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Fawnmoscato

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Posts posted by Fawnmoscato

  1. On 1/25/2019 at 12:02 AM, Patty Joanna said:

    BTDT, but with kid in third grade.  I'm married to Math Man.  

    I completely backed off and decided  that by the end of third grade, the only thing that mattered was that my kid liked math.  

    I was intrigued by Andrew Kern's statement that a kid doesn't hate math; he hates not knowing math.

    So I went backwards to grade 1.5 and re-did the foundations.  (Lots of reasons).  Long story short:. Kid progressed in math by a big leap; kid loves math again.  We played a lot of games and I felt like a loser.  But we won.  

    The mathy part of the brain is the last to develop.  Give it time and don't really fearful.  Every bad decision I ever made was based in fear. 

     

    Interesting! Do you have a link to where he talks about that? I'd like to hear/read it. 

     

  2. On 1/21/2019 at 7:12 PM, letsplaymath said:

    One thing that makes math worse is when kids (and the rest of us—this is a cultural problem) view math as a performance subject. Every problem feels like a mini-test, and every wrong answer is perceived as a failure. The standard approach to math homework tends to reinforce this performance notion. The student works on problems, then the teacher/parent checks the answers and points out every flaw.

    If your daughter has any tendency at all toward perfectionism, then the “I hate math” response is completely natural.

     

    After all, she will make mistakes. If she could get everything right, that would mean she was working at too low a level. As an extreme example: If you gave her a first-grade book, she could probably do it all without a single error (unless her mind wandered from sheer boredom), but there would be no point to that. She won’t learn anything unless she works at a level where she makes fairly frequent mistakes.

     

    As parents, one of our biggest challenges is to convince kids that mistakes are good. They are a sign that points to opportunity: My mistake tells me, “I can learn something here.” Sometimes what I need to learn is a math concept, other times it’s simply to pay attention to details—but there’s always something. 

    I found a lot more success with my math-hating daughter when we switched to the buddy system. It let me continually reinforce the idea that math is a puzzle -- something that might stump her temporarily, but that she could learn to figure out.

     

     

    I totally agree! Great post.

  3. I used to have a math hater. What worked for us, was to take some pressure off. I told her that I would not count anything wrong if it was a mistake. If a whole concept was incorrect, or it seemed she didn't understand the process, then we would go back and rework the lesson. But if she added wrong or left out a zero, I just had her show me the mistake and we moved on. 

    I also took a full year off of traditional math programs and had her use Teaching Textbooks on the computer. I'm a huge fan or TT as a way to relieve tension. I don't think it's a strong program at all, but I've seen it do a lot to raise math confidence. I didn't have to teach and she got ownership. We use Math Mammoth again now, and the results have been drastic. She went from barely being at a 3rd grade level to easily testing into 6th grade math. 

  4. Hello! I'm creating a 5 year plan with my 6th grader and could use some feedback. They will almost certainly go into the medical field and would like to plan accordingly. 

    Science: 7th- Chemistry  8th- 1st semester Astronomy, 2nd semester Physics, 9th- Biology w/ lab 10th- Chemistry w/ lab, 11th &12th- AP classes or some kind or duel enrollment

    Math: 7th- Math Mammoth 7, 8th- Algebra 1 (Owens or AOPS), 9th- Algebra 2, 10th- Geometry, 11th- Pre-calc, 12th- Calc

    Any thoughts on this timeline? 

     

    Thanks! 

    • Like 1
  5. I am in the beginning stages of creating a journalism class for my current 6th grader. We won't start until the fall, so I don't have many actual sources yet. I can share my plans though. 

    In the fall we will start with journalism ethics and history. This will be ongoing throughout the year and the core of the class. I'll add in journalist biographies and general books on the subject itself (New Journalism by Boynton and Elements of Journalism). Then each month (6 weeks?) we will focus on a different subject/genre- data, investigative, newspaper reporting, etc). There needs to be a focus on storytelling too, though I'm torn on how to incorporate it. I may end up putting storytelling into Language Arts as a separate thing. 

    I'm also planning on having my 6th grader email or contact different people in the industry, but I don't have that thought out yet. 

    In the past when I've created classes without a lot of obvious curricula, I've just taken from college sources. Many can be adapted for middle- grade kids. 

    Post if you find any thing good!  

  6. The way I feel about mental illness has vastly changed in the last few years. I now fully believe a happy, healthy, productive life can be had. Being open about the struggle, finding the right meds, and by treating self-care as important has medicine. 

    Have you heard of the Hilarious World of Depression? It's a podcast that interviews (mostly) comedians about their diagnosis- depression, anxiety, bipolar, etc. It does a great job of showcasing how people will have ups and downs, but can live really full lives. 

    Find what works best for your son. Allow him to explore and then encourage him to stick with what works. For a lot of people it's a very stringent schedule of medication, meditation or relaxation, and exercise. Discuss how mental illness should be treated in a similar way to cancer treatment or diabetes management. Someone with diabetes doesn't say, well I feel good today I guess I never need my insulin again. No. Discuss how bipolar will be life long, but highly manageable, like any disorder or disease. 

    Also, recognize that talk therapy may or may not be beneficial. I personally don't find much comfort in talk therapy. I've tried and have found that other things work better for me. I do think that a solid effort should be put forth, but I don't feel like I am being held back by not enjoying therapy. 

    Take care! 

     

    • Like 4
  7. I believe it to be unethical, but I wouldn't care in the least. Ethics are right or wrong, essentially. But we also live in a world full of gray area. So from an ethics standpoint, it is unethical. But from a practical, real-world standpoint...who cares? 

    I'm surprised by responses saying thy would actually judge a person for taking an extra sugar packet. My goodness. 

  8. 20 hours ago, ghcostafamily said:

    I just looked at Mathematical Reasoning and it seems to be nice and colorful and FUN looking. I dont think she would balk at it. Ill give it a try.....geesh the price of that is steep though.

    I have looked at challenging word problems as well, ill see If i can get an older used copy of that as well.

    Thank you!

     

    Yes, it is expensive! It's a bit more than the average math supplement though, so I think it is well worth the price. 

  9. I like Mathematical Reasoning, also from Critical Thinking company.  Challenging Word Problems from Singapore is another good one. Teaching Textbooks (in my opinion) needs to be heavily supplemented and I like to do that with critical thinking or logic type problems. 

     

     

  10. My kids have been going to live performances since birth, and Broadway shows since 4/5. 

     

    Lion King -4

    Blue Man Group- 6

    Les Miserables- 6

    The Nutcracker-  3/4

    Swan Lake- 5

    Phantom of the Opera- 10

    Sound of Music- 8

    King and I- 8

    Annie- 10

    Cats- 10

    The Little Mermaid- 4, 6, 10

    Chicago- 9

     

  11. Ok, I'm certain I've asked this before..but I need to ask again. My kid can not spell. 11 years old. Other language arts skills are well above average- reading comprehension, grammar and sentence structure, vocabulary. I would feel comfortable putting her in a college composition class. BUT her spelling...it is terrible. We did several years of All About Spelling, and then Spelling Workout. Her spelling as marginally improved. 

    As an example, this is her to do list for today:

    clene room

    do dishies

    clene cage tommoro

     

    I'm really at a loss. There are no other struggles that I'm aware of. She has a good attention span, at grade level for math, and there are no vision or hearing problems. 

     

     

  12. I actually use it differently than intended. I don't read the passage aloud. He prefers to read it himself, so I let him do that and then ask the questions.

     

    I would work on auditory comprehension separately with much shorter passages that you pick out. It's still an important skill to work on.

     

    I think this is good advice. 

    • Like 1
  13. I am thinking of using Rightstart next year for 1st/2nd grade math. Is it right for us? Child enjoys math and will probably do well in whatever math curriculum he uses. He is a people pleaser and a bit of a perfectionist. He enjoys seated school work. 

     

    Me: I hate math. I don't understand it. I may have had to use the answer guide for a kindergarten text because I couldn't figure out how they were teaching a problem. I'm not visual and have zero natural ability for math. The day I found Teaching Textbooks for my oldest was the happiest day of my life. 

     

    So...thoughts on Rightstart? 

     

     

  14. My kids are 5 and 10. They share a bathroom and have 99% responsibility for keeping it clean. I don't expect it to be clean all the time, but I do expect them to clean it once a week. The daily clean up doesn't usually get done. 

    • Like 1
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