Any year 2 teachers ...advice please?

[Deleted User]

Background:

Son is in Year 2, fairly bright not the top but not the bottom.

He's on free reading books but his numeracy is below where it shield be. I'm working on this. I think I've spent more time on reading than numbers.

This morning I asked him what is 15-4. He couldn't tell me. He wanted to write it down. I said use your fingers. But I only have 10.

I thought he would use 5 to take away 4 and add back 10.

He continued to struggle until we used toes to aid working out. Meanwhile little sis in year 1 with her hand in the air is itching to say.

Is it more practice? His teacher had highlighted the problem. Just not sure how to proceed. We do a lot of random maths..car reg plates, shopping etc.

Also my final question...

These are his spelling for the week:-

Destruction
Excitable
Successful
Forgetful
Comfortable
Hopeless
Careless
Homeless
Useless
Rudely

I thought they were quite hard, but he's learnt in 1 day.

Is he more English than maths?

How can I help him more?

mountainofdebt

I'm not a teacher but would it be an idea to have a look at those study aid type books and see how they word it?

totallybored

I don't teach year 2 but you could try practising number bonds. Start with number bonds to 10 (eg you say 4 and he then says 6 to make 10). Once he is secure with these try number bonds to random numbers between 10 and 20. That should help him become more familiar with the numbers.

marisco_2

I am a year 3 teacher but hope I can help. Is your sons school signed up to any of the educational sites, such us RM Maths, Mathletics, MyMaths, Education City etc. If so he should be able to use their passwords to access these from home. Regular practice via one of these sites would help your son to gain confidence and progress with his maths.

Have you approached his teacher and asked her to go over with you how different areas of maths is taught in class? By doing this you would be reinforcing the methods he is learning and helping him to retain the knowledge. He may be learning to add up and take away using number lines, numicon, counters etc.

Is he a visual and tactile learner? See if the teacher has a spare set of numicon that you could borrow. One area of maths that I am constantly advising my class they need to practice is times tables. Get him really strong with that and maths as a subject will become so much easier for your son.

Person_one

Do schools still use those blocks that come in ones or tens (we called tens and units). Paper and computer screens can be useful, but for some a real, solid illustration of what those numbers mean in the real world is brilliantly helpful.

This sort of thing, or am I showing my age?

[Deleted User]

Thank you for your replies. I'll ask his teacher. She is really lovely, very enthusiastic and I know my Dd will excel next year.

Meanwhile..I'll ask her what systems they use. Times stables aren't his strong point either. Again DD overshadows him at times...to his disgust....

Thank you.

Buzzybee90

Person_one wrote: »

Do schools still use those blocks that come in ones or tens (we called tens and units). Paper and computer screens can be useful, but for some a real, solid illustration of what those numbers mean in the real world is brilliantly helpful.

This sort of thing, or am I showing my age?

I used those in primary not too long ago (in the scheme of things!)

[Deleted User]

Person one can't thank u, but don't think your showing your age..

Smiley face

bylromarha

Person_one wrote: »

Do schools still use those blocks that come in ones or tens (we called tens and units). Paper and computer screens can be useful, but for some a real, solid illustration of what those numbers mean in the real world is brilliantly helpful.

This sort of thing, or am I showing my age?

Yup .

notanewuser

bylromarha wrote: »

Yup .

Hurrah! Some common sense remains in the classroom!

cazs

I tutor so frequently teach children the basics of counting.
To do 15-4 have him hold four fingers up in the air. Then fold down the first finger saying fourteen, fold down the next saying thirteen and so on, once he has 'put away' all his fingers her should arrive at 11.

Children generally have more difficulty doing takeaway sums because they are less confident counting backwards or down. They also need to be familiar with what comes before/after a number if asked at random e.g. what comes before 8 and what comes after 8. They may be able to count up and down to 10 okay but posed as such they are stumped and it's this you need to know to 'kick off' the sum.

Hope that helps a bit, message me if you want any clarification.