Any maths specialists out there?

[minxthemanx]

Wondered if anyone has any tips - I'm tutoring a lovely 7 yr old girl, (friend's daughter) who finds maths difficult. She's at a prep school where expectations are fairly high, and I would say they are covering work taught a year later in state primary.
I'm a bit baffled, depsite 20 odd years in the business. She knows number bonds to 10 and 20, and ALL her times tables, yet has no retention of simple addition facts (eg, 6 + 3=9). Has to work this out on her fingers, every time. Makes progress very slow!

For some reason she hasn't retained any addition bonds. Short of learning by rote 6+2=8, 6+3=9 etc (will take far too long), how can I help her to remember what 6+3 is?

Sorry for typo, rushing! Despite, not depsite!

Dice games ?
Or Snap with numbers where you have to snap if they add up to a given number?
Shut the box ? Dice game where you have to keep doing little sums up to 9.

I once went on a course where they suggested using dice and playing cards lots to work on the visual "shape" of the numbers - ie 5 is always the same pattern of dots. It is supposed to help with recollection of numbers. so - turning over 2 cards and adding them together - how many in 2 minutes? type games.
Is she musical? maybe putting the bonds to music? (similar to singing tables?)
How did she learn her tables? maybe if you can find that out you could help her to learn the addition bonds in the same way.
You can get addition dominoes to play.
HTH
will come back later if I think of anything else!

Thank you, yes I had thought about snap etc. It's just v difficult getting her to retain them - weird, when she can recall tables. Good idea, I will find out how she learned her tables.

I'm not a teacher but wanted to comment as this sounds similar to the way my brain worked/ does work. I successfully learnt times tables by rote as a child, but have always struggled with speed in mental arithmetic.... however I have a degree in Maths!! Early on I learnt the best way for me to think of addition is by a number line; I 'see' the line in my mind rather than have to count on fingers etc. Not sure exactly how this is translated to teaching methods, but thought it might be comforting for you and your charge to know that speed in arithmetic certainly doesn't preclude overall mathematical success!

A good book to read is 'The Trouble with Maths' by Steve Chinn. Lots of good advice and teaching tips.