maths text books

[macpark]

I am looking for a book which has old fashioned style maths problems in it for my 10 year old. She is a bright child and when it comes to Maths she is fine on the actual number work. However, when faced with a problem she is like a rabbit in headlights! She cannot work out what the sum is and comes up with crazy answers. She was asked: If 30 children are all to have a biscuit and there are 8 biscuits in a packet, how many packets are needed? She answered 240!!! Can anyone help?

[teddybon]

When I worked as a home tutor I found W H Smith had all the books I needed - they also have relevant key stage labels.

[bird_81]

You could make up you own simple problems for her or try this website, I often used it for inspiration when I taught a year 6 class.
http://www.primaryresources.co.uk/maths/mathsD 1.htm

If you type in maths word problems into google you get a few sites that may help.

[Eve]

Would it help to go through them with her and help her visualise the problem at first to help break it down and get a more realistic perspective. Better to try with problems using low numbers initially.

Eg draw 30 little stick children and for each 8 draw a tube (packet of biscuits) round them the get her to count the packets.

As she gets better you could use more complicated ones such as measures of fluid, time, distance and sizes (could use squared paper for this one).

The more fun you can make the problems the more she might be interested eg use characters from her favourite programmes or pop stars and such eg

Kylie is putting on a concert for 1 hour. All her songs last 3 minutes, how many songs can she perform?

Britney has �10.00 and wants to buy some Bratz dolls. The dolls cost �2.50 each, how many can she buy?

Justin has won a load of awards, each measures 10 cm across and his shelf measures 200cm, how many awards can he fit on his shelf?

Cat Deeley wants to run the 26 mile London Marathon (or sponsered swim etc...) for charity, she can run at a constant speed of 4 miles per hour. How long will it take her to finish the marathon (or swim)?

Ant and Dec want to drink the recommended x litres of water a day. Their glass hold x amount of water, how many glasses do they need to drink per day?

[Machecoul]

Get her to identify and underline the key words in the problem:

[macpark]

Many thanks all for answers. On eof the biggest problems is trying to get your child to listen to anything that you say!! Have found many examples on the internet now and I am giving her one-a-day which is OK. She thinks that it's rather fun to do it interactively. I have tried many of the ideas suggested by Jenna using Barbie, sylvanian families etc., etc but I think part of the trouble is that in most other areas she is above averagely bright and doesn't actually know what to do when confronted with something she finds difficult so she just gives up. I am reminded of some advice I was given once that you should always let your child do something that they can fail at so that they realise that it' OK and the world won't come to an end. You can't be brilliant at everything.