6 year old and Maths

[glenn_99]

My 6 year old daughter seems to struggle with her maths yet seems to be fairly bright in all her other subjects. Any ideas?

[princessfifi]

Give her a chance!shes only 6! I was concerned about my son of the same age who is brilliant at maths but a little behind on his reading!but after speaking to his teacher and other parents i learnt that all children are different and all have different learning abilities!At such a young age I really wouldnt be concerned we all cant be good at everything! But you could try playing fun maths games counting various things like items when you are going shopping and adding up prices have a look on the internet for fun maths games!
Hope this helps!

[MrsJo49155]

theres a great site at www.thatquiz.com which is brilliant for doing maths with your kids at home...if she is 6 and lower ability just set the level at about 2 and then gradually over time work your way up - has sections on all sorts of topics - only one you cant do if you are in UK is money as it is in dollar and euros!

As someone who works in a primary school I can assure that children are usually better at literacy or numeracy but rarely both! Be grateful for what she is good at but if you wanna give her a helping hand then the above site is well worth a look.

[mimififi]

I took the approach with my son of teaching him to remember mathematical facts first before teaching him any mathematical concepts. I taught him simply tables by rote and also addition, subtraction and division facts, for example "3 and 7 is 10, what is 3 and 7? what is 7 and 3, how can we make 10?" etc. This was before we started adding. Then I introduced value, i.e, this is how many 10 is, look at all my minstrels...wow, 10 minstrels; Then we introduced the concepts which was a doddle, the principals of adding is quite easy when you are using minstrels and smarties, as is subtracting. Now his mental arithmatic is second to none, he is so fast because he knows, as a phrase "7 and 3 is 10", and now he has the concepts also, he knows how to apply it. He doesnt have to count up. And as he is working in base ten, he applies it to all numbers.

You don't say if it is arithmetic or conceptual issues your daughter struggles with. If it is conceptual, it could just be that she would benefit from more kinetic learning, using more manipulatives. There are lots of manipulatives out there try www.bakerross.co.uk for fraction sticks and other manipulatives. If you are after some maths text books to supplement the areas she is struggling with in school, then try to the singapore math curriculum, it is so visual that it is really refreshing. It is the curriculum that the kids use in singapore and they are amoung the worlds best in numeracy. Singapore math is available www.halfmoon.com (scholastic book shop)

If she is generally a bright child, however she will pick up in her own time, children do not learn linearly.

hope this helps.

[bobbinwales]

Good link..... although my maths tells me the daughter will be 22 by now!!!