HELP - P5 (Scotland) maths help - DD really struggling :-(

[DUNXandWILL]

Hi Dibb family,

Hope everyone is doing the best they can in the current climate.

Just looking for some guidance from anyone who has the ability or experience to help with our 10 year old DD (P5 Scotland) due to go into P6 whenever the kids return...

Totally upset today (for our DD), we've came to the realisation that DD is not doing well in maths at all, she's always lacked confidence (due to her autism and the bullying she endures) but we have now realised that our 8 year old DS has more maths comprehension than she does, our DS seems to handle maths so easily and knows his times tables off by heart but our DD is still using her fingers for the very easiest of addition sums, DD has always said that she doesn't like maths, but we were assured at every parents night for the last 2 years that she's doing fine and just lacks confidence! (she's had the same teacher for 2 years due to being in a composite class, works great for her autism as she hates change but not sure about the rest! ). Now i'm not at all blaming the teacher and we've given it a few weeks doing home schooling (me and DH taking turns as we have very different teaching styles) but she doesn't even seem to have the basics down, struggles with multiplication, won't even engage with division and seems to have a meltdown with either myself or DH if we push to hard (even just a gentle nudge prompts a meltdown)

We're totally brokenhearted for her and want to be able to help her the best we can but to be honest, we don't know what to do for the best for her...

As a comparison I sat with my DS 8 this morning and gave him one of DD's worksheets for maths (in private DD wasn't there) and he breezed through it!

We really feel we've let our DD down and don't know where to start to try and help! Do I let her work from DS's work? Go back to a lower level of math's and start again?

Any help and/or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks Dunx

Thanks in advance!

[nolypops83]

I work at a University with Maths academics and you'd be amazed how many can't add simple figures together or have to use calculators. I'm also studying myself for a Physics degree and still count with my fingers sometimes.

Seriously though, have you tried anything on YouTube? I'm struggling with a maths module right now and I find this helpful. You can stop and replay bits you don't understand (much better than reading from a book I find) and sometimes it's easier to see the process visually if you know what I mean.

[DUNXandWILL]

Originally Posted by nolypops83

I work at a University with Maths academics and you'd be amazed how many can't add simple figures together or have to use calculators. I'm also studying myself for a Physics degree and still count with my fingers sometimes.

Seriously though, have you tried anything on YouTube? I'm struggling with a maths module right now and I find this helpful. You can stop and replay bits you don't understand (much better than reading from a book I find) and sometimes it's easier to see the process visually if you know what I mean.

See more...

Thanks so much for reading and responding, no I hadn't thought of trying anything from YouTube... i'll have a look now though.

She doesn't have the use of a calculator just yet (my dad wouldn't let us use a calculator till high school! )

Thanks again and good luck with your studies :-)

Dunx x

[nolypops83]

Just had a quick look and BBC teach have some cute cartoons for 5-8 yr olds.

[Gryff]

Have you tried any of the multiply by colour sheets
You can down load and print loads off
You also get division ones might make it seem less of a chore just to get her engaged

[sam7]

I think boys often do better with black and white subjects like maths than girls do.
At this age my DD was exactly like yours, each homework we have to practically do the whole thing for her - teacher always said 'she is doing ok' but she was adamant she didn't get it. Son always top of his class in Maths.
She got a D in GCSE maths, but managed to get the needed C in a resit, went on to do A levels and a Biology degree and is now a science teacher, (never had any problems with the maths she needed in the science subjects) - so please please don't get to disheartened.
The you tube channels are a good idea for extra confidence, I believe Carol Vordaman is doing some for children too - also try and make her maths questions more fun and relevant. So if she has to add rather than just 5+5, make it into a story, Mary buys 5 mickey sweets and 5 donald ones - how may does she have?

[bwfc4ife]

A fab website is Times Table Rockstars - we use this with our students at school every week (I'm a secondary school maths teacher), and the students really like it. Just looked online and its £6 for a 1 year family subscription.

Not sure about the family subscription, but with the school one the teacher can set which times tables the students will focus on, and gradually builds it up. It also analyses which ones they are finding the most tricky and throws them up more often. I would imagine it will be the same for the family version?

[Midges17]

Does your school use abacus or top marks websites they have great games for doing maths sometimes doing it as a little game helps & these website do it in classes you could easily click P3/P4 or P5 without her seeing & see if she manages it which will hopefully help with the confidence

[DUNXandWILL]

Originally Posted by Gryff

Have you tried any of the multiply by colour sheets
You can down load and print loads off
You also get division ones might make it seem less of a chore just to get her engaged

See more...

Thanks Helen,

I'll give that a shot, she does love colouring in... this may well help her.

Dunx x

[DUNXandWILL]

Originally Posted by sam7

I think boys often do better with black and white subjects like maths than girls do.
At this age my DD was exactly like yours, each homework we have to practically do the whole thing for her - teacher always said 'she is doing ok' but she was adamant she didn't get it. Son always top of his class in Maths.
She got a D in GCSE maths, but managed to get the needed C in a resit, went on to do A levels and a Biology degree and is now a science teacher, (never had any problems with the maths she needed in the science subjects) - so please please don't get to disheartened.
The you tube channels are a good idea for extra confidence, I believe Carol Vordaman is doing some for children too - also try and make her maths questions more fun and relevant. So if she has to add rather than just 5+5, make it into a story, Mary buys 5 mickey sweets and 5 donald ones - how may does she have?

See more...

Sam7,

You are so right, our DS breezes through everything maths and science based (actually feels like he's been here before! )

Our DD is incredibly artistic, enviably so... she is so creative and her imagination is 2nd to none but math's totally stumps her! I've been pretty emotional today feeling like we've let her down as we never realised till today how bad it is!

I've just signed up for the Carol Vorderman website so we'll see how we get on with her :-)

Thanks Dunx