this is helpful for short and long term and needs different skills (reading and writing) which can be encouraged using maths as the hook. Make sure times tables are known inside out and backwards - how many ways can we make 42? This leads to number properties, factors, etc. And then go sideways as above - geometry, maths puzzles like sodoku, chess, making and designing mazes, sequences, combinations - there are puzzles from a company called IQ my DC finds really absorbing. Physics - marble runs to talk about forces, distances in space, speed of light etc. Arithmetic is a tool not an outcome, or at least that’s how I try to think of it - hard when school focuses on the latter I guess.

Thank you. He can do word problems if they are ready to him. His maths abilities are well ahead of his reading abilities. He really enjoys just doing maths though.

Doing chess sounds interesting, as do other activities.

I understand what another poster said about not going too far ahead, but then he does love maths, and I don't think it is particularly well taught at school so I do want to supplement it at home.

You could look at maths challenges. The first level on this one (First Maths Challenge) is for Years 3 and 4, but he would likely be able to do a lot of it if he's ahead for year 2, and quite possibly some of the Year 5 and 6 one (Primary Maths Challenge).

https://www.primarymathschallenge.org.uk/

If he starts to find those easy, then the UMMT ones will be good eventually - there is a Junior one which is Year 8 and below, but often children who are good at maths start it in about Year 5. There is also a new primary Kangaroo challenge.

https://ukmt.org.uk/junior-challenges/primary-kangaroo