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How can I give my kids a deeper understanding of Place Value?


abrightmom
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I believe that my 8 and 10yo need a more in depth understanding of Place Value . Currently, they are using CLE as their main math program and I do *some* supplementing with MM on occasion. Would WATCHING Math-U-See videos help with this? I have found in past sampling of MUS that the way Steve Demme lays out place value was VERY helpful (well, I have found all the MUS samples I've watched to be helpful). However, I don't want to use MUS or switch math programs. I just believe that spending a bit of time on place value would be helpful and I'm not sure the right way to go about it. 

 

:bigear:

 

 

 

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My 11yo struggles tremendously with place value. He is using TT5 this year and it is painfully obvious that he just doesn't "get" it. I think he is good up to the hundred or thousand place but after that forget it. Anything that could help him? The videos looked great but a bit "babyish" for him. :/ I am thinking of heading to the MUS website and seeing what is available b/c I remember really liking how Steven Demme taught it. 

 

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Saxon used money to teach place value. In early grades there are store lessons with the kid shopping for items and using pennies, dimes, dollars, ten dollar bills and hundred dollar bills. In the process of adding up costs or making change, the student had to change pennies for dimes etc.

 

They also extend this into doing expanded notation as a pp explained.

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If I am remembering correctly, there really is only one MUS video solely about place value--it's at the beginning of Alpha.  Demme demonstrates place value by using an analogy he calls decimal street.  

 

It is very effective, but it wouldn't make sense to buy the whole MUS program just for watching that one video.  The real effectiveness is in teaching that idea and then talking about it all the time as we work with numbers.  Also, I have found that using base ten blocks to build numbers is very effective.  

 

I sit down with my 6yo and we build numbers.  One of us will say/write a number to the hundreds or thousands place, then we get out the blocks and build it.  If she tries to build 14 by getting out 14 units, we talk about how only 9 units fit in the place value (or house, as we say on decimal street), we exchange 10 units for a ten and build correctly.  

 

We love both the MUS blocks and our wooden base ten blocks.

 

Edited to say:  I think that learning this one concept from MUS has made me into a much, much better math teacher.  This way to conceptualize numbers plus what I learned from Liping Ma's book are foundational for everything I've taught my kids in math.

 

Perhaps don't think of what your kids need to know as much as what you need to deeply understand so that you can teach them.  Ask yourself what math program you need to help you learn how to teach it.  :)

 

My 1980s algorithm driven math education was great for doing math, but I needed a program like MUS to help me understand how math works so I could teach it. 

 

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