And the answer is a resounding "Yes, you can help." And the good news is that it needn't be difficult or time-consuming to have an impact if you put a few of these tips into practice. Did you know that children with good numeracy skills are more likely to earn more, stay in education longer and have more chance of actually being in work when they grow up? The weather is a great topic to bring maths into the real world. Why not watch and discuss weather reports together to see how maths can help to describe what is going on around us? This blog is part of our series of blogs designed for parents supporting home learning and looking for home learning resources during the Covid-19 epidemic. What do we mean by ‘struggling with maths’

Here are three sample questions from Third Space Learning’s Primary Maths Intervention Programme for Year 6 you could try to find out if your child struggles with maths. Children are born with an innate mathematical ability and research has shown that parents have a massive effect on how this develops. Even if you feel you aren’t good at maths, there are things you can do with your child now that will make a big difference to their ability: There are a number of reasons why a child might struggle with maths, ranging from maths anxiety through to a range of special education needs (once referred to as maths difficulties and learning disabilities). Your child might be a reflective learner and already thinking to themselves, “Why do I struggle with maths so much?”Direct, targeted practice based on your knowledge of your son or daughter’s strengths and weaknesses, and complementing their school work. This the core of what is required (and where Komodo maths comes in). But tread a fine balance as too much/too often is likely to burn out even the most enthusiastic learner. (This is why Komodo uses a little and often approach - more of which later.) Again, the amount of knowledge and range of skills required to keep up in maths in Year 5 or Year 6 is huge. The step up from Year 4 to Upper Key Stage 2 is quite the jump! Some children might have their number facts and operations secure by the time they are 8 or 9 years old. Struggling with maths might be more apparent when they are removed from the comfort of arithmetic and thrown into the murkier mathematical waters of reasoning and problem-solving. Is it worthwhile asking their school about a dyscalculia test. What you can do to help your child if they’re struggling with maths Stay positive – It sounds simple but many forget to do this

Mathematical language is all around children – words and expressions such as “bigger”, “smaller”, “shorter”, “taller”, “more than”, “less than”, “beside”, “above”, “below”, “heavy”, “light”, etc. Using a variety of vocabulary helps children to develop a wide range of language and gain more confidence in the process. If your child is in Year 5 or Year 6, it is important to have an idea of what it is exactly about maths your child is struggling with…As children move up from the infants (KS1) to the juniors (KS2), there is a big shift in the amount they need to know and the skills they have to acquire to keep up in maths. They might have sailed through maths in their earlier school years, and it might be now that difficulties in learning mathematics are starting to appear.

Find out more about Komodo and how it helps thousands of children each year do better at maths - you can even try Komodo for free.Build a regular time slot for the maths homework and if there’s something you can’t help with, find out the answer together. It’s actually a great learning opportunity for your child to see that we all need to look things up, find out answers – nobody knows everything. Start with this blog for more tips on how to help your child with homework. When it comes to perimeter, it requires a number of mathematical competencies. A child needs to have spatial intelligence – being able to visualise the shape, partition it into its sides or constituent parts, recall the correct formula to calculate the side length, and then draw on their knowledge of addition to find the total. find out if there are clubs in your area which will interest your child - ask the local library or leisure centre for information If you’ve noticed or been alerted to an area of a struggle in your child’s maths learning your instinct will likely be to go all guns blazing and to throw the kitchen sink at the issue to get them up to speed. on holiday, be aware of all the things that are different to home - buildings, accents, languages, clothes, food and customs

It’s definitely hard to judge whether a child is having mathematical teething problems, or if your child really is a KS2 pupil who is struggling with maths. We’ve put together some guidance to help you figure out what’s going wrong and how you can help your child in their maths learning covering: Here are three sample questions from Third Space Learning’s Primary Maths Intervention Programme you could try to find out if your child is struggling with maths. Determining where your child is within the expectations of their age range or year group is definitely a good start – if your child is in Year 1 and can’t solve quadratic equations, that certainly doesn’t mean they will become a 6-year-old who struggles with maths! Meal times provide a wealth of maths opportunities. Getting involved in food preparation, cooking, and serving can help children practise maths skills like counting, measuring, and using ratios.

More in Books

Primary school children usually have a daily maths lesson, but an easy way to boost their skills and motivation is by showing them how useful number skills are in almost everything they do. Recognising numbers is one of the most important early steps for maths. You can begin by pointing out lots of different numbers to your child, such as the numbers on front doors, on the front of buses, on T-shirts, on television. After a while your child will recognise that the word “two” can also be written as a number “2”. I'm Ged, Co-founder of Komodo, ex-maths teacher and dad. If you have any questions please get in touch. Numerous studies have proved that a young person’s future attainment in maths can be affected negatively more than any other factor by parents leading them to believe that “I am not a maths person-itis” is a congenital, hereditary family trait . An example question for identifying and describing the properties of 3-D shapes from the Third Space Learning platform. Can your 6 or 7-year-old identify the correct shape? How to know if your 8-year old or 9-year-old is struggling with maths (Year 3 and 4)