Arguing over maths

[Floridatilly]

With an 8 year old 🤯
Do you ever feel like banging your head against a brick wall when dealing with a defiant child 🙈
Mason gets lots of homework, more than I remember my older two getting but I imagine the teachers are trying to catch up on missed curriculum.
Maths section is around 25-30 questions. Each question is in a box with the question at the top, then a space for working out and another box at the bottom for the answer.
In maths it’s important to show your working out because you could get the answer wrong but do the working out correctly and still get a mark and/or the teacher can clearly see how you have got your answer and were you went wrong if incorrect.
Example questions are 1,876 + 328
2,106 - 368, 8 x 7, as the questions move on they get more difficult to long multiplication etc so the children do as many as they can.
Mason looks at the question and immediately writes the answer down really quickly, whipping through the questions before I can even read them.
I tell him to write his workings out but he refuses because to quote Mason ‘that is wasting my time, I see the answer in my mind!’
But you NEED to write the workings out! But he won’t listen, he says he doesn’t see the workings out, he just see’s the answers so he isn’t wasting more of his time 😬😬
He is such a monkey. He never gets any wrong no matter how hard they are, I can’t work them out in my head 🙈, he is like a little genius but its so frustrating doing homework with him 😂😂😂😂

[BarrettFamily]

Does his school talk about being at Greater Depth or mastery? If so, tell him he won’t be graded at the higher level unless he shows he understands and can utilise the methods they are looking for.

[Lisa123wm]

I remember my youngest son being like this with Maths at a similar age. His mental maths was fab and his teachers had to keep telling him to show his working out. He didn’t see the point either at that time.

Maths has always been his strong point and he is now 16 and doing Maths at A level (along with Physics and Chemistry).
Not bad for a child who had an IEP at junior school and was also assessed for ASD.

[tfmay]

My DD was like this in up until about yr 5 when a teacher starting giving marks out to those that did show their workings out……she started then and realised ‘if’ she got one wrong she could see where, ie too quick and missed something, not reading questions properly etc……now still in top set at high school and does it automatically! She tends to ‘see’ the answer to so it was hard but finally got there!

[123]

The thing about Maths is that if you can get the right answer you don't need to show working out.

The mark scheme gives full marks for correct no matter what, it's only if you are wrong that working out matters.

So if (to paraphrase my own kid) you aren't a loser and you can do maths properly you don't need to show working out

They changed their mind though by A Level when it got difficult...

[babbymint]

Originally Posted by 123

The thing about Maths is that if you can get the right answer you don't need to show working out.

The mark scheme gives full marks for correct no matter what, it's only if you are wrong that working out matters.

So if (to paraphrase my own kid) you aren't a loser and you can do maths properly you don't need to show working out

They changed their mind though by A Level when it got difficult...

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In SATs paper there are questions in which you have to explain your reasoning, which may be as simple as showing your working out. Reasoning is a key skill in maths, and being good with arithmetic does not automatically mean that they are good at problem solving, and thus can fare worse in GSCEs.

[Floridatilly]

I think he definitely need to show his workings out down the line. He has always been good with numbers, probably part of his autism or so his teacher says. He is on further maths and further reading but he can’t write well with his fine motor skills issues.

[Floridatilly]

Originally Posted by Floridatilly

I think he definitely need to show his workings out down the line. He has always been good with numbers, probably part of his autism or so his teacher says. He is on further maths and further reading but he can’t write well with his fine motor skills issues.

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I pressed post too quickly then 😂😂
He is a monkey though, he has an answer for everything! 8 year old going on 18 🙈🙈

[Libby]

At junior school I had no idea how I worked things out, in fact I didn't work them out at all, I just knew the right answer. It would be like asking how I knew a crayon was red, it just was.

It was only as I got older and the maths got harder that I needed to work things out then I was actually able to show my workings because I had some to show.

Maybe it's like that for Mason.

[Bozza]

My son, Ben, is exactly the same.

I'm don't think maths aptitude is genetic, but I was (indeed am) lightning quick with mental arithmetic, and he's the same.

We've had the same arguments about showing his working for some years. He'll always claim that he'll do it in exams, to which we counter that he needs to do it outside exams so it's second nature.

He's just started secondary school and we're still having the same discussions. You have my full sympathies - it is VERY frustrating!