Daisy Maths 4 is a freeware programme giving children lots of practice in learning maths skills. It is aimed at children aged 3 – 12 so it is ideally suited to the primary school. It covers topics such as basic number, counting, addition, subtraction, division, multiplication, tables, fractions, time, graphs, angles. The programme needs a recent version of Java to be installed to allow the programme to work. If you do not have Java, there are instructions on the page to help you download it.

There are 13 different levels of activity and each level covers a range of maths activities. There’s a lot of repetition involved, the rationale being that children need lots of practice to consolidate the learning. By clicking on the daisy in the top left of the screen, you access all the 13 levels of activity. After choosing a level, topics for that level appear on the left of the screen. Click one of the topics to begin the exercises. There are right and left arrows at the top right of the screen to navigate through the exercises. By clicking on the smiley face in the top right of the screen, it lets you know if your answers are correct.

All in all, Daisy Maths 4 is a very useful programme for the primary school. It is suitable for all age groups but perhaps especially for children who experience difficulties in maths and need lots of practice. The programme may be downloaded free from:

http://www.daisymaths.com.au/download.html