Pansen Posted October 13, 2014 Share Posted October 13, 2014 ...and other times it's like he doesn't get a darn concept. I don't get it. He seems to be a math whiz. Then today we sat down to do some math, which he normally could do all day playing around with, and he wasn't understand even the most basic concepts. Like mental math rounding up or down to get quick answers. What gives? He was almost in tears when he was getting the wrong answers, and he is such a perfectionist I swear it causes his mind to get rigid with how to proceed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike in SA Posted October 13, 2014 Share Posted October 13, 2014 Basic theoretical misconception, in all likelihood. Very common -- nothing to worry about. What age/material? There are some tricks that will help develop most of the concepts out there... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pansen Posted October 13, 2014 Author Share Posted October 13, 2014 He is 8. We were using some worksheets his dad printed out from online. Mathnasium Practice 4th grade. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dmmetler Posted October 13, 2014 Share Posted October 13, 2014 The Mathnasium samples can be a bit different if you've never done them before, so it may just be that it's a different way of thinking about the things he's done before. They're not hard-they're just different. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pansen Posted October 13, 2014 Author Share Posted October 13, 2014 Yeah, I have noticed that it's very hard for him to switch gears. That goes for his sport (learning to change a body movement), and in his studies. Maybe I should be looking at ways to flex his mind in new and different ways as needed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike in SA Posted October 14, 2014 Share Posted October 14, 2014 I have some reservations about Mathnasium's approach. When I see samples like "What is the Absolute Value of the point (3, 4)?" (http://www.mathnasium.com/questions.html) it tells me that kids are occasionally going to be confused by nonstandard terminology and weak theory. Most mathematicians would just say "distance from the origin," which is far simpler and to the point (pardon the pun). A point in the real plane is generally not discussed in terms of magnitude, because there are TWO 1-dimensional numbers involved, leading to some ambiguity. The terminology is being blended with the absolute value of a number in the complex plane, which is indeed equal to the magnitude of its distance from the origin, for a SINGLE 2-dimensional number. Saying that "absolute value" is equivalent to "distance from the origin" is NOT generally accepted. That said, I wouldn't throw the baby out with the bath water -- there is probably a lot of good in their materials, as well. But, I would expect that the theory is not well-laid out, and that there will be confusion from time to time as a result. If your son is struggling with some particular worksheet, then a key concept is missing. What is this worksheet covering? Maybe we could suggest some simple, quick remediation... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pansen Posted October 16, 2014 Author Share Posted October 16, 2014 http://s3.amazonaws.com/mathnasium.com/upload/1/docs/TriMathlon_2014_Practice_Questions_Gr4.pdf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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