Could your Year 3 child solve this maths question?

[Whatsyourcakevice]

Would your year 3 (7/8 year old) be able to do this maths question?

There’s a short list of items and prices eg sandwich £1.55, drink £1.30 etc

Then the question is along the lines of Bob goes into a shop with £10. He leaves with £4.25 change. Which two items does he buy?

Yes but understanding and doing is different.

My DD is 6 in Year 1 and understands the concept... She could work out a simpler sum with the same problem, eg with whole numbers etc

doesn't mean that I am telling OP "my year 1 can do that"

Chronological age can still make a big difference at that stage. Don't worry about it. If you want to help play shopping games, start simple and build up. DC will almost certainly grasp it with practice. Lots of children find 'word problems' in maths difficult anyway, especially with different steps. The game helps make the concepts more concrete, as opposed to abstract ideas to think through.

Mine would be able to do each step, but would need help working out what the steps are.

Eg. If I said "how much did he spend" then DS would know to subtract the change from 10, which he could do. I'd then have to say "so which items cost that much?" and might have to suggest he trial & error different combinations.

One of my children definitely could have done, as his times tables were secure at the start of Y3. One of them definitely couldn’t as she was still struggling with adding up number with more then one digit. Both were developmentally normal and are doing well in secondary school / college.

Decided to make a maths problem along those lines to see if my 8 year old actually can do it, considering he's never done maths like that yet.

He had a look and thought about it for a minute, then said its impossible and walked away

@Genevieva am I missing something but what is the significance of knowing their times tables?

DS eventually came back but it was surprisingly difficult for him, I had to walk him through the steps before he could figure it out. Also tried it on my 15 year old and it took a worryingly long time for her to figure out too! The summer holidays have only just started and her brain has clearly switched off already.

I just done this with my year 2, 6 year old and yes he could do it. He knows all about money they have been learning about it in school, we always have coins at home which he plays with and has learnt from.

Maths doesn’t come naturally to everyone. Are you doing some practice at home too? Get some practice books they are very useful

Just to clarify, do you mean you gave him the problem, went away, and let him solve it on his own? If so we'll done him.

He did the exact same multiple step question, reading, comprehending and worked out the correct answer at 6 all independently with no help at all? 🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔

I tutor for the 11 + and this is the sort of question you might find on the paper!
Why? well there are a number of things which make this harder than it looks at first

1. adding and taking away decimals, the need to line them up properly with the decimal place and generally knowing and having practised that skill.
2. the price to take away from is given as 10, but to use it in a written take away sum they need to write it as 10.00
3. they are not always good at knowing number bonds like 25 + 75, and without that they can't do it in their head, so need to write it down.
4. it is a multi step question, and kids need to be taught how to do something with multiple steps. It can take a while to work that out.
5. The first step is not that obvious (work out how much was spent).

I get kids every year who would get this wrong the first time they saw it, (aged 9-10) and would need teaching on how to work out the steps. Some take quite some time to get these written problems.

It isn't always the maths (adding and subtracting) that makes questions tricky, sometimes it is the logic required to work out which maths to do, and the wording.

In answer to your question, I think that if they have been practising multi step questions in class, then yes, they should be able to do it. If he is seeing it cold, then I would not be surprised if he can't, even though his maths may be good otherwise.

If you are solid on times tables you can do a whole load of other mental arithmetic quite easily. They are important, but it isn’t a race to know them. I don’t believe in making education for little people stressful. They will get there in the end.

@Genevieva for me this question is more about the steps required. Knowing your times tables is a different skill

I was going to say this, more disadvantaged children tend to excel at money and time.

No, this question isn't basically about knowing your times tables.

I think there are a few people on this thread who don't have enough understanding of how children learn, to answer accurately. They think if a child could perform the calculations, that must be enough. But for almost all children, the difficult bit is understand which calculations the question wants you to perform.

Many children (like my DD) might have a crack at doing it by trial and error, going through the list methodically. Fewer would solve it efficiently, because it's a harder skill. And some would not even understand how to do it by trial and error.

The easiest bit is doing the actual calculations themselves.

(Incidentally, a relative of mine tutors maths, very successfully, and it is really common for parents to believe their child is 'good at maths' because s/he can do things by rote. The parents are then surprised when the child hits their natural ceiling and stops being able to cope, because sheer rote memory isn't enough any more. Times tables are like that - hugely useful; they can free up processing space for children to think about what they're doing and that's wonderful, but knowing them isn't the same thing as understanding what you're doing with calculations.)

Yes and people seem to think it's the same as "an apple costs 50p and a banana cost 30, how much does 2 apples and 1 banana cost?"

Absolutely! And it is much harder.

Yes in year 3 my fa could do sums like this mentally.

He couldn’t write more than a basic sentence though!

Hes 21 now and can do numbers exceptionally well but can still barely write a simple sentence 🤷‍♀️

I cant quote but yes he can do sums like this and is only just working at the expected level for his age in maths apparently. He can also barely write a sentence still. He does seem quite good with these kind of questions though!

Most children could do the sums involved. That's not the difficult bit of the question.

Ok, I dont really care. I am answering the OPs question. My child can do these kind of questions quite easily. I am not saying he is some kind of genius but its not THAT out of the ordinary. As ive said he is average to below average in most subjects.

There's no need to be rude about it.