math - assign by pages or by time?

[ktgrok]

My son is going to be starting out with some easy, remedial math from Math Mammoth because I want to make sure he understands the actual concepts before he moves on. I'm highlighting portions of each page for him to do, rather than having him do all the problems on each page. My confusion is whether I should assign certain pages to do each day, or just having him work for a certain amount of time. I'm thinking 20 minutes? Then do a math related website or other supplement for 10 minutes. He just turned 11, and will be in 5th grade. He has a habit of speeding through his work and not paying attention to detail, which is why I was leaning towards a time frame rather than a certain number of pages.

[Mesa]

If it were me, I'd go by time instead of pages.

[robsiew]

IMO I think "time" works better the older they get. I think it takes some maturity to say to one's self...I'm going to do as much as I can in 20 min. (yet do my best). That takes some discipline. At the stages my kids are at I think number of pages work better. They know they are in complete control of how long math is going to take.... if they get down and get to work they get done sooner... if they lolly-gag it could take hours! :001_smile: Eventually I would like to move them to "time", but I think that's something that won't come until they are a bit older...

 

On the other hand, if you have a really disciplined worker he may do just fine with that 20 min. time period.

[RootAnn]

I'd go by time. I might also stipulate that any problems that are incorrect will need to be redone outside of the required time.

[AngieW in Texas]

My youngest had a horrible time with math until I switched from an amount of work to an amount of time.

 

For 6th grade she did 5 minutes of math in the morning and then 25 minutes of math in the afternoon.

 

For 7th grade she is going to do 15 minutes of math in the morning and 20 minutes of math in the afternoon.

[nmoira]

We've always done it by time.

[Daisy]

I'm doing a bit of both.

 

My daughter (heading into 6th grade) has a 45 minute math block, but I have a minimum required amount of work to be done. So basically 45 minutes and one full lesson with drills. If she doesn't complete her work during that time, she finishes it later in the day. If she finishes early, she gets to spend the rest of the time any way she chooses.

[micheller1]

I was so glad to read this post! I was wondering this question myself! There are like 130 lessons with many pages to each lesson in Math Mammoth. I was thinking that scheduling a set time for math was better than saying let's get X amount of pages done today. I think they would speed through the pages to be "done" and then we'd not really get anything learned. Since of my three homeschoolers, I only have one math lover. Yesterday, I had one child get 4 pages complete; one get 2 complete and one get 6 complete in the hour we worked on math. We have a lot of remedial work going on. After we completed the placement tests, I realized that my 6, 5 and 3 grader need A LOT of remediation. It made me cry for them. But that's why we are homeschooling :)

As a newbie - a little affirmation makes me feel good. Thanks Hive!!!

[pageta]

If we went by time, we would get nothing done. I set goals for what we are to accomplish, and I only spend so much time with my ds or he has to do it on his own after we are finished for the day. But I assign what should only take a small chunk of time. One MM worksheet should take ten minutes if it's done in a timely fashion. We do two or three pages per day, but not all from the same chapter so that helps to break it up as well. Sometimes we do math for ten minutes then do something else than math for another ten minutes, etc. until we finish what we set out to accomplish for the day. I know how many days of school we have and what we need to get done daily in order to get through the curriculum in a timely manner. Ultimately, do whatever works for you and don't be afraid to try things.