Heidi Posted November 29, 2017 Share Posted November 29, 2017 (edited) I'm using Christian Light Education for math. It's great, solid, traditional math. However dd gets half of the problems wrong. So I spend a lot of time checking, re-checking, and then teaching her what she doesn't understand. It is taking a long time and I have 5 other kids that will eventually be in pre algebra. I'm so tired!!! What are my options? Edited November 29, 2017 by Heidi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monica_in_Switzerland Posted November 29, 2017 Share Posted November 29, 2017 Would it be better to just dedicate the time up front to a mom-directed lesson before she attacks the problems? It may be you gain time in the long run this way, because the corrections will be faster, you'll know immediately if she understood, and she won't be doing all the work twice. 11 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EKS Posted November 29, 2017 Share Posted November 29, 2017 Instead of switching programs, I'd first try changing what you're doing. You'd probably spend less time on math if you were to teach the material yourself, have her do some practice problems, and then have her do the problem set on her own (but still checking each problem with you as she does it--I do this by sitting across the room with the solution manual and saying if the answer is right or wrong. If it's wrong it needs to be redone immediately.) 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mom31257 Posted November 29, 2017 Share Posted November 29, 2017 Instead of switching programs, I'd first try changing what you're doing. You'd probably spend less time on math if you were to teach the material yourself, have her do some practice problems, and then have her do the problem set on her own (but still checking each problem with you as she does it--I do this by sitting across the room with the solution manual and saying if the answer is right or wrong. If it's wrong it needs to be redone immediately.) I used CLE math, and this is exactly how I taught it. It's how I would teach any math program, though. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sbgrace Posted November 29, 2017 Share Posted November 29, 2017 Are her mistakes because she doesn't understand new material or hasn't truly mastered old material, or is it that she makes inattentive or careless errors? CLE has so many problems, that at times I got the second situation with one child. I tied a reward of sorts (screens here) to percent correct. If it's more the first, I think I would do what others suggest and sit with her/check as she goes. That would probably help even if it's inattention. The spiral of CLE is generally good for kids who aren't mastering well. So I'd be reluctant to switch to a mastery based program with her. I did, in CLE Algebra, find that one of mine had issues because he just hadn't mastered some of the issue in a previous booklet, probably because we spread lessons out over multiple days. We went back and redid that booklet entirely, and I made sure I stayed on top of mastery. If she's lost, I'd go back. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freesia Posted November 29, 2017 Share Posted November 29, 2017 I agree with the others about teaching her. In general I believe it is best to teach the math lesson directly and not have the kids learn it from the book. It has rarely worked for my older two (who are strong in math) to have them self-teach (more so toward the end of high school for ds, but I think he would have done even better if I had been able to teach him every day). My present pre-algebra student cannot teach himself anything new from Saxon's printed instructions (which are comprehensive). If I even read them to him (instead of teaching in my own words) he gets it better. In general, he can read review type lessons, but even those go better if I sit with him and go over it and do the practice lesson problems with him and give immediate feedback. So, I'd try that for awhile. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heathermomster Posted December 1, 2017 Share Posted December 1, 2017 Maybe use a dry erase board to solve problems separately and review the answers together. Once your student can consistently answer the questions, stand back and periodically check for accuracy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MerryAtHope Posted December 1, 2017 Share Posted December 1, 2017 Sorry your daughter is struggling so! I agree that you'll want to either teach the math up front and do some demos on a white board or paper, or switch to a program that teaches the lessons up front (dvd or computer lessons) for you. I really liked Math-U-See for that reason--it explained things clearly and incrementally. I watched the lessons with my kids (usually only 5 minutes once a week, but sometimes a bit longer)--and that way it was easy for me to jump in and help if there was something they still didn't get. Anyway, I hope you find a way to adapt things so that it works out better, or that you can find something that might be a better fit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OneStepAtATime Posted December 3, 2017 Share Posted December 3, 2017 (edited) :grouphug: :grouphug: :grouphug: What worked here (and we use CLE): 1. Work through the new material in the TM on a dry erase board first. 2 Do some of the new problems together to confirm understanding, as well as review material from the lesson covered the day before for reinforcement. 3. Have my kiddos do the other problems on their own with me sitting nearby. If they had a question I tried for a discovery approach but if they were really stuck then we worked through it together and I noted where they were having difficulty so we could do more in depth review again the next day for that particular area. 4. Immediately checked their work with the TM right afterwards and addressed issues right then instead of having them sleep on it, possibly ingraining confusion further. 5. If they were really stuck then we did NOT go on to the next new material the next day. We did an in depth review of the current material plus the built in review of older material. Honestly teaching it to my children first and working through problems together before letting them do others on their own actually saved time, instead of letting them flounder and ingrain confusion over concepts then try to fix it after the fact. I agree with others, though, I would want to know WHY your child is making a lot of errors and what those errors are specifically. There can be many reasons a problem has the wrong answer. If she is missing half the problems then I would not be focusing on her getting right answers, I would be delving deeper into the specifics of why she is missing so many, and there may be more than one reason. Until you know why she is missing so many you cannot really address the underlying issue. Depending on what the actual problem is, many here will probably have very useful suggestions. Some things that might be part of the problem: Does she have a weak foundation in addition/subtraction/multiplication/division? Is she weak on math facts? Is it certain types of concepts that are tripping her up and if so which ones? Is she struggling to understand the written explanations but does better if someone reads them to her? Is she weak in fractions/percents/decimals? Is she getting fatigued? Is she doing math at a bad time of the day for her? Is she getting distracted by younger siblings? Is she the type of learner that learns much better with discussion and perhaps some visuals or manipulatives? Does she have a phobia about math that makes her lock up? Hugs and best wishes. Hopefully you can find a solution. Edited December 3, 2017 by OneStepAtATime Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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