Suggestion for year 1 maths

[Csummer]

My DS in year 1 is keen to have some additional maths. I don’t really want any formal tutoring at such young age but do want to encourage him to learn more. Any advice on other options? Thanks!

plenty of apps, do school not do Numbots?

Just reinforce all the basics for now. Times-tables so he can reel them off in any order without thinking. And the inverse - all the divisions that go with the times-tables. Then number bonds to 10, number bonds to a hundred, mastery of the four operations.

After that move on to fractions, decimals and percentages when he can handle them.

Have a look on Pinterest for Maths games appropriate for his age and maybe try him with a book by Carol Vorderman.

Our DS is also very maths oriented. At that age we did activities that involved maths or problem solving. So things like baking or building complicated tracks for his train set. Does he like books about space too?

Look at BBC bitesize

Maybe ask in the Gifted & Talented Section on MN for ideas too @Csummer

A 5/6 year old has seriously expressed a wish for extra lessons?

Have you heard of little and often? I’ve just read an amazing book about it. It’s called “why can’t my child do that” and the author explained, Geoff Bagwell, explains how parents can help their children instead of relying solely on school.
The method is so simple, I’ve started straight away with mine two and it’s already improved their performance.

Chess is also good for people who like Maths. Is there a Chess club near to you where he could start to learn the pieces and moves?

You can definitely encourage that interest without formal tutoring. Dice games and number puzzles can be lovely ways to explore maths together. If he enjoys a challenge, try asking, “Can you find another way?” or “How do you know?” rather than moving straight to harder calculations. There’s plenty to explore within Year 1 maths, and keeping it playful gives him room to follow his curiosity. I’ve also created some free maths games you could try together if he enjoys that sort of thing. Happy to share the link if helpful.

Games! Maths and logic are complimentary skillsets.

Lots of quick fire silly calculations like, estimate how many matches in the box, cut up two pizzas and work out what 3/8 plus 1/4 is. And so on.

I bought a Quick Chess set and from there ds quickly learned to play chess with me.

Then also get him playing Monopoly, Battleships. UNO. Mastermind (an old logic game).

To be honest playing Roblox/Minecraft has done wonders for my son’s arithmetic skills - some of the games require a lot of quick calculation!

If he really wants formal maths then I bow to people who know better about apps and workbooks.

@Sheshares YES to this. A really deep understanding of Number and the foundations of maths are so helpful later. It’s often better to go deeper and solve problems, rather than go broader and take on new concepts (especially if out of step with what school is teaching).

This approach worked so well for my dd16 who is a 9+ gcse candidate - she’s not a whizz kid by any means, she just had excellent primary school teaching and finds maths “soooooo easy” as a result of understanding how to turn a maths problem around and form a prediction, puzzle out an answer then confirm it’s right by some other method.

My 5yo has also decided he really loves maths. I don’t think he’s a genius or anything, but he just finds it fun. I’ve bought him a CGP year 1 activity book for half term and he’s really enjoying it. We are working on times tables too.

Also mainly doing lots of other non-maths stuff as well, but whilst he loves doing maths problems then I’m happy to encourage it! 😂

Editing to add - my son definitely prefers maths to reading, and an advantage of the workbook is that he’s happy to read the questions.

Twinkl Maths Mysteries are ideal for this age group - you do some maths puzzles (usually three or four different techniques) to eliminate 'suspects' in order to find out who is the new pet/which school child found the missing lunchbox/which reindeer will lead the sleigh tonight etc etc.