How to help with...mental maths
Are you a bit of a Carol Vordeman when it comes to maths homework? No? Then you're in the right place! In this instalment of Spark Island's 'How to...' guides, primary school teacher Sean Callery offers some handy hints for sharpening those number skills.
In a nutshell
If you need to work out a sum, what do you do? Chances are, you'll either do it in your head or reach for a calculator. But that is not how you were taught at school. Maths teaching today recognises this, which can make it hard for parents to understand what and how their children are learning.
- Teachers are now concentrating on helping children do a wide range of calculations in their heads.
- As a result, there is probably less maths to see in your child's book, and what there won't be is sums in columns.
Check out these tips on how to help your child's mental maths.
Tricks of the trade
At home, you can help by showing how much maths we use in everyday life:
- How many knives and forks are needed to lay the table?
- How many books will fit on the shelf?
- How much did it cost when you bought some sweets, and were you given the right change?
Playing counting games and singing songs such as One Green Bottle begin to lock the order of numbers into your child's head:
- Can she count to 10? How fast?
- Can she do it backwards like a rocket launch countdown?
- Can she count in twos? Or fives?
Your child needs to be able to instantly recall key facts (teachers call them number bonds) to help her calculate quickly.
- She needs to know all the pairs of numbers that make 10. These can be used to help make other number bonds.
- Example: if you know 8+2 makes 10, you can begin to understand that 80+20 makes 100, and that 18+2 makes 20, so 18+12 makes 30.
Tools of the trade
These number bonds need to be learned, and sometimes equipment is useful.
Handily, our bodies are perfectly matched to the decimal number system because we have 10 fingers to count on.
Tip:If your child seems over-reliant on this, let her use her fingers but with them behind her back (this helps your child 'see' the numbers in her head).
Another useful piece of equipment is a centimetre ruler, because you can count along it. This is called a number line, and children progress from this to drawing their own number lines to count along (they'll often draw these in their books). From this, many start to see a number line in their head and to count along on it.
A 100 square, which displays all numbers from 0 to 100, is another tool your child will use in school, and which she may start to 'see' in her heads. This square is very handy for seeing patterns in numbers (like odd/even, and how to add 10 to any number by going down a row).
Turning the tables
Times tables are valuable for teaching children multiplication and division facts. For example, if you know that four 2s make 8, you also know that 8 divided by 4 is 2. Your child will begin to learn her two and 10 times tables in Year 2, progressing to the 3, 4 and 5 times tables in Year 3, and by Year 6 she will need to know all times tables up to 10, including the division facts.
Remember each new table only has a few new facts. If you know the 3 times table, you know 6 x 3 and 7 x 3, for example. Also, you can find the 8 times table by doubling the answers to the 4 times table.
Simply being able to recite a table does not show understanding of it. Ask your child to say the table backwards, or at random. Then, talk about division facts. These are the opposites of multiplication facts. For example, 4 x 3 = 12, so 12 divided by 4 is 3.
Train that brain
Play lots of number games to train up your child's brain.
- On car journeys, spot numbers on registration plates, road signs and doors and play doubling and halving them
- Take it in turns to make up sums with the chosen number as an answer. Encourage use of all four functions (add, subtract, multiply, divide) and multi-stage sums (like 2+12-9=5)
- What is one more than this number? Five more?
- Play with counters or bricks, putting colours into pairs and counting totals in twos
- Estimate things in everyday life - how many sweets are in the pack? Then check
- Work on time by asking questions like, 'There's 10 minutes left. What time will this programme finish?'
Mental strategies
One very useful thing you can do, which many parents find fascinating, is ask your child what mental strategies she has been learning. You'll be amazed!
Here are some to try out:
- To divide by 2, just halve
- To divide by 4, halve twice
- To multiply by 2, double
- To multiply by 4, double twice
- To multiple or divide by 10, move the digits along
- To divide by five, double the number and divide it by 10
- When adding, start with the tens, not the units
- Use near doubles, like 6+5 is the same as double 6, take away 1
- When adding, find the easy pairs. Example: 12+7+8 is easier as 12+8=20, then add 7
- Count up to do some subtraction. Example: 103-97 is done by counting on from 97 to 103
Learning activities
Check out our Activity and resource finder where you'll find tailored learning activities to develop your child's skills in English, maths and science.
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