Jump to content

Menu

elmerRex

Members
  • Posts

    219
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Reputation

167 Excellent

Recent Profile Visitors

295 profile views
  1. I do not understand. Is she missing questions in the lessons and practice because of math facts? If your student is doing well in math lessons with Saxon, but not doing well on drill sheets then I would deviate from HOW we do drill. I would focus on learning maybe 3 or 4 math facts at a time and doing drills on just those, using both multiplication and division.
  2. HOW are you using Saxon? Are you working the program as prescribed and going over the corrections each day? How is she doing with the lessons? Is she making a 85% or better on each lesson the first time around? I would change the way that I do math, but I don't think that I would make completing TWO lessons a day my immediate goal, but I would put changes in place to try and get her to point where she can do that, if she so chooses. Do you sit with her during the lesson to ensure that she understands everything before she begins the problem sets? Is she focused while working the lesson and the problem set, or is she daydreaming and distracted? How long does it take her to do a Saxon Math lesson? What grade is she getting on her first attempt with a math lesson? What procedure does your family use to make corrections? How many days does she do math each week? Does she know all math facts fluently? Does she understand regrouping? Instead of increasing the number of lessons she does each day, I would time my child each day to see how long it takes her to work through a lesson. Then I would add 10 minutes extra to her math time on her schedule and instruct her that "by her grade, she should do math for XX minutes each day. Work quickly and just pause in the next lesson when your time finishes." Look at the lessons ahead of time, some lessons are very short and naturally pair up well, so on some days I would have her do two lessons, but only when the lessons are short and connected. I would also make math a 6-7 day a week subject. She will naturally get ahead by simply working more steadily. Saxon Math 54 has 136 lessons in the 3rd edition so I suspect 1st edition has some fewer lessons than that. By working 6 days a week, 1 lesson a day, she can complete the whole book in about 20 weeks. IF Saxon Math works for her, she is steady in her pacing, diligent in her daily work and well supported by teachers then she can finish Math 54, Math 65 and start on Math 76 in the same year with out doubling lessons. Just gradual, systematic and diligent work will get her there.
  3. Many seem to think that Beast Academy is best as a supplement, not the main program, because it doesn't include enough practice. In my opinion Saxon Math is NOT a supplement. In my opinion, success with Saxon Math means accepting it as "all or nothing" method.
  4. I wrote a review of Hard Maths for Elementary. It is on this site some where, but I can't link. Use Google and search "Hard Math for Elementary Review elmerRex" and you should find it. If you want to have more practice for material in the HMfE book, then get the workbook that goes with the textbook. That is probably easiest way to add in more practice. There is a series called Process Skills in Problem Solving that is very good for helping students to learn problem solving strategies and builds up word-problem solving skills bit by bit. I have not used them before, but have read many recommendations. Beast Academy I have never used. I have been told many times it is great, but it seems very expensive too me. After Saxon Math 54 and Math 65, my children find the samples very easy and pass the placement exams very well. It's very popular, but too me it isn't worth it just for a supplement, yet many report that it's best as a supplement because of not enough practice to be all by itself but I guess that varies by child. My children need much practice for the fundamentals to gain full fluency and mastery. Then, they are able to go on ahead at much faster pace. We do a lot of work to have a very powerful foundation. But I have struggled to find a good next step for our children. Math Circle is more a social event in my country, so it'd be difficult to have a math circle with just 1 child. Do you have more children that you could begin to tutor with your son? If not, I would not get a book for Math Circles. Would you like other suggestions for resources instead?
  5. Is the child allowed to see the problems while they work them? Or must they go by hearing only? When they are not mastered with the technique, my children find it easier to look at the problem while they figure it in their head until they gain more fluency with the technique. Only my oldest can do these problems by ear only and that is after a couple of years of regular learning and practice. Here is how I would be coaching a child to do each of those problems mentally. Always find tidy numbers where you can. 158+93+42 becomes 158 + 93 + 40 + 2 becomes 160 + 40 + 93 becomes 200 + 93 = 293 997+605 becomes 997 + 602 + 3 becomes 1000 + 602 = 1602 126-75 becomes (100 + 26) - 75 becomes 100-75 + 26 becomes 25 + 26 = (25 + 25) + 1 = 51 163-92 becomes 100 + 63 - 92 becomes 100-92 + 63 becomes 8 + 62 + 1 becomes 70 + 1 = 71 85x5 becomes (80+5) x 5 becomes 400 + 25 = 425 462x5 becomes (400 + 60 + 2) x 5 becomes 2000 + 300 + 10 = 2310 620/5 becomes (600 + 20) / 5 becomes 120 + 4 = 124 905/5 becomes (900 + 5) / 5 becomes 180 + 1 = 181 and here, since my child wouldn't know 5*18 rote, we'd work back from 5*20 (Which they know by rote) 5*20=100, so that's too big. 5*19=100-5 or 95, so obviously 5*18=19, or 5*180=190.
  6. I also think that using a video to teach maths is not ideal. Certainly not at that level. Our family is ESL so we read the texts and teach our children, from the texts for Math 54 and Math 65. My opinion is that the parent READING and TEACHING the material is just superior instruction. The books are not hard to understand. We used 3rd edition.
  7. What was the problem? Was it meant to have child use simplification/estimation or where they asked to be exact when they answered? ? We do some years of training with the mentals maths with the goal of having children capable of doing flash anzan competition, but I don't feel it's necessary. But for our children its useful. For us, advanced mental maths comes to be useful in that it gives the child tremendous confidence and training them to juggle numbers in their head helps them. Also it teaches them good habits to organize numbers mentally in their mind. However I would not slow down other work to gain this skill. We are not going to compete internationally so being quick with 5 digits is enough. What does your currency go up to? I want my children to be able to confidently use 5 digits because in this country you have 2-3 digits for dollars and 2 more digits for cents.
  8. We use the eBook version of Saxon Math 54 and Math 65 with all of our children. I highly recommend it. We do not skip problems, but I feel experienced enough now that I could skip if I needed to now. Though you may not need to skip anything. You can read my review of Saxon Math 54 here. Just completing 1 lesson a day and all of the investigations, Math 54 can be done in 136 days. If you start now and work diligently through the summer, you will be done with the book right by the time that school starts in the fall. Since he tested into Math 54, you could begin that book with him now. There doesn't seem to be a strong need to accelerate with Saxon Math, but if I wanted to accelerate here is what I would do. 1) I would schedule math for the most productive period of the day. 2) Commit myself and my student to reading each lesson and working out all of the examples together (to be sure that lessons are fully understood) and immediately giving similar problems to make sure that enough practice is gained with the new skill. Then supervising/pacing the student as they complete the mixed Lesson practice. 3) Make Math a 7 day a week subject 4) (optional) Work 4 day sup-plan and a 3 day sub-plan. Where your son will do 2 lessons a day, some days and do only 1 lesson a day on the other day, depending on the student and the lessons themselves. This will let you do 10 or 11 lessons a week, instead of just 7 Sun--Mon--Tues--Wed--Thu--Fri--Sat So for a week, the number of lessons that I'd do are like this ....2.......1.......2.......1.........2......1........2.. or like this Sun--Mon--Tues--Wed--Thu--Fri--Sat ....1.....2..........1........2........1........2......1.. On days that we do 2 lessons, we would read through both lessons fully. Work all of the new lesson problems and do the complete Mixed Practice problem set from the 2nd lesson. You should look in the mixed practice for the 1st lesson to see if the new concept is practiced/assigned in that set, if so do those problems, for the additional practice of the new skill. For us, Saxon Math is very, very succesful, but we do not ask our children to do it independently. We teach every lesson and supervise closely to be sure that work done is work done right, and work done swiftly.
  9. Opportunity to lay infinitely stronger foundation, with less stress. At first we kept them out because our oldest son was immature for his age at K and we wanted him to be successful when he started, but now seeing his progress in relation to his peers, I do not trust the local public schools at all to teach my children well during the vulnerable time so we make sure that all my children master all the basics at home. Academics are very important to us and at home we can and do lay strong foundation. My children may go to English speaking public school in later grades, but locally, grades K-3 is when all foundations for literacy and numeracy are laid and after that students are expected to use that foundation going forward, My friends kids in the local public school their parents spend extra on tutors and Kumon so that he can learn to read and do maths well. Kids are in school for 6 hours and then need lessons to learn all the things that they did not learn correctly, or were not even taught in school.
  10. We start with Saxon Math 54, but a friend wants to know about the lower grades books. Can anyone give a review? How does the child like the program? How did they learn the materials? What are the best ways to tweak it for success? Etc. Thank you.
  11. I do not think it's important for primary age children to train like professional mathematicians, but I do want my children to be able to be on competitive level with other children in our home country by end of year 3. Yes, we are in the US and year 3 is 8 years old. His English grammar is better than mine. Has good reading and vocabulary but not good with comprehending long sentences of explanation in a book.
  12. Thank you for helpful links. Our math programme looks like this: Eldest is in Year 3 now and others are in Year 2 and Year 1. Year 1: We do Math 54 and Math 65 in one year. We do Math 54 and 65 this way--parent explains the section and goes over lesson problems with the students then the kids do the Saxon work --every problem, every time, every day. Parent checks and student corrections are made write away. Student writes answers in notebook and grows a math book. We give 1-3 word problems a day also and include more topics from Hard Math for Elementary Students for interests. Kid does local math contest for experience. In summer after Math 65 kids do as much of Saxon Algebra as they can (so far about 95 lessons) orally and/or with the white board. This is gentle enough for early years and sets a great foundation. Kids study abacus/anzan. Year 2: We do full program of Math in Focus for 1 year: Child uses Textbook, Activities, Enrichment, and for gradual review we use Extra Practice, Reteach and Assessments. Child does extra topics from Hard Math for Elementary Students for their interests and finishes Saxon Algebra 1. In summer, students have abacus/anzan and word problems every day. Year 3: We have decisions to make. My oldest is not having a productive maths year because we do not know what to do. We are doing random topics based on interests but it is not a daily, gradual thing. We could.... Continue geometry and special interest topics. Very time intense and unpredictable. get next two levels of Math in Focus. I can not find this course as PDF and the full program of MiF is expensive, but it is easy with the Saxon foundation and the MiF format is perfect for young child. MiF is easy on parent to teach and easy for child to read and study with. Many components make it expensive but the child can master all the material and can work alone many days. We could get Saxon Algebra 2, but child would need parent to be teacher daily because the format is not easy to self study. We could buy series from country with good maths education programme. We could buy AoPS books. Year 3 is the first serious year for us and it's not okay for student to not study maths.
  13. Someone asked me to make this question here in this section also so I did.
  14. I would like to know about the cases where Beast Academy/Art of Problem Solving books were bad fits for your student.
×
×
  • Create New...