Maths

[4 boys]

Anyone's child struggling??

My son is 13 in two weeks and I'm having a bad time

 

[RachA]

Is this something new to him? i.e. does he normally get on ok with maths and all of a sudden he's struggling?

I don't have a 13 year old yet but i am kind of dreading when i do as i know i won't have a clue what he's doing lol.

I would say its worth speaking to his teacher about it.

 

[4 boys]

It's just these past few weeks. Had parents eve and he seems to think my son doesn't listen but I know he's trying so hard its algebra when it's got letters in like
10x - 16= 5x + 4 =
Then
10x ? + 8 = 6x ? +28 =



I struggle myself so I can't support him I feel so guilty

 

[RachA]

Algebra is something i always struggled with. I think it's one of those things you understand or you don't. Has he just started doing algebra like this?

I'd maybe see how he gets on in the next few weeks before half term and if he's stroll struggling go back to see his teacher.

 

[4 boys]

Yeah it's new but I'm ringing school tomorrow
I'm struggling myself and it's no fun watching your child upset.
why is maths so hard

 

[RachA]

Hope you get on ok when you speak to them. I've got to have a word with my dons teacher about his English lol.
Maths is far too hard at times and I did ok with it when I was at school.

 

[kerrie24]

I have a twelve year old and sometimes his work takes a lot of explination for him to understand.Have you tried looking online for help?

I can try to explain it to you.

10x -16=5x +4

You need to try and make each side the same,so for example if each x = 4 that would mean

10x is 40,take away the 16=24

Then on the other side,

5x would be 20,add the 4=24.

So for each side to be 24,x would equal 4.

At least thats how I would do it x

 

[JASMAK]

I pay for tutoring twice a week.

 

[morri]

What helped me when I was this age , was to remember exercises we had at grade 1.
Sometimes symbols can just confuse the heck out of us because we are used to see them in text not in math .

what I mean is

when i was in first grade you had the normal 1+1=2 but you also had the 1+...=2 (the dots where just an empty box) so we had to figure out how much do you have to add to the 1 to make it two.
thats basically all what early algebra is about too.
It is the easiest to do it in little steps. My teacher sometimes took so huge steps when he was on the board solving half in his mind, but it helped me when I wrote down every single step in a new line.

10x - 16= 5x + 4 =

Don't read it as 'x' read is as 'what'

10 times 'what' -16 is the same as 5 times' what' +4

first you have to put the 'x' s on one side and the numbers without x on the other side

so you will do +16 as you pull the sixteen from one side to the other
then it reads "10 times what equals 5 times what + 20"
10x=5x+20

The you bring the x's together
-5x

You take the 5x and substract it from the 10 x


and you'll have

5x=20
5 times what equals 20

for finding out x you divide the 20 by 5

20/5 = 4

x equals 4

x=4

 

[Wannabe Mommy]

It might be worth trying one of the maths/English centres they have in city centres or large supermarkets like explore learning or kumon?

I work for learndirect supporting adult learners on maths and English and we use YouTube videos sometimes because some people find it easier to understand a concept if they see someone else doing it. Might be worth a go, or bbc skillswise website is good too.

 

[JJKCB]

I was 4 years a head at 12 year old and then didn't do anything for a year, when I tried again I just couldn't do it anymore (even though I had been more advanced than that point just a year earlier)... maths is a very bizarre thing, a talent that comes and goes and you either can or cant do it imho

 

[alicecooper]

My 6 year old struggles a lot in maths. His teachers called me in for a meeting last week and said that they suspect he may have dyscalculia. They wanted my permission to have him assessed by an educational child psychologist to see if that's the case, so I think that's going to happen at some point after the Easter holidays.

 

[Noodlebear]

My brother's 12 and my mum phoned me recently to go round and try to help him because she couldn't do it and he was in tears. It's ridiculous.