How much home input have you found you need to put in with your 6-8 year old on times tables, telling the time and other core targets?

[hmc]

Dd (aged 7) is struggling with her times tables. She has passed test 'B' and is attempting to pass test 'C' (2x, 3x, 4x, 5x, 10x tables included in this level) - the pass mark is 100% correct over 30 questions timed over 5 minutes. Most of her classmates (except 2 others) have progressed to Test G and beyond (Test G= 2s, 3s, 4s, 5s, 6s, 8s, 10s, 11s).

I am now coaching her on her times tables having realised (not from the teacher - no communication there! - but from overheard conversations) that she is lagging behind.

Should I have been practicing with her earlier? Is it the case that the other children who have moved swiftly on have parents who have been assidiously practising the times tables with them, learning them by rote on the way to school in the car etc?

I struggle to know how much coaching I should be doing at home.

Also telling the time - she went to do her homework on Education City and it was positioning the hour and minute hands correctly on an analogue clock to say 10 past two or 5 to three etc. She had not one clue! I asked her if she had covered it in class and she had - but it clearly had gone completely over her head.

I must confess I haven't ever worked on helping her tell the time before. I do engage with her at home, honestly! - we read together, we practice spellings, she practices piano, we have a laugh, I ferry her here and there between brownies and swimming etc...but I wonder if I am doing enough because she continues to languish near the bottom of the class in most things (..for a long time she was struggling with reading too, but thankfully over the past 6 months has caught up in that area).

How much time have you put in to helping your primary aged child in times tables, telling the time etc?

Mathletics.

£40 a year.

The adults get a log in as well, and they have something called Task Manager, so you can set them up to four tasks to be completed before they can "play". DS thinks Mathletics are tracking his progress and set the tasks, so therefore there are no arguments about doing them.

National Curriculum for year 2 is the 2, 5, and 10 times tables. Do they do all of them in private school in year 2?

hmc- god your dd's school sounds a wee bit stressful , or is it that the others parents are all a bit worthy and overly keen .

God ds is 7 in yr 2 and he hasn't done any tests yet.
He is also crap at telling the time .

I must be crap parent . But hey ho .

I'm slightly horrified too, hmc (another crap parent here)

Only did times tables as homework when asked/school stated - only the top table/maths whizzes did more than this at this age.

My dc's could not work out analogue clocks until about year 5

Your dd sounds perfectly normal to me. Children develop at different rates and just because she may feel 'bottom of class' now does certainly not mean she'll be in that position in 2-3 years.Or is she at a v academic prep?

ouch - hmc you are fuelling my paranoia about entrance tests for prep school - DS is in Y3 (private pre-prep) and has only done 2s, 5s & 10s and he is the maths whizz of the class. Clearly their standards are not what they might be (which I had suspected but have been trying to not think about too hard).

Has anyone used a song CD for times tables that they can recommend? I am thinking that DS seems to learn things well that way. We have currently hit an impasse because DS can easily work out any given times table sum, as it were, but just will not get that life would be easier/quicker if he just knew them without working them out from scratch. Any of the interactive things he would just sit there and work them out, so I am hoping a CD will help him learn them by rote.

I know my sister used a CD for times tables - she had it in her car and all three of her children were brainwashed with it on every journey. Her DD knew all her tables up to 12x by heart before her 4th birthday (her brothers are 3 and 6 years older than she is)!

We've got that CD Bonsoir!

We just sing along to it and the rhythm of each sum just sticks in your head!

I was 9 before I could tell the time. DS is 8 and a clever lad and he's just really getting it properly now.

DD is 6 and doesn't care what time it is but she recognises the 'hour' times like 6.00pm, 7.00pm etc.

Start with 5 x tables, then 10's and 2's. Once they've got a grip on them, it's easier for them to 'get' the rest.

What's it called? I only know of it, don't have the name (I'm sure lots of posters on this thread are interested!).

I've been doing 2x, 5x and 10x with DD but that's because there are 5 of us in the family ! Now I know I am fortuitously on the right track!

this one!

Thanks . It's gone straight to my shopping basket!

DD loves all the Carol Vordermann maths books!

too late - I went with another one - but if it turns out to be rubbish I will go back for that recommendation - Thanks.

It is an interesting point that younger siblings are liable to benefit - DD (3) is word perfect on most of DS's carols just from him practising in the bath, so she is going to be well ahead on the times table front if I keep it on it the car for DS!

On the telling the time one - it has belatedly occurred to me and to DH that we don't actually have an analogue clock in the house (other than watches), which might explain why DS struggles - a clock for the kitchen wall is on our collective Christmas lists.

DD has three watches and some analogue clock games and books. It is much harder to learn to tell the time these days than it was 30 or 30 years ago - the variety of clocks makes things so much more complicated.

my dd yr2 at private, they do all tables to 12 ideally passing their second certificate as part of the christmas tests.

First certificate 50 questions 2,3,4,5,6

second certicate 50 questions 7,8.9,10,11,12

have to get 47/50 to pass.

Oh bugger - DS is way behind in those terms.

That times table CD is going to get worn out between now and February (not that we are desperate for DS to get a scholarship or anything, you understand )

ds (6yrs) year 2 has been tested (and passed) on 2,5,10 times tables. He is hopeless with time though and counting money. I go through his times tables, spellings and reading each day.

Thinking about it, DS knows 2's, 5s, 10s at least, but the school don't "do" times tables so he wouldn't ever have been tested on them per se.

Oh well, we'll see when the CD arrives. Watch out for me screaming in a week or so that I will slit my wrists if I have to hear the songs one more time

My dd (7) learned her times tables by rote, she knows all the tables 1-13. My main reason for teaching her, is that i found that many older children find maths difficult because they don't know their tables by heart.
I certainly wouldn't rely on the schools, it is important that parents help their children as much as possible.

No matter how I try to 'disguise' the fact that we are learning x tables, and believe me i have resorted to bribery and corruption, DD1 sees through me and resolutely refuses to take part. End of.

stealthsquiggle, you know you're going mad when you find you've got it on in the car and you're 5 miles in to your journey......but the kids are at school!