Alicia64 Posted February 21, 2011 Share Posted February 21, 2011 My boys are 7 -- 8 in April. One is gifted, the other is from my side.:001_smile: (And cute as a button!) Anyway, we were plugging right along with MUS. And 1/2 through Beta, I realized that the math facts weren't as ingrained as they should be. Dh worked w/ a guy who was a math major in college who told him, "if the kids don't know their math facts well, they're forever behind in the math curve." So, okay, we stopped doing MUS and practice our math facts. The gifted boy totally gets addition and is almost concrete in his subtraction. My adorable boy -- these adjectives are in jest only -- is still trudging through his addition facts. Is it okay that I've stopped our regular MUS just to learn our math facts? And what should I be doing with the boys to help them "know" the facts? I've been giving them 5 minute timed drills (w/ no pressure) and then I ask them to circle the ones they need their fingers for and then we practice those. What else should I be doing? Alley Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laughing lioness Posted February 21, 2011 Share Posted February 21, 2011 We do flashcards. And 1/4 Mile Math. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snickelfritz Posted February 21, 2011 Share Posted February 21, 2011 Is it okay that I've stopped our regular MUS just to learn our math facts? I'm not real familiar with MUS, but it is VERY mastery...??? I think that's OK, but I wouldn't stop all other math. We kept going in unrelated topics: Time, money, measurement, etc... It kept some overall forward progress in math and made the math facts not AS tedious. It could be informal with games or math literature. And it doesn't have to be all planned out. My dd got very frustrated when I tried doing just math facts, because it was all hard work. That's why I kept it mixed up. And I would break up the math fact delivery. Something like a few turns through the flashcards ( spread out throughout the day), a timed drill, and playing math war. ETA: and FTR, we are STILL working on facts. We do a lesson each day AND math facts practice, in various ways. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beaners Posted February 21, 2011 Share Posted February 21, 2011 Would something like place mats with math facts work for them? If you made them yourself they could include just the trouble spots, or they could have them arranged by groups, or they could be set up to show patterns? It might be a painless way to add in a little extra exposure during mealtime. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rivka Posted February 21, 2011 Share Posted February 21, 2011 We've gotten a lot of mileage out of Sheppard Software's math games. There are tons of different games to keep the novelty going. What about doing three days a week of curriculum and two days of fact practice? Or allowing extra screen time after school if it's spent on computer games for fact practice? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
momto2blessings Posted February 21, 2011 Share Posted February 21, 2011 My 8yo was whizzing through Beta but didn't have facts down. I slowed down from 2 pg./day to 1 pg./day and had him copy 1 page of math facts per day as copywork. He had to copy the whole problem with answer, and this seemed to work. Just a thought:) Gina P.S. He didn't understand why he had to copy them instead of just writing the answer on the page. I'm glad I caught the reason why---he was copying the whole page without answers and THEN going back and writing the answers---totally missing the purpose:) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kchara Posted February 22, 2011 Share Posted February 22, 2011 We went from TT3 down to MUS Alpha because my kids (9 and 8) didn't have their facts down, and it was really affecting the rest of their math. Frankly, I bribed them. I gave them two weeks. Whoever learned them first in that time got $10. If the other one learned them by the end of the two weeks, they got $5. My son has his down, he'll get his $10 in the morning. Daughter is still working on hers. We play games (Math Rider is one they seem to enjoy quite a bit), we listen to drill songs. A lot. I'm over the drill songs, but they seem to love them. If DD finishes memorizing them this week, next week we go onto subtraction. Heaven help me. For subtraction, I think I'll give them 3-4 weeks, but I'll be bribing them again, because, well, it worked. We'll also be adding daily drills (either worksheets or flashcards) at least once a day, hopefully 2-3 times a day, when we get our schedule back in order. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShutterBug Posted February 22, 2011 Share Posted February 22, 2011 We use MUS as well and they like for the kids to have their current math facts memorized (addition in Alpha, subtraction in Beta, multiplication in Gamma and division in Delta) before moving on to the next book. I think stopping to solidify the math facts is fine :) . It shouldn't take long and then you can get back into Beta:) . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sandragood1 Posted February 22, 2011 Share Posted February 22, 2011 Some people just memorize facts better than others. I was very surprised to learn that my DH still had a few multiplication facts that he hadn't memorized! Both my kids had difficulty. With both, I held things up trying to get the facts into their heads. Eventually, we just moved forward. Because math concepts build on each other, kids continue to practice their facts even as they are learning new concepts. The facts do become memorized in time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IsabelC Posted February 22, 2011 Share Posted February 22, 2011 My informal survey of a few people I know suggested that the geeky, good at math types seem to be the ones who *don't* have their facts down, and vice versa! I know my tables in my sleep and can compute mental arithmatic very quickly, however I failed math at pre-tertiary level and couldn't do calculus to save my life. Dh, who did math at uni, will ask me if he wants to know 15% off $295 or what is 1263+426 in a hurry. Not sure what to make of this as far as the kids are concerned though. We'd still like them to learn their facts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patchfire Posted February 22, 2011 Share Posted February 22, 2011 My informal survey of a few people I know suggested that the geeky, good at math types seem to be the ones who *don't* have their facts down, and vice versa! I know my tables in my sleep and can compute mental arithmatic very quickly, however I failed math at pre-tertiary level and couldn't do calculus to save my life. Dh, who did math at uni, will ask me if he wants to know 15% off $295 or what is 1263+426 in a hurry. Not sure what to make of this as far as the kids are concerned though. We'd still like them to learn their facts. :iagree: My math-whiz kid still takes a long minute to add 18+5. Then she turns around and does a quadratic equation in her head. I don't. get. it. But we've kept her going forward conceptually, and slowly but surely drilling those facts into her head. So, yes, I have a child that does Flashmaster daily, Calculadder drill daily... and algebra. My goal is simple: by the time she goes to college, no one will know she took weeks to pass each Calculadder drill. :P Thankfully(?), ds appears to be a bit less intuitive with regard to math and a bit more inclined towards memorization of his math tables. It's 'easier' to have a memorizer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spy Car Posted February 22, 2011 Share Posted February 22, 2011 My informal survey of a few people I know suggested that the geeky, good at math types seem to be the ones who *don't* have their facts down, and vice versa! I know my tables in my sleep and can compute mental arithmatic very quickly, however I failed math at pre-tertiary level and couldn't do calculus to save my life. Dh, who did math at uni, will ask me if he wants to know 15% off $295 or what is 1263+426 in a hurry. Not sure what to make of this as far as the kids are concerned though. We'd still like them to learn their facts. I recall the famous physicist Richard Feynman making much the same point about himself and many of his fellow Manhatten Project physicists and mathematicians in his book "Surely You're Joking Mr Feynman." It seemed strange to me then (and now) but I have no reason to doubt his sincerity. Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snickelfritz Posted February 22, 2011 Share Posted February 22, 2011 I recall the famous physicist Richard Feynman making much the same point about himself and many of his fellow Manhatten Project physicists and mathematicians in his book "Surely You're Joking Mr Feynman." It seemed strange to me then (and now) but I have no reason to doubt his sincerity. While I do not begin to claim to be anywhere near the level of mathematics expertise this guy has, I do have an engineering degree. I had more college math and physics than I care to think about and.... I count on my fingers. And use a dot system that seems complicated, but that I'm pretty quick with. Calculators are wonderful. :) But I'm still attempting to make my dd learn her facts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alpidarkomama Posted February 22, 2011 Share Posted February 22, 2011 We're in the same situation, reviewing math facts with DD7. We did Singapore 2A and it was becoming increasingly difficult due to her not yet having mastered the facts. SO, we whizzed through the first half of Saxon 2 (and LOTS of 1-minute math tests). It has helped. We'll start the second half of Saxon 2 next week, keep doing lots of 1-minute math tests and Flashmaster. I'm hoping to return to Singapore 2B in the summer or fall. I'm going to start doing math facts/flash cards with DD7 and DS5 together. They love friendly competition. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LisaKinVA Posted February 22, 2011 Share Posted February 22, 2011 Hehe... if you tried slowing any of my children down to "master their facts" you would be hating homeschooling so much by the end of a week, you'd probably throw your hands up and quit. A little bit of practice every day (like daily copy work 10-15 min) is more than enough. I'm of the opinion that facts should be practiced and reinforced through 5th or 6th grades... even if it's just a 5 minute "warm-up." BUT, what really caused my oldest to "see the light" with knowing his math facts was long multiplication and division. It becomes quite tedious and takes forever when you don't know those facts. He learned them within a week. (proper internal motivation... I tried bribing him before that, to no avail). At ages 7 & 8, stopping to focus on math facts isn't going to hurt. But it's also just fine to continue on. I know my math facts cold... and can out-flash-card my dh. Guess which one of us is better at higher math? DH... hands-down. But, he doesn't mess with me when it comes to debate, lit, history... or Trivial Pursuit! Of course, I don't mess with him when it comes to Trivial Pursuit Star Wars Edition, either. :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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