Older child switching math styles?

[Paige]

My son is in 3rd grade and has been in public school until now. He had a very traditional American paper/pencil style math program that he did extremely well in. We've been doing Math Mammoth and he tested solidly into 3rd grade for it but he is really struggling. He isn't struggling with the work so much as struggling to do it the way the instructions want him to do it. He finds it so much easier to just write it out old style than to do the mental math steps. If I let him do it his way, he does just fine. If I make him do it their way, he misses a lot and gets very frustrated. I really want him to learn this way, however, because I know it will benefit him later to be able to do all the mental math quickly when he gets into more advanced subjects and especially on timed tests like the SATs.

 

Is this typical when switching to a different type of math and about how long should I expect him to struggle before it starts to feel more natural for him? I don't want to give up too early and go to Horizons or something (my 2nd choice) without giving this a solid chance but I don't want to mindlessly persist in something that is just not reaching him either. We've only been at it a few weeks. I have really slowed down his pace and it has helped a lot but he still complains loudly when I make him do the problems the Math Mammoth way.

[Guest]

I don't know Math Mammoth; but if your child does very well with traditional math, I think it's a mistake to gear everything now, at age eight or thereabouts, toward what he might have to do when he's seventeen. I would put priority on finding a program that suits the way he works and thinks and apparently does very well with.

 

I'm not sure what kind of mental math you want him to be able to do, but you could continue working on that separately, perhaps through games, or reading some of the terrific math picture books out there? Some children also begin to do more of the steps of problems mentally as they solidify their skills and just become more practiced. You may or may not find your son doing this as he grows older. Then, ironically, teachers struggle to make kids show all their work again once they hit algebra, so they can determine where and why the kids make mistakes!

[In The Great White North]

Then, ironically, teachers struggle to make kids show all their work again once they hit algebra, so they can determine where and why the kids make mistakes!

 

:iagree: This has been an issue with all my dc. If I had it to do over again, I would emphasize writing out all the steps from the very beginning. High school would have been so much easier without that daily issue. If you want to do mental math, do it in the car, or outside, or as a game or somewhere else that a sheet of paper is obviously not available so that he can see why he needs to be able to do that.