Schofield & Sims Mental Arithmetic Book 4 & 5

[zeinab]

DD struggles on a few questions in book 4, part C which is the harder part on each page. We still have book 5 to go through. She may have been a 4b in maths at the end of yr 4 but she really found a lot of the questions in book 4 challenging as the school does not cover ( so I assume) weights ( grams into kg, ml into litres) amongst other other things. Also, questions that involve fractions / decimals take some time........ but she is getting there and her brothers who had come back from Uni for the festive hols said that they had seen an improvement in her Maths since they left back in Sept of last year. We have some tears shed when she's tired after a long school day then ballet or swimming then a page from S&Sims. Fingers crossed it will all click together with some of questions she is finding tricky dicky. So with a deep breath, caaaalm, a smile and loads of hugs we continue until autumn of this year. This will be my last after 3 DS who all got through so no pressure there for my DD ( she says with a smile ). Anyone else going through these exciting days......NOT!!!!! Hahahah

[kenyancowgirl]

I'd be a bit surprised if the school hasn't covered the things you mention, to be honest....

Part C are the more wordy, problem solving questions - I know a lot of parents who thought their kids were very strong in maths who find this section a challenge because they haven't been taught to try and work out what the mathematical question being asked is, behind the words. You might find that a quick recap of some of the pages from the previous book might help - or try doing it when she is less tired - doing maths after a day at school AND a physical after school activity is extremely tough on a 9 year old.

Book 5 is really tough - probably harder than book 6 so I would think it is more important that you spend more time on the basics and getting Book 4 "right" than trying to plod on and get through to Book 5 or more meltdowns are likely to occur. And in the meantime, hugs, as you say, and reassurance that it doesn't actually matter if she doesn't tread the same path as her brothers - she is her own person.

[Happyface]

It all sounds v familiar OP:) getting much done AFTER a long school day is the hardest part ..
Upto which S&S book r we supposed to work? Book 6 or just 5 is enough?
PS: we are on book 3 currently & making atleast 6 silly mistakes each test , which is so frustrating esp because when mistakes are pointed out, the corrections are all done in a mili-second lol.. & I think ..then why couldn't it be done accurately first time:(

[zeinab]

Possibly mass is included from time to time and for that reason the kids soon forget and don't remember or don't understand when preparing for the 11+.

Certainly I believe there's no point in rushing through Bk4 in order to cover Bk5 leaving the child with gaps.

DD is very much her own person that's why she wants to follow suit! There are 'Free Days', when she just chills, but I'm a firm believer in a little often better than a lot, once in a blue moon.

[zeinab]

[quote="Happyface"] Upto which S&S book r we supposed to work? Book 6 or just 5 is enough?

Personally, I think book 5 covers nearly (not quite ) everything. CGP books are also worth working through with your child when you have the time.

[yoyo123]

The school (if it is state LA school) will have covered that

[Bibi]

My DD, currently in Y5 in a state school, is doing book 4 section 1, is she too behind? She does around 4 mistakes for each page, sometimes less..., do we need to cover book 6 by September?

[kenyancowgirl]

It depends what area you are in Bibi....in very competitive selective areas then certainly being proficient enough to tackle most of Book 5 is about the level that most children will be on. More important is that your DD has a good grasp of the basics - and, if she is taking a CEM test, that she learns to work quickly as CEM is both a test of mathematical ability and the ability to work at speed.

[Bibi]

Thanks!

[mystery]

DD struggles on a few questions in book 4, part C which is the harder part on each page. We still have book 5 to go through. She may have been a 4b in maths at the end of yr 4 but she really found a lot of the questions in book 4 challenging as the school does not cover ( so I assume) weights ( grams into kg, ml into litres) amongst other other things. Also, questions that involve fractions / decimals take some time........ but she is getting there and her brothers who had come back from Uni for the festive hols said that they had seen an improvement in her Maths since they left back in Sept of last year. We have some tears shed when she's tired after a long school day then ballet or swimming then a page from S&Sims. Fingers crossed it will all click together with some of questions she is finding tricky dicky. So with a deep breath, caaaalm, a smile and loads of hugs we continue until autumn of this year. This will be my last after 3 DS who all got through so no pressure there for my DD ( she says with a smile ). Anyone else going through these exciting days......NOT!!!!! Hahahah

I think it depends on which 11 plus tests / schools you are preparing for whether doing book 5 will be useful practice or not.

This will be so like my year 4 daughter one year from now despite being 4c at end of year 3. The maths planning and teaching at school is poor and getting worse. Too much time is spent on arithmetic without a problem to solve. And even then, the arithmetic is too limited - endless time spent with whole numbers mostly on addition and subtraction. The rot has spread even up to year 6 as it is a mixed age class so they are doing the new curriculum too. My child who is supposed to be being entered for level 6 maths is bored to tears doing simple long multiplication questions with whole numbers, very few problems, none of the new level 6 material. The only new material she has done was tThe other day they spent five minutes being taught lowest common multiple and highest common factor, but no questions where it might have been useful.

I am glad to read that you are keeping calm and carrying on at home. Sure your daughter will be fab by the time of the test.

My children's school idea of differentiation has become worse than it ever was with the new curriculum. The whole class does the same thing but the top group gets numbers with more digits to work with. I was having a moan about this at home the other day and my husband said he had heard from someone on his commute into London say that this is the whole point of the new curriculum - every child does the same thing but the higher groups get bigger numbers.

So it's not just my school that has got this weird notion about the new curriculum. My husband being part of an education discussion on a train was a revelation.

I wonder if some local authorities or private company have done some terrible in service training on the new maths curriculum for rafts of schools, or if there are some badly written new maths scheme on the web that clusters of schools are following. I dob't know what the answer is but my personal experience is rubbish and getting worse.

I think so many teachers jumped up and down about how dreadful it was that children should learn some formal methods of long multiplication etc that some were brainwashed into thinking that this kind of thing is the main plank of the new curriculum and have completely skewed their planning accordingly.