Story problems
Story problems are questions that put the math inside a short story. Instead of seeing "7 + 5", your child reads something like "Dingo found 7 acorns, then 5 more. How many now?" and types the answer.
Why they matter
Most math kids meet in real life arrives as words, not as a tidy equation. Working out which numbers matter and which operation fits is a skill of its own. Story problems give your child practice reading the math out of a sentence and turning an everyday situation into a sum they can solve. It is the same arithmetic they already do, with one extra step at the front.
What they look like
The story always matches the operation your child is practising, so the words point at the right kind of thinking:
- Addition stories combine things. "You have 4 stickers and get 3 more. How many in all?"
- Subtraction stories take something away. "There were 8 ducks in the pond. 3 swam away. How many remain?"
- Multiplication stories group things. "There are 5 baskets with 6 apples in each. How many apples in all?"
- Division stories share things out. "Dingo shares 12 treats equally among 3 friends. How many does each friend get?"
The stories also grow with your child. Younger children get one short sentence. Older children get a few clauses and bigger numbers, closer to the word problems they meet at school.
Every lesson that has several questions includes at least one story problem, so your child gets regular practice without a lesson being all words.
How your child answers
The child reads the story, works out the answer, and types it on the number pad, the same as a normal typed question. If the first try is wrong, they get one more attempt before it costs a heart.
The "remainder" style
Some division stories do not divide evenly. For example: "Share 17 cookies among 5 friends. How many does each get, and how many are left over?" Here the answer has two parts, so your child types it as a quotient and a remainder, like 3 r 2 (three each, two left over). There is an r key on the pad for the "r". Spacing and capital letters do not matter, so 3r2 and 3 R 2 are both accepted. This is how children learn that division does not always come out clean, which is a real step up from sharing things equally.