I need help!!!

[Denisemomof4]

I'm SO frustrated today because a few years back I could have figured this out all on my own. I have a head injury and I struggle with it sometimes like today. I feel I have the answer somewhere in the back of my head but I can't pull it out!

 

PLEASE HELP ME! I had my daughter in first grade and part of second grade, pulling her out and starting our school year in January. We're using Saxon Math and I was going to supplement with Singapore but because Singapore has no teacher instruction I don't see that working long term, so we're going to stick with Saxon for now.

 

Anyway, my daughter did NO math drills in PS. She had to learn addition and subraction drills and has been working on that since January. We've had some health issues and had to take off a week here and there and I know that hasn't helped. Anyway, she has not yet been able to finish a speed drill in 1 minute, which I don't really care. She's down to 1 minute 30 seconds. My problem is this. We doubled up on lessons some days so we could take the summer off and we're currently on lesson 90. Being that there are 40 lessons left, we basically have 20 days of math left.

 

WRONG!!!

 

Saxon 2 is now getting into multiplication and she still has not memorized her addition/subtraction facts! My husband made a computer program for her that I'm going to have her do at least twice per day which will help. I also may start to use calculadders as have them from years back.

 

So, should I stop math now until she's got a better grasp on her addition/subtraction? I feel that somehow moving onto multiplication will cause problems. Can someone help me think this through? I want her to get to the point where she won't have to use her fingers for addition/subtraction. Any *fun* ideas for helping her to memorize her facts? I think I remember buying Math Wars for one of my sons. Does this use all math facts that Saxon does?

 

I hate it when I get confused!!!!!!!!!!!!! :confused:

 

Denise

[BlueGator]

Denise,

 

Relax. I've been there many times. The best way to figure it out is not to stress about it so much.

 

We just finished Saxon 3. If you are doing two lessons and learing Math Facts you and your child will be frustrated.

 

I would spend the summer making sure she is solid on her math facts. When you have this done you can breeze through the last 40 lessons.

 

I like www.mathfactcafe.com and www.themathworksheetsite.com.

 

Math Fact Cafe is free and is good for gaining computation speed and accuracy.

 

I've never done a program. See if your daughter likes it better than worksheets.

 

We are working on getting faster in mulitiplication, division and long division this summer. We just finished Saxon last week.

 

Pam

[Felicia]

http://www.mathplayground.com/games.html

 

My kids still struggle with having the memorization down, some days are better than others. The link above is to some free online math games that my children love to play. They ask to play them. There is a wealth of information on there as well.

 

Personally, I take time when my children get stuck in an area and go over it for a week or so until it is concreted for them. Then we just pick up and move on. You are doing a lot of math it seems like and maybe a break or an easier load might refresh her as well. I would concentrate on playing a lot of math games online and made up games with flashcards and any other board game you come across.

 

We also do alot of verbal quizzing. We are riding in the car my dh will just start asking what is 6+9 or 5x12 etc.

 

At any rate I would go with how you feel about it. You know her best and if you really feel this is a place to stop and focus, then go with that. She will catch up and sometimes it is just great to stop and clear your head and she can clear hers too. You just don't want to make her hate math and if she is struggling and you force her to go on she will more than likely end up hating it.

 

She will catch up and be fine. Do some fun things to break up the sit down drill type of stuff and it will work. I think 1min 30 sec. is great. Any your doing great too!

 

HTH :)

[Melanie]

I didn't even start my children in Saxon until they had all their math facts memorized (we used a little program called Math-It) but when that was accomplished they started right at 5/4. It took my son two years to memorize those facts, so he started 5/4 in 3rd grade. My daughter took one year to learn her math facts, so she started 5/4 in 2nd grade.

 

We still stop and review if someone is struggling with a concept. Please don't be afraid to slow down if you need to. You can always pick up the speed again later on.

[Karen in TN]

My ds is very good with math concepts, but very slow with computations. Even up through Saxon 76 his fact recall was sometimes pretty slow. Sometimes those timed sheets took so long I had him stop after a certain period of time (maybe 2 minutes?) just so we didn't spend too much time on it. I remember being that way with certain math facts myself way up into grade school, yet I did very well in math. With ds, I never slowed down, because he always understood what we're doing. I did buy Quarter Mile Math and he still practices with it now, even in Algebra.

 

Saxon's multiplication relies heavily on the skip counting. I wouldn't worry about addition and subtraction recall just yet. Just keep plugging away at it, it will come with time.

 

Karen

[Chris in VA]

Mastery isn't expected in Saxon until the end of Saxon 3, so you have plenty of time. You can even skip the last 20 lessons or so of Saxon 2, no problem. You will repeat quite a few of the lessons at the beginning of the next Saxon.

 

And yes, they are really not expected to totally have the facts down pat before moving on to multiplication. It won't be confusing if you DO THE MEETING. That's where the skip counting is.

 

If I were you, I would slow down to one lesson a day only. Give it time to sink in and give her brain time to process. you are planning on stopping in June, right? That's 20 days, give or take. You can just do the next 20 days, then take off from Saxon--call it done for the year until the Fall. Find a few worksheets, or do Quarter Mile Drill (my dd hates it, buy ymmv), or just take 10 minutes everyday or every other day and do flash cards.

 

Start fresh in the Fall. Saxon 3 goes WAY back at the beginning. It just won't be a problem.

[hsmom]

I would say relax take a deep breath and don't push it to hard. If you push to hard and fast it will end up being a waste of your time. Now, if you don't have a problem with finishing up the rest of your book at the beginning of next year then do that. ( I personally don't have a problem with this, I think it is one of the beauties of home educating). So, my advice is to get done what you can and then finish it up later.

[keithfamily5]

I brought my children home two years ago. At that time, my oldest had just finished 3rd grade. When we started 4th grade with Abeka Math, we got stuck. They were ready for her to do multiple digit multiplication. She couldn't do it. She didn't have them memorized. She didn't even have all of the addition/subtraction facts memorized.

 

My kids DO NOT like for me to hold flashcards up for them! So, we found some free online flashcard programs. I stopped our math lessons and we only did math facts (on the computer) for 2 to 3 weeks. She had to do this every day. I started with a goal of 20 addition and 20 subtraction facts. The computer usually showed me how many she got right. Then we upped it 5 to 10 at a time, focusing on families she still struggled with.

 

Here are some sites we used:

 

www.aaamath.com

http://home.indy.rr.com/lrobinson/mathfacts/mathfacts.html

 

I also gave her a sheet of paper with fact families she was still struggling with. She would have to give me all 4 sentences that go with that family. Ex:

 

13,8,5

1. 8+5=13

2. 5+8=13

3. 13-8=5

4. 13-5=8

 

You can do this with all math facts. We recently picked up Wrap Ups for fun summer review. You wrap a string from one side to another solving the math problems. When you get done, you flip it over and your string should match up with the lines on the back. They were very reasonable and my kids love them. I found them at www.rocksolidinc.com. We also found some math puzzles at our homeschool library to use. It's in the shape of a circle and you put it together by answering the math problems. Each puzzle comes in a plastic case. When you're done, you flip it over and if done correctly makes a picture. They are called 2 sided subtraction puzzles. The makers have a website: www.garlicpress.com.

 

I agree with another poster. I would stop your math program and focus on getting the math facts memorized. It will make math sooo much easier! Math is now my daughters favorite subject. (It's also her best)

 

HTH,

 

Patty

[PollyOR]

I haven't read any of the other replies.

 

It's okay. :grouphug:

 

I do not want my kids to memorize the wrong answer, so I let them use a math fact chart when doing their worksheets. I know it seems like cheating but I don't want them to guess and cement the wrong answer in their minds. This way, if they are unsure they can look up the answer. After doing this many times the correct answer is cemented in their brains and they can do their math problems with confidence. It has worked for us.

 

Good luck. :)

[Free Indeed]

 

I do not want my kids to memorize the wrong answer, so I let them use a math fact chart when doing their worksheets. I know it seems like cheating but I don't want them to guess and cement the wrong answer in their minds. This way, if they are unsure they can look up the answer. After doing this many times the correct answer is cemented in their brains and they can do their math problems with confidence. It has worked for us.

 

Good luck. :)

 

Yes. this is what we do as well. The Bluedorns ( http://www.triviumpursuit.com ) used this method with their children and it has worked well.

[BlueGator]

http://www.mathplayground.com/games.html

 

The link above is to some free online math games that my children love to play. They ask to play them.

HTH :)

 

Felicia,

 

My ds wants to thank you for the above link! He loves Timez Attack the most. He loves WTM board now. :D

[Misty]

Have you considered using the RightStart Math Games kit? Honestly, I would suggest ditching Saxon and switching to RightStart Math completely, but since that's probably not your plan, you could use just the Math Games kit and it would help her to memorize her facts. There are more than 250 very fun games in the book, plus it comes with an instructional DVD, which has about 10 or so games being played on it.

 

http://www.alabacus.com

[BlueGator]

I would suggest ditching Saxon and switching to RightStart Math completely, but since that's probably not your plan, you could use just the Math Games kit and it would help her to memorize her facts. There are more than 250 very fun games in the book, plus it comes with an instructional DVD, which has about 10 or so games being played on it.

 

http://www.alabacus.com

 

I spent a bunch of money for the games and alabacus. I and my son hated them.

[Kathy in MD]

FYI - Singapore is Home Instructor's Guides now that have been very helpful to me.

 

I'll second the Home Instructor's Guides.

[Felicia]

Felicia,

 

My ds wants to thank you for the above link! He loves Timez Attack the most. He loves WTM board now. :D

 

Well I can't take credit. I can't remember who but I found this website from someone here on the board. But I am so very glad he likes it. Timez Attack is my son's fav also.

 

Glad he loves the board also. After so many good things and ideas I've learned here, my kids are going to be very busy this coming year. So I don't know if they'll let me back on the computer or not to find more things for them to do and learn. ;)