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Year 1 DS behind in maths

18 replies

Tintarella · 31/03/2026 10:52

We had Year 1 parents' evening for DS5 recently and his teacher told us he's not meeting expectations in maths. DS is late summer-born so I was prepared to be told his writing is all over the place (because it is!) but I was taken-aback by the maths and am now a bit worried. I tried doing some "fun" number bonds to 10 with him last night and he just couldn't remember one sum from one moment to the next except 5+5 and 9+1. Does this sound bad/worrying or within the margins of normal? I know friends' kids in Reception who know all their number bonds and it seems to have come relatively effortlessly to them....

Anyone been in similar position or can advise from a teaching pov on how to go forward? I now feel a bit guilty that I've been focusing on reading with him but doing nothing on numeracy. We never did anything with his sibling either but they just seemed to pick it up themselves... Grateful for any words of wisdom!

OP posts:
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newornotnew · 31/03/2026 10:56

First of all - 'behind' is an unhelpful term.

Is he behind other children, behind the average, or behind his natural ability?

Don't waste time and energy feeling guilty, just find, make or buy some fun maths games and make fun maths part of your routine. Review at the back end of the year.

Never compare to other kids, it's unhealthy.

Gofaster2023 · 31/03/2026 10:59

Theres a card game you can play. You need ace -10 in all suits. Shuffle then deal each person 7 cards. You get time to make pairs to 10 (or just a 10 by itself) and lay them down in front of you, and draw from the stack. Then you take it in turns to ask someone for a card that you need. If they do, they hand it over and draw a replacement. if not, you lose your go. Winner has the most pairs that make 10 at the end. If youre playing with more than 2 people you can ask anyone in the group (great way for a teacher to ensure everyone is included). My kids loved it and used to invent different versions as they got older. I never did work out the rules to the version they introduced to me years later when they were in p7!

AmandaHoldensLips · 31/03/2026 11:18

Sesame Street is the best ever kid's educational programme.

I taught my kids basic maths using Skittles, raisins, and dried pasta. Not as a lesson as such, but as general entertainment when we were in the kitchen.

Same with cake-making, getting them to weigh out ingredients and add them up. 4 of this, 4 of that, 2 of the other.

facethemusical · 31/03/2026 11:35

I wouldn't worry, there are so many ways to practice. If he's got building blocks you could build towers - build the tower 3 blocks high (count the blocks together), 'how high will it be if you add 2 more blocks? 3 add 2 equals.....' If he doesn't know then get him to 'count on' as he builds the tower. (4, 5) Then 'so 3 add 2 more is.....' and hopefully he will say 5, if not then you can say it.

You can do this with lining up cars, counting pasta or anything he likes really. Being able to physically see the number of items and count them out will make adding up easier than trying to do it in his head if he is struggling with that.

Tintarella · 31/03/2026 11:40

Thank you all for the replies.

@newornotnew I only used "behind" as a shorthand for "not meeting expectations" in the title- all of this is based on his teacher's assessment that according to the national curriculum he is not where he "ought" to be. I have absolutely no idea where other kids in his class are nor would I dream of trying to find out; this is about him and his learning, period.

OP posts:
Notabarbie · 31/03/2026 14:04

This is not a worrying problem but it would help if you support him. There are many things you can do. Keep the learning period very short and positive. Let him eat one of the sweets you are using.

What's one/two/, three more or less than (a number under 10, then 20). Do this with buttons, little marshmallows, craft gems, sweets - let your child get used to seeing 4/5/6/7 things in different arrangements so they get a feel for what a number looks like. It's not a symbol on a page. It's an amount.

Counting up in 5s then 10s. You can get the most wonderful penguin number square for this. Or you can get chalk and draw a number line to 100 on the pavement. Have your child run from 0 to 20/70/etc but they can't run past the number or they lose. Try and make it a race but don't let an older child beat them every time. Older siblings mess this stuff up if they come along and effortlessly win it. Try to move from this into saying "Run to the number that is equal to three fives" etc. This is the beginning of times tables. There are lots of fun songs on YouTube if he's interested.

Number bonds. Have two amounts of something adding up to 10 behind your back. They pick a hand, then guess how much is in the other hand. You reveal it and they take a sweet/raisin if they're correct. If they're consistently wrong try saying "Nearly! That was so tricky and you thought carefully about it!". Also have them think of the number bonds as friends. Make up stories about 7 and 3 and have them draw the illustrations. Try making salt dough decorations of the numbers and put the friends together around the house (with eyes and hats, obviously).

More number line work - just make number lines together. Cut up the numbers and ask for help finding them and sticking them together. Obviously better if you find this stuff very tricky and are terribly grateful for his help, don't know how you would have managed without him, must tell Daddy what a huge help he was etc. Incidentally Daddy should do some of this too because statistically that is incredibly beneficial to your child's progress.

Take screens away so there are no competing distractions. Keep it short and frequent. Children are not born with the hardwiring for this in the way that they are hardwired for language although some children take to it as if they were. They have to learn it through practice.

Shop or cafe: Take turns playing the different roles. Label different items together. Stick to pennies at first but if counting in 5s and 10s is going well by all means use bigger amounts. At this stage you can have a day when prices have gone up or down and everything in the store/cafe is 1p more or less than labelled.

Get a white board. Play a game where he gets a point if he can shout out the number you're writing before you've finished writing it. If he doesn't, you get a point. Whoever gets to ten first wins the game.

Don't make writing the focus of maths. Any written work he does should be to show his learning. You don't learn maths with a pencil in your hand.

Don't be afraid to give each number under 10 a colour and a song if he is that way inclined. You can then play number bonds by saying "purple (ie 7) and he says orange (3). Give him as much ownership as possible. Let him choose the numbers. If he's imaginative. Let him imagine a different kingdom for each number. Eg. 3 is a land of dragons that have breakfast three times a day, say good morning three times, sneeze three times etc. The possibilities are endless and there is a lot of opportunity to relate warmly to each other and enjoy shared laughter. Any artwork around this put it up and comment on it to cement the idea that grown ups take this seriously. Maybe Granny could send a card with a freddo bar because she is so proud of how much effort he is putting into helping you with the numbers.

Some children love Cuisenaire rods and numicon. As a home educating parent, I spent a fortune on them and barely used them. But definitely worth a look.

Children have an inbuilt knowledge of halves, quarters and thirds depending on how many siblings they have. They know their rights. I find that stories around theft are most interesting. So you were walking along with four sweets and half of them were stolen. How many were stolen and how many were left. Or you had six beautiful multicoloured fish and half of them went down the plughole so you went to the drain and needing to track down how many fish. To make this a step harder, you could produce two Oreos and say that the dog ate half of them and this is all that are left. How many Oreos were in the packet this morning before the dog got at them? You can also have a lot of fun with coloured water and measuring jugs.

Number blocks are helpful for showing the difference between odd and even numbers. You can show that even numbers are always paired while odd numbers have pairs and then one over. (Numicon shows this too). So you can then fit the odd numbers together with their unpaired extra number to make an even number. And you can fit 2 numbers together to make an even number. But an odd and an even number will still have one left over. This will be helpful to know later.

3D solids (don't call them shapes because shapes are 2D and only have sides) are really useful to start becoming familiar with. Words like cylinder, face, edge, pyramid are all easy to discuss now rather than trying to cram the knowledge in later. Also don't be afraid of using Venn and Carroll diagrams. I know they're daunting to look at but they are fun to draw out. Distinguishing a curved face from a flat side is part of maths. A curved face means that the solid will roll - eg a sphere or cylinder but not cube or pyramid. Collect things around the house and put them in your diagram. Huge sheets of cheap white paper are your friend. Photograph everything.

Practice being able to describe one thing in relation to another using appropriate language. Arrange coloured pipe cleaners in order of increasing or decreasing length. You can ask him to make a sentence telling you about the length of the blue stick compared to the red stick (all the more fun if he has collected these sticks and personally dipped them in paint). You're looking for sentences like "The yellow stick is longer/shorter than the blue stick" etc and do the same thing for heavier than and lighter than.

Talk about how solids don't change shape but liquids will take on the shape of their container and gases just float away. Useful later. Discuss when it would be fun to be a gas and when you'd rather be a solid.

Take every opportunity to let your child play the teacher and especially teach Daddy or other supportive adults. Your child is not learning to hit bench marks. They are learning how to engage, how to explore with curiosity, how to enjoy learning and how to enjoy a different and precious facet of their relationship with you. The more you are prepared to make learning a way of life and respect your child's task to grow and explore, the more engaged and confident they will become about their learning. The fact that they will sit down and find the homework sheets a doddle after all this is irrelevant. Worksheets are an opportunity to show what you know or a springboard into learning.

The white rose website has helpful videos. Happy learning!

Notabarbie · 31/03/2026 14:11

Typo
Distinguishing a curved face from a flat face
Two even numbers fit together (with no number left over) to make another even number

Isekaied · 31/03/2026 14:14

There was a computer game they had access to via school.
That really helped mine with the number bonds .

Think it was called numbots.

Mine loved playing this.

And in school they would be given certificates if they had completed levels

Hollietree · 31/03/2026 14:16

Don’t panic. Assessments in year 1 are nothing to worry about, especially if they are summer born.

My son was “below expected” in Maths until year 2. Then he caught up and by the time he was in year 6 he passed the 11+ and got “Greater depth” in SATS.

Play some maths games at home, keep it fun, don’t put any pressure on it. Hopefully it will sort itself out, or Maths just might not be their strongest subject.

Isekaied · 31/03/2026 14:20

" Maths just might not be their strongest subject."

I think they would need extra help if this is true not just accepting someone is bad at Maths especially at this age.

Tintarella · 31/03/2026 14:24

Notabarbie · 31/03/2026 14:04

This is not a worrying problem but it would help if you support him. There are many things you can do. Keep the learning period very short and positive. Let him eat one of the sweets you are using.

What's one/two/, three more or less than (a number under 10, then 20). Do this with buttons, little marshmallows, craft gems, sweets - let your child get used to seeing 4/5/6/7 things in different arrangements so they get a feel for what a number looks like. It's not a symbol on a page. It's an amount.

Counting up in 5s then 10s. You can get the most wonderful penguin number square for this. Or you can get chalk and draw a number line to 100 on the pavement. Have your child run from 0 to 20/70/etc but they can't run past the number or they lose. Try and make it a race but don't let an older child beat them every time. Older siblings mess this stuff up if they come along and effortlessly win it. Try to move from this into saying "Run to the number that is equal to three fives" etc. This is the beginning of times tables. There are lots of fun songs on YouTube if he's interested.

Number bonds. Have two amounts of something adding up to 10 behind your back. They pick a hand, then guess how much is in the other hand. You reveal it and they take a sweet/raisin if they're correct. If they're consistently wrong try saying "Nearly! That was so tricky and you thought carefully about it!". Also have them think of the number bonds as friends. Make up stories about 7 and 3 and have them draw the illustrations. Try making salt dough decorations of the numbers and put the friends together around the house (with eyes and hats, obviously).

More number line work - just make number lines together. Cut up the numbers and ask for help finding them and sticking them together. Obviously better if you find this stuff very tricky and are terribly grateful for his help, don't know how you would have managed without him, must tell Daddy what a huge help he was etc. Incidentally Daddy should do some of this too because statistically that is incredibly beneficial to your child's progress.

Take screens away so there are no competing distractions. Keep it short and frequent. Children are not born with the hardwiring for this in the way that they are hardwired for language although some children take to it as if they were. They have to learn it through practice.

Shop or cafe: Take turns playing the different roles. Label different items together. Stick to pennies at first but if counting in 5s and 10s is going well by all means use bigger amounts. At this stage you can have a day when prices have gone up or down and everything in the store/cafe is 1p more or less than labelled.

Get a white board. Play a game where he gets a point if he can shout out the number you're writing before you've finished writing it. If he doesn't, you get a point. Whoever gets to ten first wins the game.

Don't make writing the focus of maths. Any written work he does should be to show his learning. You don't learn maths with a pencil in your hand.

Don't be afraid to give each number under 10 a colour and a song if he is that way inclined. You can then play number bonds by saying "purple (ie 7) and he says orange (3). Give him as much ownership as possible. Let him choose the numbers. If he's imaginative. Let him imagine a different kingdom for each number. Eg. 3 is a land of dragons that have breakfast three times a day, say good morning three times, sneeze three times etc. The possibilities are endless and there is a lot of opportunity to relate warmly to each other and enjoy shared laughter. Any artwork around this put it up and comment on it to cement the idea that grown ups take this seriously. Maybe Granny could send a card with a freddo bar because she is so proud of how much effort he is putting into helping you with the numbers.

Some children love Cuisenaire rods and numicon. As a home educating parent, I spent a fortune on them and barely used them. But definitely worth a look.

Children have an inbuilt knowledge of halves, quarters and thirds depending on how many siblings they have. They know their rights. I find that stories around theft are most interesting. So you were walking along with four sweets and half of them were stolen. How many were stolen and how many were left. Or you had six beautiful multicoloured fish and half of them went down the plughole so you went to the drain and needing to track down how many fish. To make this a step harder, you could produce two Oreos and say that the dog ate half of them and this is all that are left. How many Oreos were in the packet this morning before the dog got at them? You can also have a lot of fun with coloured water and measuring jugs.

Number blocks are helpful for showing the difference between odd and even numbers. You can show that even numbers are always paired while odd numbers have pairs and then one over. (Numicon shows this too). So you can then fit the odd numbers together with their unpaired extra number to make an even number. And you can fit 2 numbers together to make an even number. But an odd and an even number will still have one left over. This will be helpful to know later.

3D solids (don't call them shapes because shapes are 2D and only have sides) are really useful to start becoming familiar with. Words like cylinder, face, edge, pyramid are all easy to discuss now rather than trying to cram the knowledge in later. Also don't be afraid of using Venn and Carroll diagrams. I know they're daunting to look at but they are fun to draw out. Distinguishing a curved face from a flat side is part of maths. A curved face means that the solid will roll - eg a sphere or cylinder but not cube or pyramid. Collect things around the house and put them in your diagram. Huge sheets of cheap white paper are your friend. Photograph everything.

Practice being able to describe one thing in relation to another using appropriate language. Arrange coloured pipe cleaners in order of increasing or decreasing length. You can ask him to make a sentence telling you about the length of the blue stick compared to the red stick (all the more fun if he has collected these sticks and personally dipped them in paint). You're looking for sentences like "The yellow stick is longer/shorter than the blue stick" etc and do the same thing for heavier than and lighter than.

Talk about how solids don't change shape but liquids will take on the shape of their container and gases just float away. Useful later. Discuss when it would be fun to be a gas and when you'd rather be a solid.

Take every opportunity to let your child play the teacher and especially teach Daddy or other supportive adults. Your child is not learning to hit bench marks. They are learning how to engage, how to explore with curiosity, how to enjoy learning and how to enjoy a different and precious facet of their relationship with you. The more you are prepared to make learning a way of life and respect your child's task to grow and explore, the more engaged and confident they will become about their learning. The fact that they will sit down and find the homework sheets a doddle after all this is irrelevant. Worksheets are an opportunity to show what you know or a springboard into learning.

The white rose website has helpful videos. Happy learning!

Wow, this is why I love Mumsnet- people like you @Notabarbie who take time out of their day to write something so helpful, so considered and so wise. Thank you SO much. And to everyone else too!

OP posts:
user1492757084 · 31/03/2026 14:44

Engage your son in practical Maths with concrete materials.
It might help him visualise the sometimes abstract language of mathematics. ie: use stones, Smarties etc to physically do the equations.

Collect 20 stones. What are five groups of two? .. 5 x 2 = 10

Cut 12 slices of cake; if there are four in the family, how many pieces do we each get? 12 - 4 = 3.

Use maths language incidentally - such as when you are preparing meals or pairing socks.
Can you find two grey socks. Oh, you found six! You can make three pairs and put them away in your drawer.
Look we will divide these apples in half. Two half apples make one whole apple.
One orange and seven grapes equals eight pieces of fruit in your lunch box.

Remember to express positivity (not fear) about Maths.
I love Maths.
I liked finding out that answer.
Your brain is enjoying numbers today DC.

CBAwithallthethings · 31/03/2026 14:54

Agree with its all the comments, I wouldn’t panic but do keep playing with him.
I have a summer born son too. He was always just about meeting the expectations in infants but in juniors now he is doing really well and has suddenly found an enthusiasm for maths.

Hollietree · 31/03/2026 15:19

Isekaied · 31/03/2026 14:20

" Maths just might not be their strongest subject."

I think they would need extra help if this is true not just accepting someone is bad at Maths especially at this age.

That’s why in my post I also said to play some fun maths games at home. You’ve quoted me out of context.

PeatandDieselfan · 31/03/2026 17:39

Another fun way to practise, mine enjoyed the Sum Swamp board game : <a class="break-all" href="https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=<a class="break-all" href="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/810ruuuCgiL.AC_UF894,1000_QL80.jpg&tbnid=43gzDgnMZRC9qM&vet=1&imgrefurl=https://www.amazon.co.uk/Learning-Resources-Swamp-Addition-Subtraction/dp/B00004TDLD&docid=dbKNN8oAhQu2jM&w=894&h=412&source=sh/x/im/m1/0&kgs=137f0d486290d351&utm_source=sh/x/im/m1/0"" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">m.media-amazon.com/images/I/810ruuuCgiL.AC_UF894,1000_QL80.jpg&tbnid=43gzDgnMZRC9qM&vet=1&imgrefurl=www.amazon.co.uk/Learning-Resources-Swamp-Addition-Subtraction/dp/B00004TDLD&docid=dbKNN8oAhQu2jM&w=894&h=412&source=sh/x/im/m1/0&kgs=137f0d486290d351&utm_source=sh/x/im/m1/0" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://share.google/dU1WByxlIMD40uph0

Notabarbie · 31/03/2026 19:34

I'm actually not good at maths but I love teaching it because there are so many things that you can do. I came at each thing from so many different angles that my children, who turned out to be naturally much better at maths (like their dad) would end up doing everything faster as key stage two progressed. When I asked them how they did it, they said "I thinked it in my brain" which was not what I was hoping for.

Someone has suggested placing objects in groups of 2s and 3s to see how many groups of 2 or 3 there are in a number. That's good advice. Do the 2s, 5s and 10s first. I forgot to say that base 10 manipulatives are very helpful. If you Google them you'll see they are single blocks, rods of 10, sheets of 100 and cubes of 1000. Place value will be with you for a long time to come - I would definitely get those.

I also made domino cards which I would not wish on anyone. But they were useful. It's important that a child can look at 4 dots in a row and see the number 4 yet they should also be aware that 4 dots placed as if at the points of a square are also 4, as is 4 dots in a column and 4 dots that are just scattered. Every number up to ten needs to be absorbed in this way.

Anything you're asking your child to do, you should do as well with them in the teaching role. It's important to remember that one to one learning is intense for the child and the more engaged they are, the more intense it will feel for them so do stop while you're ahead. Even five minutes a day will help.

Another thing you been do is clap a certain number of times and ask afterwards how many times they heard the clap, then switch roles.

A child has to work with something six times to have a chance of remembering it. Explaining what you're doing to Daddy and helping him to play counts as one time. Being the teacher with you counts as another time. Being a shopkeeper counts. Learning a song about jumping up in 5s counts. Playing a game with you on a chalk number line counts. It's important to go over what you've done the following day without introducing new material in the interim.

If you're making up number problems, make them as ridiculous as possible. You know what your own child is into and what they will find funny.

If the teacher knows you're willing to support they might be willing to lend some resources.

If there is something that just isn't clicking, it might be that they are just not ready for it yet and that's ok. Or it might be that you will have a wonderful idea involving a water pistol and suddenly they get it. If something is a struggle, your child may experience raised anxiety levels, worry about letting you down (a good reason never to over praise when things are going well) and this makes it harder for them to learn. So don't assume avoidant behaviour is personal or reflective of their feelings about maths. Just abandon it and find another way in when you can. It's a rookie mistake to push too quickly when things are going well. Keep the sessions short and tread carefully where praise is concerned - make it clear that you're proud of the effort, not the result. And don't be evaluative at all if you can avoid it.

My child struggled at the beginning to maintain concentration long enough to work things out that he was perfectly capable of doing. That comes with time and practice. You can incentivise but you can't create what isn't yet there. Keep your focus on the journey and the opportunities for relational growth between you and your child will associate learning with your warmth and responsiveness. That's a special thing.

DramaQueenlady · 31/03/2026 19:48

He's far to young to be labelled behind. Dont worry about it. Keep up the number games. If when he starts high school, engage in extra maths tuition. But seriously he's only 5. It should all be fun. Try not to worry.

BoyMumNurse · 11/04/2026 15:42

Please don't worry too much about this, especially with a late summer born. They're literally up to a year younger than some of their classmates and at this age that's huge. Our DS had a wobbly start with maths too and I remember the panic of thinking we'd somehow missed something. The number bonds thing is really normal at this stage, some kids just need more repetition but in a way that doesn't feel like drilling. The thing that worked for us was making it feel like a game rather than learning, anything with points or a reward element where getting it wrong wasn't a big deal, just part of playing. At this age especially, the emotional association they build with maths matters more than the actual content. If he starts thinking he's "bad at maths" now that's really hard to undo later. Keep it light, keep it playful, and try not to compare with other kids because the summer born gap closes over time.

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