Brought to you by Westpac, who is proud to offer Mathspace Essentials free to all Australians
Congratulations to Rebecca Lee-Metcalfe who was chosen as the winner of the giveaway. Thank you to everyone who entered.
Next year is going to be a big year in our house. My eldest starts high school (I still don’t believe it) and one of my little boys starts big school. High school is such a big step up from primary school and our gorgeous girl does really well at school and enjoys all of her subjects except for maths. And it’s always been a struggle to lift her maths marks as english and her other subjects just come so easily to her. We’ve even done a few years of maths tutoring twice a week which she really didn’t enjoy.
As soon as the Year 6 maths homework started coming home this year I could see it was much harder compared to last year. The questions involved converting fractions to decimals and working out sums with fractions. Each week she has a few pages of maths sheets to work through and her online maths tasks that are set by the teacher. Every Thursday night we’d have to sit down together and go through all of the questions she couldn’t do before they were handed in friday morning. It just wasn’t making sense to her. I was trying to show her how to do it but something wasn’t clicking.
We would sit with the examples and answers, I was trying to teach her to look for patterns and try to remember what 1/8, 1/4 etc was in decimal form to make solving the sums easier. And in our house the hardest thing about homework is that it has to be done after we get in the door from our activities and at the same time as kids need to be fed and bathed and looked after before bed. And I was pregnant and tired. It wasn’t a good combination.
As it turned out while I was in hospital having the baby hubby sat down and worked with her. He then started to sit with her twice a week to go through the maths homework and explain it differently than me. We made sure she was keeping on top of her online work and were helping her as much as we could. First semester report came in and she’d lifted her maths marks right up from the bottom quarter of the grade to the top half.
Rather than buying an extra workbook to help with extra maths we’ve also been using Mathspace Essentials which is being provided by Westpac. She likes the videos to explain concepts and she likes getting hints when she’s trying to work out the sums. I think she also just likes it as an excuse to use my phone and I have to keep an eye on her to make sure she doesn’t switch to her favourite thing to do online – watch baking tutorials on YouTube.
You can access Mathspace Essentials for free here and we really love the app on our phones to make it fun and portable. You can select your country, state and school grade from Year 3-12. If you have a Westpac bank account then you can try Mathspace Plus on a 7 day trial here and find out more about the Solve to Save program that is currently running too.
Maths has finally clicked for her this year and it’s a great relief. It’s still hard and we still have to sit with her for a couple of questions each week but it’s getting easier and there are less questions that we have to sit through. It hasn’t cost us any money in tutoring, just time spent 1 on 1 to explain everything and encouraging her to do some extra work on the computer to help improve her marks and understanding. And now that the worry about maths this year is over I can start to worry about high school maths next year…..I really hope it all comes back to me!
Here are a few tips from our house that have really helped in this house as the maths homework has become harder
- Don’t do the answers for them even though that’s the quickest way to get homework done. Go back through their school books or ask how the teacher showed them how to do it.
- Give a hint to keep them on the right track, when you’re working on Mathspace there are step by step hints to help them solve the problem. This isn’t something we’ve found in the online maths program used at our children’s schools.
- Teach your children their times tables and then test them in the car on the school run. Once they’ve learnt their timetables it makes multiplication and division so much easier (I’m learning this with year 3 maths right now!).
- Help them find ways to remember concepts, for example my husband taught my big girl that an acute angle is a little cutie.
- Mathspace has teachers available online to answer questions if your child gets stuck while working through a question. This could be really helpful when you’re not making progress or your child needs a different strategy
- I’m a big fan of carrying over and borrowing the 1 when it comes to solving a maths problem, hubby was taught using the pay back system and methods that students are taught now are different. If your school offers a session for parents on maths and how they are teaching it then go along to learn. Otherwise use their textbooks and online programs like Mathspace to see how the sums are being worked out.
- Make it fun….kids love working on the smart phones, tablets and computer so let them use Mathspace on a device and have some fun while learning……
- And lastly little rewards or incentives along the way for putting in the hard work tend to work well too.
Love to hear how you are helping with maths in your house and what’s been working……………and if you have any questions on Mathspace Essentials or Solve to Save or anything on how we teach maths in our house just ask.
And now for the fun bit…..I have one iPad mini (valued at $479 plus postage) to give away to one lucky person.
All you need to do is tell me about the maths struggles in your household OR how you’ve been working at maths and what has worked.
Entries close 20th October 2017, 1 entry per person, entrants must be aged 18 or over and live in Australia, I will be picking the winner who will be contacted by me via email and announced on the blog and Facebook. This giveaway is being run by myself not Westpac. Once the winner is chosen the decision is final.
We also have had maths struggles, what I find difficult is trying to show them how to work out an answer when now they are shown different ways to do this. It’s not consistent. So I purchase a workbook now, as that has a page showing how to work things out and then I am able to help my child. We really worked hard with naplan and it made such a difference – his year 5 results were a vast improvement to his year 3 ones. I can’t wait to check out Westpac math space and see how that can benefit my boys too.
Hi Corrie, I’m excited to check out this App! I have two daughters – one who struggles with maths, the other who is a Maths whiz. The older one who struggles used to compare herself to her sister, causing resentment. Firstly we have reinforced that we all have different talents and areas where we shine: She is extremely creative while her sister has a maths/science focus. This eased some of the pressure she placed on herself. Secondly we encouraged her to accept help at school with attending Maths Help sessions and speaking up, asking questions when she didn’t understand. When she stopped being so negative about Maths and started speaking up in class she grew in confidence and has achieved well after years of struggles. I will certainly download this App as she is a visual learner and will benefit from this very much
I have a girl in kindy who just gets it so easily and one in year 2 who struggles. I spend lots of time with her working on concepts and tricks to try and help her learn. We also love to play mathletics online for some fun.
The biggest help I found was to give my children a hand when there is often so much work to get through. If they got one row correct they could skip a few sums. If they got one wrong they had to do every sum on the page. It motivated them! I would also sit with them and “do” the filling in as they said the answers (for some, it was tedious and they enjoyed just verbally answering the questions). Finally, it can simply be a maturity thing and so I would just do every maths question with them one by one, and eventually it just “clicked”. I finally realised that they actually weren’t able to comprehend until their brain was mature enough to understand the concept. Anyway, hope you continue to enjoy every moment of your children’s journey with learning!
Hi Corrie
We were having major struggles with miss 8 & helping her to remember her times tables , especially 6 – 9 times tables . I would google you tube clips on songs to help remember them and it’s made such an improvement . If she can’t think of the answer we start the song and she quickly remembers it
Kind regards
Kath
I have 3 daughters, all very different in their capabilities. I have really struggled to be able to support their leaning, especially their maths individually. Why is the way I explained to one not working for the other. Maths is as constant struggle in our household. Currently I’m going with the brief explanation and answer and realise it’s probably not really helping anyone other than me (just to have it done). I would absolutely love to try out the app with my girls. May be easier than my other option of studying teaching to try and grasp a better way of explainkng maths to the kids!
I struggled with maths when I was at school and was dreading the day when my daughter would come home and say maths is hard mum. She did! So i just took a big breath and we both would sit down every afternoon and work on her maths together. I also told her my struggles with maths at school, and how I found it hard too. She is doing better but I’m dreading the HIgh School Maths next year.
My eldest daughter is in year 5, loves learning and is autistic. maths is one of the big areas she struggles with. The new concepts and changes make it a hard subject to master. Especially as she is struggling to put it in to a daily activity. I struggles to put it into words she will understand, without confusing her even more. I can’t wait to try the app.
We have 3 children in our house. My eldest is in year 1 and my middle child in kindy and a new baby. Whilst my daughter is doing well at maths at the moment i have always struggled with maths so i look forward to utilising any available online maths programmes to help my children where i can not.
Our little lady is the same age as yours
we we’re blessed that in the 4th grade she had a fabulous math teacher, who was able to explain the concepts to her in a way that she understood AND she learnt all her times tables from him as well, he used a technique that challenged the kids and the “prizes” from the prize box sure helped inspire them to get better and faster at their times table recall rate.
Im interested in trying this app for some if the new concepts that she is learning about this year to see if it helps
This is a good post Corrie and I will bookmark it for future reference. My eldest is in year 4 and seems to be naturally good at maths, which is lucky, but she never brings home math homework so I don’t get to see what they are doing in class. I presume that will change within the next few years. One thing we have always done at meal times is ‘quizzes’ for many topics including maths. So we do time tables and other maths type questions. It is just a part of our routine as we have picky / slow eaters so it gets them eating too – eat a mouthful and they get a quiz question. Even my 10 year old still loves this game.
We have just started home schooling my 8 year old son due to severe anxiety, newly diagnosed ASD, Dyspraxia (DSD) & processing sensory disorder and maths is a real struggle to do. He hates work books with a passion and being timed is another anxiety prompting trigger. We have tried a few online programs but will check out Mathspace Essentials as we need all the resources we can get our hands on and he does love anything that is to do with the computer. Also maths is not a strong subject for me either so I worry that I’m not giving him the best education in this & as he already has so many struggles I’d hate for me to give him another one.
For high school maths, using a textbook with an accompanying CD.
The textbook has an explanation at the start of a chapter, followed by a variety of sample worked questions. The textbook then works through some different questions (some word problems, riddle solving, and standard straight forward calculations etc.).
We like that these textbooks use a variety of different questions.
The files from the CD can also be downloaded and taken with you on a laptop.
We have our eldest child started year 7 this year – maths is his weakest subject and most of his year 7 class mates were well behind where they should be at the start of the year. He has worked very hard to get ahead and has done an outstanding job (he still hates maths though). Our daughter is in grade 3 and she sounds like your daughter – she is well ahead in everything except maths. An ipad mini would suit both our children to have portable maths games and both get ahead.
The biggest hurdle for me is my own deep seated fear that I’m not good at maths.
When I can’t immediately understand a question I feel anxious and have to restrain myself from blurting out “I’m not sure – ask Dad”. I don’t want my children to think that maths is a skill that is exclusive to males.
I’m particularly keen for my daughter to know that she is just as capable as her brothers and determined that all my children should have a lot more confidence in their abilities than I do in mine.
We’ve been helping our little girl try to learn maths and money! So hard when kids just see ‘pay pass’ and have little visual representation of money. So we play shop with coloured stones. For example a toy on our pretend shop shelf costs 2 white stones and 3 blue stones. I’d love to try some apps too with her.
OK, So, in our family we don’t have Maths struggles but English struggles. I know this is supposed to be about Maths but I am a firm believer that if you are OK with English, Maths is your enemy and visa versa. It is just the way the brain is wired. We are almost at the end of secondary school for my eldest… two week of school left and then exams and then it is all over red rover. Such a hard concept to fathom considering it feels like they have been at school there whole life. Good luck with starting secondary school. Believe me, it will be gone before you know it.
My girls are given their homework weekly, which means we try and get maths homework all done on a Monday night when they aren’t too tired. My oldest whizzes through her math most of the time, for my second child it takes a lot of time and persistence to get through those two pages of revision. She is convinced she is bad at maths, something I try and challenge, as she is very capable at it given sufficient time to work through problems. I agree that knowing times tables by rote is a big asset, something we need to work on here! I find fun apps make a big difference in their desire to practise their maths, so it would be great to win an iPad mini to have a device for the kids to play maths games on (and keep my laptop free for me 😉 ).
Our math struggles were actually.me! I always hated math then in year 9 my reacher gave us our work at the start of class and watching him do the problems was optional. Turns out watching the teachers was just confusing me. If i was left to work it out myself i got them done in half the time and became top if the class! My son will start school soon and i will be making sure i watch him to see how he learns and try lots of different methods to find thw right match.
Two of my sons struggle with maths and I have to get my oldest to teach me the method they use because its different then when I was at school
We struggle in our household with Miss 10 and Miss 9. They are currently being tutored In English. Once they are able to read a certain level they will be tutored in Maths too. It make is hard if they cant read the Maths questions (sigh). They enjoy their online homework much more than the paper homework.
Back to Maths, We have been looking at you tube to find catchy times table songs,to try and bring the girls up to speed. I find by making learning fun, they retain more.
Our eldest daughter struggled with Maths all through primary…getting below and well below marks. She had fluctuating hearing loss due to glur ear for many years (even with grommets). We decided to get a tutor part way through year 6…she is a beautiful retired school teacher. Our girl is now at high school in year 7 and oh my god she got 100% and an A+ on her last exam. And now proclaims that she Loves Maths…we pinch ourselves…
Ethan, aged 9, has been struggling with basics, while Eli, aged 8, has been zooming ahead. This has been rather tricky because Ethan has a perfectionist personality and there is no way he’ll let his brother work ahead of him.
We’ve just been taking it slowly, working on his strengths while extending him on the areas he needs help with. We are slowly getting there. No point pushing him too far, too quick or he just won’t master these basic skills.
I have always struggled with maths and passed that on to both my kids … my husband was in the Navy and I remember my poor son (he was in yr 2 at the time) was crying his heart out as the ship sailed off … I thought he was just sad that his Dad was leaving again and then he said ‘who is going to help with my my maths homework now ?!?!?!’ I said don’t worry, we’ll call Poppy !!!
Miss 11 has started using the mathspace – what a fabulous resource !! Fingers crossed she will gain some confidence and brings those marks up. Thanks for the entry chance x
We also have maths struggles! Our 12 year old is going to high school next year too and struggles with maths. She was very unwell and was hospitalised for over 4 months in year 4 & 5. When she returned to school she was on modified curriculum due to her illness and has never really caught up! I’m hoping that this program will help her to catch up in her own time and space!
Trying to get the kids to put in the time and effort to learn the times tables! I keep telling them it’s something that you use all of your life, but do you think they’ll listen? Aside from that, it’s dredging the old memory banks to remember how you did something 30+ years ago (because it’s been that long since you did something like factor trees) because they need help.
I know this may sound silly but as the kids get older I find doing homework with them quite tricky and sometimes even embarrassing due to English not being my native language. The early ABCs were easy but as the work gets harder I find it much more difficult to find the correct English words to help them, leaving me feel a little ‘stupid’ for lack of better words! Miss 7 has always struggled with maths so I either grab the box of coloured teddies to visualise the maths problem and explain things that way, we look things up together online or I rope in the twins (9 yo) to help me out. I am not sure what I am going to do when they hit high school, we might have to call in a tutor!
I have a son in Year 8 doing exceptionally well at school, and a daughter in Grade 4 who is more of a worry. She’s very lazy and tends to do the bare minimum especially with maths. Her spelling is amazing, but she refuses to work hard on timestables and I worry how she will keep up when she reaches high school. She wants me to homeschool her for secondary, but that’s because she thinks she will get away with doing less work than her brother has to do at school. She does love technology however, and I think an ipad could help engage her a bit more in her studies particularly with maths. She keeps asking if she can take money from her bank account to buy an ipad!
My eldest is in year 5 and has always struggled with maths. She works so hard to understand concepts that her friends find easy. She would always say that she hated maths. As a teacher myself I felt like a failure that I could’nt help/make her “get” the topics. However, thankfully this year after the beginning of the year testing the school identified her need and she gets extra small group support. It hasn’t been easy and on top of everything last term she spent time in hospital with pneumonia and ended up missing 3 weeks of school but thanks to her teachers she now says she likes maths.
As a person I don’t like maths myself, the struggle comes when I have to teach my eldest primary school maths. Yes, is not that hard, but for whatever reason it doesn’t click with her, maybe the way I teach it is not clear at all.
Hubby tries to sit with her every week, it has made a difference but it still hard. Often crying is involve in doing maths homework
We did consider doing maths one to one tuition, but after doing the sum,new are financially not able to do so.
So we are stuck, but I’ll check mathspace and see how that is going to help my daughter not to have a fear for maths. Thansk for sharing your experience.
My first daughter was so good at Maths I didn’t need to give much assistance so I was blindsighted when my second daughter didn’t pick it up as well. She is good at working out the problems creatively but our biggest hurdle is she always writes her numbers backwards! It drives me crazy! I have been hoping for an easy quick fix solution but I am yet to find it! Any one else has the same issue??
My twins are 7yrs old, homeschooled and both autistic. Maths is one of the big areas one of them struggles with. Short term memory issues also mean we need to ensure something is worked on everyday to become more long term memory for them. The new concepts and changes in maths can make it a hard. I break everything down, lots of hands on activities and real life situations. We also play lots of apps, boardgames and card games that are geared to the current area.
As a primary STEM specialist teacher and tutor to students with Maths anxiety (and mum to a gaggle – one with Dyscalculia), can I please point ALL of you to the writings of Jo Boaler? Her books are easy reads, and pertinent to those of you who don’t homeschool, too. She is also in the midst of co-writing a series of grade-appropriate books called “Mindset Mathematics”. *Far* better than worksheets/workbooks.
Agree with the statements about times tables – these are a necessary skill. Not speed, just recall. Remember, they’re just a faster way of doing addition!
*Not in the draw for iPad*
Sadly maths will always be a struggle for my nearly 10yr old, she has Down syndrome and maths is something that seems to be harder for her to comprehend. She currently attends a mainstream school and is In year 4 where she has her school work adapted to her needs. We are working so hard to give her an understanding of numbers etc as she will need a good knowledge of this for her to be able to lead a relatively independent life when she is an adult. She is also a very visual learner so programs on an iPad and computer work well for her. She works so hard in everything she does and the rewards are beyond measure. Even simple things like writing are a struggle because of poor muscle tone so to be able to do hands on learning and being able to do lessons etc on an iPad are essential for her, and would make her learning so much easier.
Oh gosh- maths is not my strong point! I am strictly an english and humanities girl and dread being asked maths questions by the kids. Luckily they seem to be following my husband’s natural maths ability. My 7 and 5 year olds love quizzing each other with simple sums and making it fun.
We’d live to win an iPad for educational apps and games as we haven’t got one yet but I can see how helpful it could be
The biggest struggles we have at home with learning maths are:
1) having many siblings including one with a diagnosis makes it hard to spend one on one time with my eldest as everyone else needs to have a bath, have dinner, therapy etc
2) having attention difficulties and dyspraxia, not to mention being very tired after school make it hard to sit still and think after school
3) it is hard to determine the solution method the teacher has explained to the child, so when we try to explain the way we understand it could be confusing him even more.
4) after a long hard day at school the last thing my kids want is to sit still, behave and work out sums. They want to move, they want to be carefree, they want to do what they decide.
5) they have other homework like readers and spelling as well as projects.
6) seeing everyone else watching tv or playing with toys while you are stuck doing homework makes it very difficult to find it interesting as a child
7) another struggle which is actually mine, not my child’s, is that i would like him to keep trying until he gets it right, but his ideas are just completing the task without double checking for correctness. I need to let up a little and let him send mistakes back to school so the teacher is aware of what he doesnt understand rather than sending all answers correct and teacher thinking her knows it all.
We have not tried any apps as have been focusing on paper and pencil (to aid with handwriting practise at the same time) but will definitely give Mathspace a go as kids are definitely interested in technology.
Thanks
So far all the kids enjoy maths and practicing times tables has been something we make sure we do so that they have that stuck in their memory forever. They are so useful even just when doing the shopping and working out if something’s a bargain or not. So we will keep practicing each afternoon during the school week
The biggest thing that worked for me personally was understanding and getting a good grasp of the basics, then *practising*. The thing with maths is that everything builds on the foundations, so if you fall behind in something, your struggles with maths will only increase until you’ve caught up. Teachers are legends and can guide you to extra practice tasks if you’re finding a particular topic difficult. Spending decent time on doing questions (and homework of course!) is definitely worth it.
Hi Corrie. I have found Learning Resources Fraction Tower Equivalency Cubes great for teaching my students and my own children how to compare decimals, factions and percentages. It is something that can be so confusing, but by providing a concrete learning tool like these, it is much more clear. Thanks for the opportunity to win an iPad. My three children currently fight over one iPad. It would be lovely to have another one to share.
We play maths games over the dinner table. You can’t go past a deck of cards – Go Fish for number recognition, make 10 games for building basic number facts and 21 (best they don’t go off to school telling the teacher we play ‘Blackjack’ at home!) for expanding addition skills. Or we’ll empty out my purse of coins – grouping coins into $1 lots and counting how much there is (or isn’t!). But my boys’ favourite is when we practise fractions with a block of chocolate – it also makes the perfect dessert!
It is so difficult that everything has changes so parents really struggle to help our kids with maths. I often have to google to help them. Will definitely try Mathspace Essentials and would love to win an iPad as my daughter needs one for year next year.
My two eldest children love maths and are moving forward in leaps and bounds.
When it comes to my third child, this is we’re things differ.
Eli has different abilities and finds school extremely difficult. He is s a visual learner and needs quite a bit of time to process things, which makes his learning feel like a task.
We are currently considering homeschooling because of his intellectual disabilities as well as his Autism which make social interactions at school confusing and stressful.
Eli loves to watch things on my iPad, especially kids you tube, this program has taught him imaginative play by mimicking the children he is watching.
It seems this way of learning, via technological devices is working for him and may be an avenue worth exploring.
We are excited to see how he develops over the coming years, he is such a delight and a blessing to the world.
I have little children and we have been using nature to explore maths. Counting leaves, finding shapes, measuring distances between trees. Fun and calming!
I remember when you sent Miss K to Kumon, all those years ago and she still isn’t a fan of doing her sums, at least she’s consistent!! Can’t say I blame her either, I hate calculating things too, for quilting I love inches and yards and always overestimate how much fabric I need (possibly this is deliberate).
At home we struggle with showing my son how to work out the answer as the way we were taught is different to the ways they use now. It gets confusing and frustrating for us and our son.
Ive just downloaded the Mathspace App onto my phone. I look forward to trying it out with my son. Plus any way to make learning fun is an added bonus!
My grade 1 son enjoys maths but finds it hard to engage with traditional methods of learning. He thrives when math concepts are learned through visual strategies and hands on activities. This app sounds great, but we don’t have an iPad. I know he would love to learn maths in this way.
I bought my children the good old cuisenaire rods that I used at school.It is a great visual method of learning. (They are available through modern teaching aides). As someone else on here said previously you have to understand the basics to develop further.
Maths – ARRRGGGGGG
I have never been one to get Maths.. other than the basics.. So over the years with my older children and now with my 11yr old maths is always a struggle.. With my partner away a lot and although he tries to explain he doesn’t seem to be able to break it down to their level. So over the years I have utilized different ways to help my children. I have used Mathletics (as they have school account), In high school I bought one my daughters a math dictionary – which seemed to help her. However one of the best tools I have used is your tutor and not just for maths but for every subject. This service is awesome and best of all if most local libraries will give you free access.. It is available for years 3-12 from 4 pm to 7 pm weeknights. Behind the screen is a teacher for the grade level / subject you need and they will talk to your child and explain everything. This is what has helped my children the most! They have had a name change http://www.studiosity.com/. I recommend you check with your local library to see if they participate and then all you need is your library card to log in.
My kids like to talk about maths in the car for some reason. My kids discuss with each other what new thing they are working on which usually leads to an impromptu quiz! It also makes it easier to find real life learning examples relevant to classroom discussions. That’s what has worked for us. It won’t work for long though. Once they get into more complex maths I’m done!
Hi, our son in year 7 has maths struggles… Instead of hating it now he is starting to see as special time with Dad. My husband loves maths and explaining the concepts seems to work although they love doing maths games online too.
Our iPad has now died a very slow and painful death….(ahhhhh!!!!) so to replace it which is out of the question after an interstate move and new school set up halfway through the year is out of the question would be so helpful esp with 5 kids and 3 lots of homework… Why do they all need a device on one night to complete homework!
Thanks for the information about the app!
I’m in the exact same boat as you! I have twin daughters in year 6 going into high school next year and my son starting Prep. Maths is such a struggle! Most nights end in tears of frustration for the girls as they just can’t grasp the concept of a lot of their maths questions. It doesn’t help that maths isn’t my strong point either ? I’ve been looking into tutoring for the girls but they are both very shy so they are quite hesitant to receive help from someone they aren’t familiar with. I’d love for them to get a better understanding of maths before starting high school as I know it will only get harder.
Maths seems to be easy for some and a struggle for others! My son has taken an interest in counting using a hundreds chart and just loves to count all the way to one hundred. He is beginning to work on adding numbers together/taking numbers away using concrete objects. An iPad mini would be an amazing tool to help boost his maths progress as we don’t own a laptop or an iPad at this stage!
We have 3 boys at school. 2 excel at maths and our youngest son struggles with all things school. He has extra needs and just finds school hard. The only way we have been able to improve is for me to sit 1-1 (not easy with 4 kids) with him and help and show him different ways to work things out. There is no one way to solve a problem. We have seen massive growth this year just from helping him at home.
As a grandparent caring for primary school age children, I’ve found maths a huge struggle…for me! Times have change and so has the way maths is done. At first I’d ‘help’ with homework the way I’d learnt maths, the kids would go to school and get the working out wrong even though they had the same correct answer. That caused dramas at home and at school. So we invested in some maths apps like the Mathspace Essential from Westpac which we all found quite clear and easy to use and that has the kids sorted as well as myself!
My 3 kids were very varied in their maths ability from one extreme to the other. My eldest child has gone on to become a bio statistician with a doctorate in statistics. My middle child struggled with maths right through school and had tutoring for 4 years in primary school as well as the individual time both hubby and myself spent sitting with her going over problems. Unfortunately for some kids there really isn’t any other way to learn and retain what they are learning than with repetition. After breaking through a new concept by approaching the problem in different ways, for her she then had to just get stuck right into remembering by repetition. I should point out that she left school in year 10. She is now married with a 2 year old, works full time and is doing a degree part time. Believe it or not, but her favorite subjects are accounting subjects! All that time and effort is actually coming to fruition ? Our 3rd child falls between the other 2 in ability and tends to sort things out on his own with minimal outside input.
Oh well… I have four kids (10,9,7 and 2) maths is not my thing at all!! Just talking about it gives the stress sweats. My older two are now heading into the maths zone that is waaaaaaay beyond me. My husband is often not home in the afternoon to help or explain things to them. Usually he is great at explain the long subtraction and the start of algebra to them. That is something I greatly appreciate. We will definitely look into mathspace. My kids would love it I think.
My eldest son really struggled with maths and whenever we would try to sit down to work on it his anxiety would really escalate. Instead we found what works in our house is to make maths more fun by incorporating it into daily life.
So when out shopping he will work out how much 2 items would cost or how many weeks of pocket money he would need to buy an item.
I have found it really helps him to be less anxious and is making such a big difference.
I have 5 kids and 2 are special needs (5amd 12 year old) preppy is struggling big time with math concepts at present and the 12 year old who is on a modified program for high school also struggles Dailey and wishes he could do the same work as his friends. He has had iPad previously but unfortunately it met with rather a sad end and is no longer with us Will definitely be looking at this app though as sounds great
In our house, maths has been a struggle with each of the kids, and we have found that every maths sheet sent home ends up with tears, yelling and arguments. Not a great thing to look forward to each and every week of the school year. We have kids at high school now, which is a little better as the are more independant in their learning and responsible if things at not completed, but I am dreading the next round once our 4 year old starts school, as I know that each child learns differently and not always via a text book, so I am going to be making sure I have a big list of bookmarked apps and websites saved to use once she starts school, so I can tailor her learning to suit her individual style.
We use car trips and the things we see to come up with maths problems. One I remember recently was along the lines of, “wow, that’s a lot of vines in that vineyard. I wonder how many rows are on that hill?” Then we all try and figure it out, mum, dad & two school aged kids. Once we have an answer we talk about the strategies we each used. They’re always different, the strategies, not the answers.
So its helping the kids to see there’s multiple ways to solve a problem. It also, often, shows how important it is to know your timestables, like you said.
I have two sons on the spectrum… it creates a whole raft of challenges from concentration to concept grasping. My oldest gets it better than my youngest… but just engaging them in a fun and unique way often gets us some great results.
My eldest daughter really started struggling more with maths once she got to high school (she also favours English and humanities subjects) and just ‘hates maths’. Despite being good at maths at school I have struggled to remember how to do the high school maths as it has gotten harder and my husband who is an accountant knows it but struggles to teach it in a way our daughter will listen to! She is now in year 10 and just yesterday informed me she got a B in maths (she has been sitting on a C). Finally success! Things that have worked for us:
– getting a maths tutor. We used Squareheads in Brisbane who a specialist maths tutors. I asked for a female and we have a lovely young female tutor who is doing a PHD in Maths. This has been the biggest help. My daughter listens to her (when she wouldn’t listen to us!) and just the consistency of having weekly revision with someone has really been the key.
– practise under exam conditions. My daughter gets stressed in exams and makes silly mistakes and practicing exams before a test with her tutor really helps.
– the book Math Doesn’t Suck is good! It is written by the actress who was Winnie in the Wonder Years.
– lastly I have a friend whose daughter also freaks out in maths exams and she is seeing a wonderful woman in Brisbane who is a maths psychologist who helps to deal with the stress issues that can be common with girls that cause them to make mistakes in maths exams even when they have been doing those questions fine at home. This is something to consider if it seems like your daughter ‘gets’ it at home but then blanks in the exam.
Good luck with high school next year. It is quite a transition!
So many things have changed since I was young,
School maths is so different even in year 1,
I struggle away trying to help my boy,
Trying to understand & explain but I’m a bit coy!
We need some technology to help us a bit,
I’m sure a mini IPad with Westpac Mathspace would be a big hit!
Please rescue me from this tricky task,
I need some maths help & I need it fast!
If we won my son would do well & not need to mask,
I’ld love to see him enjoying maths and having a blast!
I was very lucky Maths was my sons favourite subject from a very early age so I never to sit with. He was doing Year 7 Maths in Year 2. His younger sister struggled with Maths. My husband & I would spend endless time helping. One day I was preparing dinner & she needed help, my son volunteered to help her. Something She had been struggling with she finalky understood after her brother explaining it. From that day his daily chore of an evening was to sit with her & help her with Maths, while my husband & I cleaned up. My son is now away with Uni & she is in Yr7 she still rings him for help. I had negative comments from people but it worked her marks increased & shd now has a very special bond with her older brother. Thats what being in a family is all about helping one another
We have lots of interesting times with maths. Sometimes there is even a bit of parent competition as to who is the best at maths. One recent story was when the teenager and then the Dad couldn’t get the answer for a tricky maths question, but guess what fools old Mum did!!
My twins have dyslexia and it impacts their maths. We have to focus on reading and spelling during homework time so having a maths program they can work through on their own while I’m busy would be great.
My son is in Year 3 and generally, he’s good at maths and I don’t have to intervene. However, 9 times tables get past 6 x9 and he cannot remember, it’s like a cloud after that. It must be genetic because I can’t remember them either. I will be able to tell if this is a genetic mutation as he is the eldest and the ‘canary down the mine’ when it comes to maths homework with Mum, If his four other younger siblings have the same trouble with 9 times tables, I’m going to whisk them off to the doctors for a full blood work and testing for the 9TTM (9x times table mutation) which should exempt them all from further 9 times table homework. However, there is a way round this which I have taught my son, know your 10 times table and then just take away the starter.. eg 7×9… 7×10=70-7=63, this is my method to beat the 9TTM. thank you
Do you know the trick to remembering the nine times table? It only works up to 10 but what you do is put up your fingers, put down your pinkie on your left hand as 1×9, there are 9 fingers left and the answer is 9.
For 2×9, you put down the ring finger and are left with 1 and 8 =18.
You keep going by putting down the middle finger, giving you 2 and 7 = 27.
I hope you and your kids find this helpful ?
We have also had some maths struggles! With two special little people in our house we learn a bit differently. I’ve found the best thing for my gorgeous 7yo son is to try maths in the morning. He’s up before his lovely but demanding sister so we have breakfast together and work on his homework, just the two of us with no distractions. It’s become a really beautiful way to connect and now he’s gone from not being able to finish a worksheet to getting extension work!
We’d be thrilled to win a mini iPad to help with some of the awesome apps for kids with special needs. Enjoy to whoever wins xx
My twin daughter struggles with her maths and struggles badly. She constantly compares herself to her brother, who has no issues with his maths. She gets so disillusioned and try’s so hard. But she is so hard on herself. He gets the awards at school and she does not. It’s heartbreaking trying to be happy for one and so upset for the other. They currently share a home pc to work on these maths programs but individual iPads might be a good way to keep a distance between them workwise. I would love one for her. I have my fingers crossed.
My 8 year old (grade 2) daughter really struggles with maths. Things that came so easily to my now 10 year old son, are worryingly difficult for her. Number sequences in particular are a trial (especially when going backwards). One thing that has helped is using money (normally silver coins) to demonstrate number problems. When working through her homework sheet we pour a pile of loose change and try visualise the problem using the coins. Whether it’s the incentive of using money or the visualisation, this has seemed to help. I’m sure doing maths on an ipad would also be great incentive for her :). Thanks for the opportunity.
Maths for my year 7 boy is still a struggle. He has been fortunate to be identified at school as needing extra help so a teacher takes a small group to do extra work. He is also on adjusted level as he is dyslexic. Maths was a subject I was average at, but I still managed to explain something to my son that my banking husband didn’t know! I agree with the way I learnt at school is different to how the kids learn today and I worry about confusing him!
Maths is sooooooooo hard ! That’s what i hear from my Grade 12 daughter . She does really well in English and Japanese but struggles with Maths , i was a relief Teacher aide for years so it was easier when she was younger as i’d get out a workbook and just go over it with her ( i understood junior maths ) but now with senior maths its all over our heads…we all struggle , her Dad, myself and the teen. Usually i sit with her- look at the workbook or the revision sheet and we try to work it out together , she goes along to free tutoring at school sometimes too but now I am excited to hear we can access Mathspace! I always tell my daughter a lot of people struggle with maths we can’t be good at everything and i tell her just do your best ! I’m sure now we know we can access Mathspace this will give her the confidence she needs to excel in her final year of school . Thank you .
My little one is quite advanced with speech and literacy, this has always come easy for us. She has to work a little harder at numeracy and quickly gets frustrated because normally things make sense quickly for her. An online program like Mathspace and her own device would make practicing her numeracy skills something to look forward to rather than looking for any excuse. Thanks Corrie!
My eldest is in year 5 and I’ve been concerned about her maths for a while but her naplan this year has shown there are some areas that she is struggling with. I’ve booked her in for tutoring but this maths program may be enough to help her (& won’t cost anywhere near as much).
I have sat down and taught her new concepts and that has really helped. I’ve also found if I can find concrete ways to show the concept – such as the blocks for place values, cutting an identical item in 4 and 3 to show the difference in the fraction has helped. She is like your eldest – English comes quite naturally to her. She also has some of those Harry Potter pop figures I see on the desk ?.
My middle child on the other hand is gifted in maths (he is extended at school) and we’re figuring that out as well. Im glad my husband is a high school maths teacher so he can help them when they get to that level.
I look forward to showing this App to my kids. I struggle with Maths and my Husband who is great at maths is often away. My eldest I hope would greatly benefit from learning in areas she struggles such as area and angles. Thank for this great opportunity.
We have the struggle of our oldest receiving meths homework to do and not enjoying it. We have been trying to bring some fun and enjoyment to maths tasks completed, in order to make it not seem like a chore. It is definitely hard after a busy day at school to get them to complete what seems like more ‘work’. An iPad with this app would be amazing, in order to boost enjoyment and fun!
We also have two younger children, who would also benefit from this, when they are older.
We struggle everyday to get our boys away from crazy YouTube videos and onto maths homework – the Mathspace Videos are going to change this for us! I can’t wait!
My son has struggled with various maths concepts and to help him we found it most useful to relate it to real life so we play games with him and get him to do all the adding up/multiplying of points and scores.
We also get him to work out how long it is going to take to get somewhere based on the distance and speed.
It has also been helpful to show him some uses for maths – he loves space so explaining how maths is important for that.
We play family board games! Sienna loves playing Monopoly, often opting to be the banker so she has extra chances at doing maths equations. This has really helped her understanding values, adding and subtraction!
This app sounds fantastic – I will have to check it out for my three. My struggle is to get them to stay motivated. They don’t receive any homework from school so this app might be just the thing I have been searching for.
Constant encouragement with maths has helped my 3 school aged kids. They often need help which thankfully my husband can do as he enjoys maths and by sitting down and going over problems with them helps. With my 4 year old, I try and incorporate maths in our every day life. Counting out fruit at the supermarket, counting at the dinner table!! We have a times table chart on the back of our toilet door so that keeps the kids learning while sitting!!! I wasn’t confident in maths at school but if I can instil a love of it in my children with extra help along the way that would be a good thing. ☺
Hi there Retro mummy, My son is in year 1 at school, He loves reading but not too much Maths, he does mathletics on line because of his homework but it take me a lot of effort to convince him to sit down and do it, we also do coloring by numbers and board games like monopoly, and cooking. Am worry thinking that if is that hard at the moment to sit and do math it could be harder in the following years and also I am not well prepared for that. Having his own I pad and the app could motivate and show that Maths can be fun, Anyway thanks for the opportunity I will be crossing my fingers:)
Math is still a struggle for me (and I’m a teacher! Not math thankfully) My youngest daughter, who is in grade 2, came home with some math homework that was clearly beyond her capabilities – it was a multiplication involving decimal points, something she hasn’t even learned yet – so figuring out a way to teach her how to break down the problem so she could solve it was quite the challenge considering the expectation was that these were ‘mental math’ sums. I sent hubby to have a word to the teacher about this one! I know my daughter would appreciate the opportunity to expand her skills with an ipad mini. As the youngest she often misses out on the available technology in the house because the older siblings are in high school and need the various laptops and ipads for study.
My son struggled in year 7 (he is now year 9). I can still remember early on, his very first topic test, sitting in tears about 10pm as he just couldn’t understand the work. We made sure we found a tutor then and there for him and have been so lucky to have THE best person – a young man just out of uni for primary teaching who absolutely loves maths – he has become part of the family almost! My daughter will be heading into year 6 next year and while we used to use study ladder as it was provided by the school, it no longer is so I’ve been looking at what we could use for her to give her a great head start.
We are having maths struggles at the moment and found by making it a little more closer to life our eldest really picked it up quicker. So for example when it was her birthday recently we gave her a budget and she worked out party bags using division and her times tables as well as with other parts of maths as well.
Hi
Im glad u found something that worked for you. I have four kids who all struggle with math… but are great at every other subject. So far we have found nothing which helps. We sit down every day and try and try again.. hopefully the light bulb will click. Patience is a virtue.
Our son starts prep next year and beyond counting, we try to incorporate maths in activities of daily life. While gardening my husband asks what shape the garden beds are and how many sides there are. We add and subtract when baking. We count his younger brother’s fingers and toes. We try to make maths a part of our daily lives and how it’s relevant.
The biggest hurdle in our home is the fact that my Husband and I do not follow the current ways of teaching maths. So we are learning alongside our children essentially as they seem to process equations etc in a fashion that is so different to us and what we learnt at school (and we are not yet 40 even!) So in some ways this has given the kids confidence that even old dogs can learn new tricks (as the eldest so sweetly reminded us of recently). Cheeky, but learning and thriving thankfully.
My grade 5 daughter used to struggle with maths, but since her school started using MathsOnline – which has video tutorials and lets her learn at her own pace – she’d been doing really well. And this term she’s been part of ASX’s School Sharemarket Game. She says that she and her friend started off in last position, but now they are leading, given their investments of a virtual $50, 000 in different companies!
We practice maths manually most of the time, written out on paper.
IPad mini would be a very beneficial tool to get maths & most school work done as my daughter uses my iPad which just dies out from being an old model that I haven’t been able to replace.
One thing that’s loved on our house is maths my boys are curious and want to learn which always helps I’ve always included them in learning incidental maths cooking letting them read out recipes weigh and measure ingredients, the other ways we make maths work in our house is make it revelant and logical we change maths problems to look real ie additions into money additions where we can lay out the money and add it up physically or using Lego bricks 2 + 3 is easier to understand when physically see. Touched and moved around
We have found keeping them engaged in maths to be tricky they both get bored and frustrated easy with it, my 6yr old gets bored and frustrated because its too easy and my 10yr old gets bored and frustrated woth it because too hard. I havent found any solutions yet but love to hear others ideas and experiences.
Maths is NOT my strong point and years of taking the easy way out and letting others do the sums now leave me hoping for miracles to stay ahead of my kids in the wonderful world of maths. Thank you for the tips on this post, I will be downloading the Mathspace Essentials app asap. Anything interactive and digital is likely to add up to a winning combination in this house.
hi corrie…we are a family of 10…and have had our fair share of maths problems…kids dont find it fun and we sit down and go through the timetables and try and help each one but can be a struggle with 8 …after school activities..dinner..baby and toddler…siblings sometimes help as big families do…and my husband too will sit down with them and talk through it….sometimes a different person explaining makes all the difference but we all manage to get there in the end…excited to try this app as we have decided to homeschool next year to give each child a little bit more one on one help with maths and get them up to speed..
I always struggled with mathematics all through my schooling. I found it challenging and hard to enjoy. It always felt forced at school; to rush through it, and that I wasn’t good enough as I compared myself to my peers.
My children are very much like me. Although I’ve made sure the difference is that they enjoy it. Things aren’t nearly as difficult when we find joy in the journey. So, we cook! We l learn our fractions. We do drawing puzzles and colouring in. We count fun and sing our times tables. We use games on the computer and tablets. We always encourage and never pressure them. They are learning on their own schedules and that’s what’s important to me.
My daughter is passionate about maths and the struggle is me not being able to support this passion as i am hopeless when it comes to maths. Having an ipad to be able to be able to use this amazing app would be wonderful in helping this old dog learn new tricks and be able to support my childrens learning.
My eldest doesn’t like maths, we try to keep it fun by playing shops with Monopoly money. We’ve also incorporated bean counters and work books which is working well for now!
There’s also another great app called osmo which we’ve been using you can buy the kits from the Apple shop or direct from their website. It’s been such a big help in encouraging him to try maths by keeping it fun.
My eldest son has a learning disability and finds reading really really hard! But has always tries his very best! He always loved maths and that was his best subject! However the older he gets, more reading is involved in doing his maths problems and it is turning into a challenge for him! Maybe this maths program is just what he needs! Thanks Corrie, I am going to have a look x
My son (8) loves maths and seems to understand the concepts he has so far learnt in class. So much in fact he is always looking for extension with things on the iPad. We have always done lots of real life maths with money and counting days etc. He has discovered a love of monopoly, which helps too
My children should have some sort of maths genius in them, not stemming from me, the ex-English major but from my husband who seems to have a natural energy for maths and science. Unfortunately, we have a large family, with 5 small children and so things like homework, often come last after the essentials of eating, playing and family time. That being said, my oldest little man is 6, fascinated with how things operate but also how things work together and the things that make them work. Harry is in Year 1 but does year 3 maths. He is not silly when it comes to these things. This is why an iPad would come in handy for us. 1) Harry has a real interest in maths and so far, an aptitude for it. With only me at home most of the time, I am not going to be able to progress him at all…access to the West package maths program would however. 2) We allow Harry to read his Bible instead of doing home readers, this has enabled us to cope with having homework because we’ve combined it with our evening Bible reading. If he had an ipad, he could use the maths program, latgwly unaided and so progress himswlf along. 3) we currently do not have any tablets etc from which to run such a program. I’ve entered this competition therefore not because my son needs remedial help but because he’s the opposite- he needs access to maths beyond his age and I am in no way capable of helping him!
Thanks for considering us. Either way, love your page! Beck Wade
Each child has their own style of learning….some visual, some auditory, some kinesthetic and so on. Try to hone in on which style is your child’s forte, and then focus your lessons based on that style. If they are visual try flash cards, and books, and such. Auditory learners benefit from rhymes, little songs, and such. Kinesthetic learners will do better if movement is added to their learning, perhaps trying to work on their facts whilst they are jumping rope, or taking a walk. Basically find out your child’s strength and then play to it. Always provide them with love and positive feedback for their efforts.
Our maths trouble is ‘working out’. My little man is quite clever at coming up with the right answer (far better than his Mum!) but he can’t explain how he got there. Unfortunately showing your working out is always part of the required answer! Thanks for the tips- I think I need to get Dad helping out with homework too. Sometimes a different way of looking at things is all that’s needed for it to click!
Numbers are my ‘thing’ but they teach them so differently these days! My win in the helping department is to stop and listen. That way they explain to me the process and I can see where they may be getting it wrong. So hard for a person like me who just wants to show them my way
Hi Corrie, the biggest struggle we’ve encountered is not being confident with the times tables! These skills are vital in the next steps in Maths – long multiplication and division. I feel repetition is the key here -that’s where computer Apps like Mathspace come into play. We’d love the chance to WIN and give our kids another strategy in Maths learning. Thanks, Jo.
Right now I am struggling teaching my year 4 son his times tables. I must admit I’m not the best with them myself. It’s become such a chore for him and I but I am very worried that if he does not have this down pat before moving up to year 5 then he is going to be left behind. Right now we are writing out columns of times tables and trying to find patterns and repetitions, but gee it’s hard!
I have three boys aged 10, 7 and 4. They are all such a fun age to be able to engage in maths in a fun way! I love being able to work on maths problems when they have such a positive attitude towards maths. We keep it real, using maths in every day situations – at the supermarket, measuring things while building with LEGO or blocks, and now with my older son more formal maths like learning times tables and division. Thanks for your post and tips Corrie
Maths is constantly a work in progress at our house. Our focus this year has been building a strong foundation (and filling any gaps) ready for the high school and upper primary years.
As we now homeschool, we use a variety of resources. Our main text is PR1ME Mathematics but we supplement with Khan Academy, Study ladder and a variety of apps (smart maths for times tables and another specific fractions app among others).
Sometimes the online explanations of these online resources explain mathematic concepts in a way my boys connect with and understand.
We also play a lot of maths games and board games that utilise maths principles.
We try and incorporate maths into our everyday life – addition, subtraction, multiplication and money when we go shopping, fractions when we bake. This helps my boys see the connection between the theory and the practical application of maths concepts which makes a great difference to understanding and retention of maths concepts.
Maths is a generational struggle in our family. I struggled all the way through and still take extra time and teaching to learn new concepts- and I’m a 28 year old nurse. My eight year old struggles now, but thank goodness, my husband is very good at math, with a degree in physics- and he’s also a WONDERFUL teacher…the two don’t always go hand in hand. We’d love the iPad to help in our homeschool classroom! For myself and for our children!
Math struggles! We really need to check out Mathspace. 3 out of 4 if my children struggle with maths. My eldest daughter is currently sitting the HSC and we learnt very early on with her those core math rules have to become automatic. I try to encourage my younger ones to learn their times tables and spend countless Thursday nights going over home work. Using a computer or tablet certainly helps to engage them in the task!
My year 5 boy has been struggling with maths this year – mainly multiplication and division problems saying he seems to have missed some crucial strategies in year 4 (his teacher was a very bland maths teacher and I suspect he eventually disengaged). Hubby is in IT and loves Maths so tried to sit down with him a couple of times to “tutor” him. This ended up a disaster as the child who doesn’t like maths is now being forced to go through maths with Dad when he’d rather be playing with Lego. Suggesting an external tutor has been difficult as I knew it would hurt my husband’s feelings but I tried to explain to him that Max might actually pay attention if it was someone external. He has reluctantly agreed but we haven’t actually found the time to start looking for a tutor. Max is now suggesting he might want to go to Kumon at our local PCYC. To be honest, with 3 kids already busy with activities and expenses I would love a solution that didn’t cost a lot of money or require me being a taxi service. I’m looking forward to checking out Mathspace Essentials to see if it can help us!
Hi Corrie, what a great blog post! I have 2 sons at school this year, grade 3 & Prep. Next year our 3rd son will be starting Prep. You and your husband have done so well to help your little grade 6 Miss boost her math skills. My grade 3 Mr loves maths but he has ADHD & is on the spectrum as well so he struggles to learn the conventional way. I’ve found the best way to help him learn & engage is to sit with him whilst he’s doing his homework & finding different aps & YouTube videos that really engage his interests. For example he is really into how bridges are built & made so we have learned about angles, diameters etc and tie it into what he is learning in the class room. I will also ask him to work out mentally my change if we are at the shops. My little Prepie has a real thirst for knowledge at the moment so when we are sitting at the table for dinner I will ask him subtraction & addition questions. With my 4yo I will ask him questions like if you have an apple & I have an apple ? how many apples are there? I try really hard to incorporate maths scenarios into our everyday so they build on their skills. With every child learning differently my husband & I recognise their strengths & weaknesses and try to work around this. I’m looking forward to trying Mathspace Essentials to see how my boys can benefit from it. Thanks Corrie xx
Our eldest starts High School next year and she too finds Maths a struggle! She thinks she’s not going to be able to do high school maths. We have tried some different strategies with her but it just doesn’t gel with her. She loves to cook so we started making it more practical for her, especially with fractions etc. We have gone through lots of apples and oranges cutting them into pieces to work out fractions and it is working a treat! It’s starting to gel! She particularly likes the block of chocolate we’ve used as well to help explain fractions as her reward is getting to eat it when she discovers she can work out fractions! Making it fun has definitely been the key as well as making it practical when she’s following a recipe and has to work out measurements etc.
We have two little ladies 20 months apart in age. Our eldest finds maths easy. Her sister finds it more challenging. We have always reminded our children that everyone is designed with their own gifts and talents. This helps to reduce the comparing that goes on between sisters. I also keep a list of maths strategies at home that they have studied at school so I can pull out a “tool box” to help them when they are struggling. It doesn’t always work, and it can be frustrating for all at times. When we get to that point, I find snuggling down on the sofa with a good book together helps to reset everyone and then we can try again later. Would love to have a try of this app as another “weapon” on the maths “arsenal”!
I struggle with all the new concepts involved with maths these days – rainbow facts etc the list could go on. We buy cheap toys from Kmart to help us explain friends of 10! This app looks so good. We try to make any learning session with our boys as fun as possible I find if they think it’s a game they are picking up things much quicker.
I have found making maths practical and fun beneficial for my 7 year old.
For example, we will go outside and make flower chains (predicting how many we will need to go around our head and counting), go on scavenger hunts as a family and search for different shapes in the environment or collect a certain number of objects (leaves, rocks etc), we also do lots of cooking and playing boardgames. We have also been using a couple of apps to help with the concepts and I think that the mathspace essential app will be good for us especially in the years to come!
This app looks awesome! My little man struggled for a while to get his basic counting, we would sing every morning and arvo and try it make it fun. As he has gotten older we have found that he definitely works best with hands on learning. So lots of physical sums while playing with cars, lego etc!
We struggled with maths in year 3. My daughter’s teacher was amazing. The most important thing we found was learning times tables and what 0s do. For my younger one he just seems to get it. His maths skills are so far above average. He’s that type of kid. We dI’d use some old school cuisinere (sp) rods we got from a teacher to help with friends of 10 early on and those were a great visual aid.
So far so good I would have to say.
Maths was never my strong point and I still struggle with some of the more abstract concepts. I’m dreading the day the kids come home with homework rhat is beyond my capabilities! Both of my children are STEM students so I’m pretty sure they will be teaching me a lot more than I will teach them.
I find the biggest struggle is that my kids don’t listen to me like they would their teacher. I know how to do the maths they need help with but they act like I’m stupid!! So frustrating. I have some books that explain concepts so I just try and keep calm and offer help!
We have four children so we struggle with the different levels and being able to give each child enough time to help them. We find scheduling one on one time and group activities help. We also do maths quizzes in the car instead of eye spy. Making questions for every one to be able to succeed. We also have the times tables on the toilet door! We have been searching for a reliable online program and cant wait to give Maths Essentials a go. Thanks so much
I have always loved Maths, and so have been passing on my love to our kiddies since they were tiny. From walks in the pram reading the numbers on the letterboxes, to walking up the numbered aisles of the supermarket looking for what’s on special, to getting the kids to count their pocket money, take it to the shops and spend it on a toy – there’s always some fun with Maths (although the checkout chicks don’t always find it fun counting the 20c pieces;). Turning Maths equations into real life solutions (A = apples and B = Bananas in algebra) can make more sense to confused children too. Most of all, have fun with it and your kids will love it too!
My girls are not QUITE at the maths homework stage yet so we are mostly just having fun with using numbers in every day life: counting songs, learning to tell the time, and using numbers in cooking. We introduced the three jars system for pocket money (spend, save and give) and was patting myself on the back for a job well done (ha ha – you know that pride comes before a fall). Scholastic book club magazines come home and big girl is busily writing lists and carefully adding up numbers for a huge wish list; cue the tears and tantrums when we had to explain the difference between fifty dollars and fifty cents.
This journey is not an easy one, the tears, tantrums and silent prayers when all you want to do is joint your child crying when they can’t grasp the concept and you have run out of ideas of how to explain it to them. Trying desperately to to keep their self esteem intact when when they tell you they are a failure because they don’t understand. We have always emphasised that we all have different strengths and it’s important to remember that we all need to work in aspects in our educational journeys. We have tried many avenues, our teacher has been very supportive and is always willing to try different things to make it “click”. We use maths based apps and incorporate sneaky maths concepts into daily activities (weighing ingredients for cooking, tallying items in the supermarket) as incidental learning to take some pressure off. It would be fantastic to see what the Westpac maths space has to offer to help us in our journey.
When I was at school some many years ago, we were taught one way about how to do something, now the kids are taught a very different way. So when I try to explain to my daughter how to something I just make her even more confused!! And the teacher insists it be worked out they way they want regardless if she can prove how she got that answer. Just that it’s a different way to work it out then what they wanted. Same answer though. I wish there was a more consistent approach across all schools. And I wish the children were taught real world maths. My daughter has made progress when we’ve been able to connect together and we are both on the same page. And when we make fun a little bit more exciting, rather than using apples and oranges, we use kiwi fruits and raspberries or something fun. Maths has to be fun or kids will just tune out. Fun is the key to most things!!
I have 4 kids, 2 in school, year 5 and year 9. My year 5 son doesn’t want to go to school and we are having anxiety issues. Which I am trying to get to the bottom of. He is the type of child that works really very hard and is an average student. However I do believe he is really smart , school just is not his thing. We have used several techniques to help him. Lego to explain fractions , writing and calling out the times table, mathletics. Khan academy is free and a great resource, I highly recommend it.
Maths is not a strength in our household. We seem to have found a solution- we put maths into everyday life! We practise counting/timetables in the car, bake to learn measurements, hung clocks around the house to encourage time reading, play sherif before bed for timestables and using excellent apps on the iPad.
We have been struggling with times tables. I remembered how I learned them and have taught my daughter what clicked for me. I called it the skipping pattern – and it goes like this. You learn all the odd numbers times the times table number then all the evens I.e:
1×7
3×7
5×7 and so on; then
2×7
4×7
6×7 etc
Then go back and revise the odds and then the evens. I’m not sure why but for some reason it’s easier to get them to stick this way
thank you for the tip on the westpac app, we will definitely check it out 
With a prep student we are only just beginning our Maths journey. My daughter has a beautiful teacher and she suggested using Math Seeds, though my daughter found it difficult to use the program on a computer (a mini iPad would be super helpful!!!). However we also include maths in our everyday life such as when we cook together or counting how many carriages on the train or using fractions when cutting an apple. I’m so excited to see/hear what my miss accomplishes next.
I am the Mum who failed maths twice in highschool before passing then failed calculus three times at university. I had tutors, attended extra tutorials after lectures and I just did not get it! (I finally passed the fourth time by the skin of my teeth)
My Husband on the other hand is a super math oriented individual who can review the page or task at hand and very quickly work it out in his head.
Now we have our own child my Husband is teaching me so we can both teach our son – and I love it. This app will really help both my son and I.
congratulations!!!!!!!!!! you are the winner! I’ll be emailing for your details:)
I’m no help now my daughter is in year 8 and studying algebra. But dad is happy to help her. This years maths teacher is fantastic so that’s made a big difference compared to last year. I’ve found if she gets stuck to remind her to move on to the next question rather than get upset and not get it all finished. Thanks for the chance to win.
Where to start – I finished year 12 and left knowing no maths. I started a job as a receptionist straight out of High School and overnthe years I became a cadet Building Certifier and studying at uni and it was finally my boss that sat down and taught me the old school way and it really helped. My Uni Lecturer tried, my parents and my I laws tried. I am so thankful for the knowledge my Boss gave me and that helped me through my degree.
Wow – I am so checking out this app, thank you for sharing. I have 2 kid’s at school and 1 about to start, so this will be very handy. 1 of our kid’s finds Maths a struggle and whilst I’ve tried to help her at times, some of it is all taught so differently now and as a result, I’ve found myself at times confusing her even more. You tube has been great a good resource as has work books that I purchased for a book store. I’ve no doubt that Mathspace Essentials by Westpac will fast become our go to resource. Thanks again.
Hi Corrie, ill be looking into this app, I hadn’t heard of it before. My daughter is doing year 8 maths and I struggle trying to explain it to her as I don’t remember the formulas and it’s not my strong point and if hubby isn’t home we resort to google sometimes haha! I’d love to win the iPad and give her the opportunity to use Mathspace at her own pace with guidance from me. The younger two girls will also be keen to use it, there will be tussles for sure!
My son is 4 and is resistent to learning so I agree to play one game for one learning activity. He usually chooses I-Spy which we play one round of before I ask him to do some counting or addition. He can count quite high now, although he always skips 13 :/
I have three teenagers all in high school and 3 different schools so we have lots and lots of math. Slow and steady works for us. A little every night, the consistency is what seems to work although we have also listened into some of the YouTube tutors on some of the topics we have needed help with. Thank gif for technology.
I hated Maths with a vengeance so it was really hard to try to teach my kids. Luckily I have one who is an absolute Maths genius but my son struggles. It’s all so different than what I was taught at school, so every year when we start to struggle I go visit my kids teacher and get a crash course it what he’s doing. I can’t help him if I have no idea what I’m doing. His school has even started some information nights for parents so that they can show us how they do particular Maths things like long division and fractions. It’s fantastic! We get to be students and ask questions. Its been invaluable helping him.
My son who is in year 4 still struggles with times tables and basic maths. Getting him to want to learn is the hardest part.