Year 1 child struggling with maths despite strong phonics, any advice?

[Dobbysocks]

6 year old in year 1. Amazing at phonics and well ahead with this. Really struggling with maths. Finds basic adding and subtracting confusing. Counting in multiples of 2s, 5s and 10s even worse. Fine with the word problems and shapes. Have tried every day maths when cooking, playing, lots of number games, number blocks tv. Nothing seems to help him. I’m really worried he’s going to fall behind. School have said he’s not where expected at this stage for maths.

Dreading this term where division and multiplication will be added in.

Any advice? Anyone have a similar picture in year 1 and then it got easier as time went on? We do as much as we can at home weekly but I don’t want to go down the route of a tutor with such a little one. (Which is what was suggested by school)

Thanks to the Doodle Maths recommendations. He’s having a go at it willingly and I’m having to do far less explaining. Feels like he’d actually doing it himself. We’ve gone back to basics starting with the EYFS skills. Let’s hope it helps him a little and builds his confidence up.

My oldest child couldn’t add past 10 without taking her shoes off at this stage in Y1. By the end of Y2 she was level 3 (equivalent of greater depth), and 3 years ago graduated in Economics with a first. She was just slow to get there.

I admit (pfb) to buying a teacher’s guide to Year 1 Maths, which was useful.

I also think she was lucky that expectations were lower then (the NC changed a few years later, and is now much more demanding) - she needed more time on the basic concepts.

It great to hear that you have had a breakthrough. I'm really pleased for both you and I hope this is the springboard he needs to progress.

My son's in Year 4 and the MTC has caused us a lot of stress. The thing that worked for us was 5 minutes of practice every morning before school — short and daily has totally beaten any long sessions at the weekend. We use TT Rockstars at school but for home I print quick worksheets from numblings.com (it's free, no ads, lets you pick which tables to focus on — we hammered the 7s and 8s for weeks). The 6-second time limit is the brutal bit, so practising under loose timing at home helps with the panic. Our daughter is now working through 2s and 5s with this. Might this help? Just starting with 2's or something?

Whilst it might seem very basic, being absolutely secure up to 10 is key. The other kids will be moving on to bigger numbers but he won’t get it, until he understands 10 and under.

The other stumbling block is often the double digit notation. Once you get past 9, that column is full. If you can get that, all the numbers to 99 work.

Counting and rote learning tables do also help. They give automated answers, so help subdue the panic of not knowing. They can be used with other strategies to improve learning.