Do you make your kids fix all math problems they miss?

[Janie Grace]

I do (we're doing Saxon Math 8/7). Dd thinks this is totally unreasonable. She was fine with my policy until she started co-op and learned that a lot of kids don't have to fix their mistakes. If their mom concludes that they understand the concept, she lets them move on. Many other moms only require evens or odds, too. Another source of much grousing.

 

So tell me your policy. Am I being too picky? It DOES take her a long time.

[Daisy]

I make my children correct all their mistakes in every subject. I am MEAN and proud. :D

[Hunter's Moon]

I wish this had been required when I attended PS.

 

Even if I could show I understood the concept, the only way those careless mistakes would stop popping up in my work was if I was required to fix all mistakes. I never was though, and I suffered for it in higher level math.

[KrissiK]

Yes! If it is a silly mistake I just have them figure it out themselves, but if it shows a problem with comprehension then we go over it together.

[Jaz]

Yep.

[Enough]

Mean mom here, too. :)

 

Absolutely yes, in all subjects. And yes, it's a pain! But this is one of those areas where I think the chickens will come home to roost, BIG TIME, if you skip it.

[Bang!Zoom!]

Absolutely a re-do. Is there anything else that that so clearly shows a misunderstood concept that needs more work?

 

When her sheets come home from PS marked as error, they do not require correction.

 

My #1 pet peeve.

 

This drives me right up the wall.

[AppleGreen]

Yes, in all subjects. We don't use Saxon (MM), but I rarely let him skip problems. If you didn't get it right the first go 'round, you likely didn't understand, so I reteach and we try again.

 

ETA: I should say, I can often tell if it is a calculation problem that caused the mistake or a true misunderstanding of the concept. I reteach when the latter is the case, otherwise I ask him to check his work and try again on his own before stepping in.

Edited October 19, 2011 by AppleGreen

[twoforjoy]

It depends. If I can tell he didn't understand a math problem, then yes. If it was obviously a careless mistake, I'll usually ask him about it orally ("Hey, what's 7+4?"), and if he gets it right, that's fine. But if he has numerous careless errors in a given assignment, I'll either make him redo them all or give him extra problems.

[Parrothead]

All mistakes, all subjects.

[bettyandbob]

I do. However, I am not familiar with Saxon. I do not know how many problems are in an assignment. I am not a fan of 40+ problem sets. I believe they are a punishment to kids who know the concept and for kids who don't know doing the same type of problem wrong 40 times before correcting does not help anyone learn.

 

If the problem sets were long, I'd assign odds. If the child got any wrong he'd have to correct them all. If the child got greater than 20% wrong, he'd be doing the corrections and doing the evens after I thought he learned the concept.

[JulieH]

Yes. I make them correct their mistakes.

[QueenCat]

I make my children correct all their mistakes in every subject. I am MEAN and proud. :D

 

Same here.... that is how they learn. I found when I didn't, it took much longer to grasp and retain info... And they tried harder the first time. If truly frustrated, they do get help :001_smile:.

[Snickerdoodle]

All mistakes, all subjects.

 

:iagree:

[way2cross]

Yes, I do. But, we do it together and if they are burned out, I usually let them correct their mistakes the next day before they start their lesson.

[PinkInTheBlue]

Yes. My mantra is "Math isn't finished until all problems are finished." We learn the lesson, do the lesson, check the lesson and fix all problems. Most wrong are fixable by just redoing it. If they fix it and still can't get it right, they go to the solutions CD-rom and watch how to fix it; then do it themselves.

[NorthwestMom]

(Putting on my Special Ed teacher hat)

 

I make my kids fix their mistakes because I do not want them to imprint the error unintentionally. We always end on the correct answer.

 

If there was a possibility of a large problem set that I thought my child would really struggle with, I'd be checking on them after only a few problems to make sure they aren't repeating the same errors. Fixing 40 problems would be so defeating. :(

 

If my child clearly understands the material, we move on. I will tell my kids to do some number of problems, and of they get them 100% correct we go forward. If they miss one, they have to do more so I can see that they are carrying the right method forward. I don't make my kids do problems they know thoroughly, however, they have to have a rigorous understanding, not a set of lucky guesses.

 

Math builds on itself and parents who do not require mastery are setting the child up for struggles later. I see this among my homeschool and PS friends and I am quietly amazed that they will go out of their way to buy their kids organic fruit but not spend the same amount of time teaching them basic math skills.

[HS Mom in NC]

Yes. They must fix their mistakes and be able to explain why they made the mistake (carelessness, skipping a step, etc.)

 

We don't require that they do all the problems if they are getting it. By getting it I mean no more than 3 errors so on page. Any more than that and we go back to instruction and practice-not doing the pages. I keep pages we skipped (I despise busy work) and randomly pull them out in the future as review. If a child has mastered a concept it's a complete waste of their time and mine to do more pages of it.

 

We use Math-U-See so there is a lot of hands-on demonstration with manipulatives.

Edited October 19, 2011 by Homeschool Mom in AZ
typo

[Dina in Oklahoma]

Absolutely!

[KRG]

Yes.

[Mommy22alyns]

Yes, in all subjects.

[Plucky]

Yes, and if they have a problem then we go over the problem together. We do this in every subject.

[dhudson]

I make my children correct all their mistakes in every subject. I am MEAN and proud. :D

 

:iagree:

 

Proud to be the meanest Mom my kids know.:lol:

[Farrar]

Yes.

 

EXCEPT... a couple of times, it has become clear that a kid just didn't get it with math and did the whole page or almost the whole page wrong. Then, I don't, because I consider that a failure of my teaching and it's just mean to have them redo the whole page and typically makes them feel discouraged and unhappy. I do another lesson, then I give them a fresh start by having them do problems that were meant to be the review problems or just making up new ones. So they redo the type and approximate amount of problems, but they don't redo the same ones.

[Soror]

Yes, but not always written, sometimes orally. Writing is not his strong suite.

[Margo out of lurking]

I do (we're doing Saxon Math 8/7). Dd thinks this is totally unreasonable. She was fine with my policy until she started co-op and learned that a lot of kids don't have to fix their mistakes. If their mom concludes that they understand the concept, she lets them move on. Many other moms only require evens or odds, too. Another source of much grousing.

 

So tell me your policy. Am I being too picky? It DOES take her a long time.

 

Correct mistakes, absolutely, yes, always have. My dd particularly hates math. In the past six months, she's finally having an easier time looking through her work and finding what exactly went wrong. In the past, it was always easier for her to just start over.

 

If my dc found out that their peers didn't have to correct their mistakes, I don't think they'd envy them, I think they'd be surprised that the parents didn't have higher expectations for their kids. (That doesn't mean it may be true, it's just what I believe my kids would think.)

 

As to doing only the odd or even problems, it has depended totally on the curriculum. Example: Dc did all problems in Singapore or Life of Fred or Jacob's Geometry; dc do just the odds in Lial's (or is it evens, whichever has solutions in the back of the book).

[mommyrooch]

Yes. I make my kids correct every problem in every subject. I'm MEAN MEAN MEAN!!! :D

[Plucky]

Yes.

 

EXCEPT... a couple of times, it has become clear that a kid just didn't get it with math and did the whole page or almost the whole page wrong. Then, I don't, because I consider that a failure of my teaching and it's just mean to have them redo the whole page and typically makes them feel discouraged and unhappy. I do another lesson, then I give them a fresh start by having them do problems that were meant to be the review problems or just making up new ones. So they redo the type and approximate amount of problems, but they don't redo the same ones.

 

We've gone back whole units or chapters, usually in math. :glare:

[black_midori]

I make my children correct all their mistakes in every subject. I am MEAN and proud. :D

:iagree: Same! If he carelessly decides to waste my time by doing a 1/2 bum job in math, then he is welcome to waste his own free time redoing it correctly. He very very rarely doesn't understand the concept (in whatever we are doing) - almost always it is a case of general "why bother" or "taking too long go super-fast". The only way I know of to stop that is to make it clear that it will backfire every time by always making him re-do the work. This goes for Math, spelling, writing, cursive, Spanish - everything! :)

[Mrs Mungo]

We don't do Saxon. But, in general with their subjects: if they make an A, not necessarily, it sort of depends. If they make below an A or they miss all of one type of question, then they have to fix them.

[Canadianmumof5]

All mistakes, all subjects.

 

:iagree:

[Denisemomof4]

a paper is NEVER filed away here unless it's 100% correct. I've been doing this for 14 years now without an ounce of guilt.:001_smile:

[Janie Grace]

Thanks, everyone. I feel validated in my meanness. My dd will not thank you, but I do.

[Plucky]

Thanks, everyone. I feel validated in my meanness. My dd will not thank you, but I do.

 

My oldest child has thanked me for my previous meanness. He's so thankful I made him tow the line. :)

[Alice]

I do make my son correct all his mistakes. Typically his are careless so I make him do them himself to try and get him to go slower and stop making those kind of mistakes in the first place. If it's a concept issue we'll work through the problem together.

 

Funny story, a few weeks ago I decided my son needed to review multi digit multiplication (like 57 x 86) and really cement the concept before moving on. We've been kind of finishing up one math book and starting another and so I wanted to go back and really make sure he had some things down before moving on. So I had him watch a very quick video on Khan Academy (like 2 min) as review and then gave him a page of 10 problems.

 

He missed most of them for typical reasons of not lining up the digits correctly, not fully doing the algorithm, etc. We went over it, I made him correct them. Next day gave him another page. He missed a bunch, I repeated process. I was getting a bit frustrated as he is normally very good in math and I thought he was just not trying and making careless mistakes). I wasn't mean about it but I wasn't very nice and I just kept giving him more problems. By the end of the week he was getting all the problems right so we moved on.

 

A few days later I was looking through the math books and planning out the next bit when I realized that we had NEVER covered the concept of multi-digit multiplication. It doesn't come up until the next Singapore math book. I felt like a huge idiot and terrible person. I'm not sure what I was thinking except that what I really wanted him to cement multiplication like 56 x 8 and somehow carried that into the thought that he needed to work on all multi-digit multiplication.

 

Anyway, that to say, yes I make him correct mistakes but now I'm more careful to make sure that I've actually taught the material well if he's missing a lot of the same kind of problem.

 

And I never assign a whole page of problems. For my son that would really bore him and make him hate math. I'm fine with him doing only even or odd or a selection of each type and if he gets them right we move on.

[regentrude]

Yes, every single wrong problem has to be fixed. How else can they learn?

[Live2Ride]

How do they learn to be more careful or learn from their misakes? They correct their work. Our DC know that I don't follow what others do. I am in charge of their learning. If I think that they need the correction work, then they do it.

[Snickerdoodle]

I sometimes even circle correct problems and wait for the oral defense.

 

 

"Mooooooom! This is correct. Look, here's how I did it....."

 

 

:D

[thescrappyhomeschooler]

Yes. I make them correct all math problems, and most other papers as well.

[Mabelen]

All mistakes must be corrected.

[Haiku]

We don't use Saxon, but my children correct all their mistakes in Math Mammoth.

 

Tara

[Enough]

I sometimes even circle correct problems and wait for the oral defense.

 

 

"Mooooooom! This is correct. Look, here's how I did it....."

 

 

:D

 

BRILLIANT!!!

[sgo95]

Yes, mistakes have to be corrected, but not always in writing. I have them discuss it orally sometimes where I do the writing and they tell me what to do.

 

I don't assign every problem if the child is bored, though. That's part of the beauty of the freedom of homeschooling, right? If the child clearly understands the concept and can demonstrate a command of the material by doing a sampling of problems absolutely correctly, I'm comfortable not assigning all problems.

 

Note that we're doing K-6th grade math and I only assign a partial list of problems when the child comes to me and asks for a reprieve. Also, this is not a regular occurrence and this is not just an excuse on my kid's part to get out of work since I ask them to do an additional page (or half a page) if they're allowed to skip problems.

Edited October 19, 2011 by sgo95
inserted phrase I forgot

[Mommy22alyns]

I sometimes even circle correct problems and wait for the oral defense.

 

 

"Mooooooom! This is correct. Look, here's how I did it....."

 

 

:D

 

 

Becca would have. a. fit. She insists on erasing the circle when she fixes the problem too.

[Retired]

Yeah they have to correct all mistakes in all subjects

 

Welcome to the mean teacher club:D

[Momma2Many66]

We fix every problem and then I give them 10 extra problems just like it for every one they get wrong. We continue to work those problems until they understand why they made the mistake and how to do the problem correctly.

[The Girls' Mom]

We only do evens or odds (except my oldest, I hand pick the half she has to do, leaning heavily on problems she's having trouble with)

 

I don't make them correct every problem, but we DO go over every missed problem and make sure they know why they missed it.

 

I like Saxon somewhat, and use it because I get it and can teach it. I do not like the endless problems. There is enough repetition between lessons that I don't feel that 30 problems each day are needed, especially in the upper levels.

[Sputterduck]

Always.

[ChristusG]

Yes, in every subject.

[Halcyon]

Absolutely. In math, if it's a toughie (such as a challenging CWP question) we'll work through it together, and then I'll have him do it on his own the next day. If he still can't get it, we'll work through it again, then I'll have him either do THAT one again, or I will re-write the question but make it very similar and have him solve that one. In other subjects, like spelling, Geo, Latin, Grammar, Vocab, I will often tell him to study it and then I will put it on his weekly test....where he'd better get it right ;)

 

Rinse, lather, repeat. :001_smile:

Edited October 20, 2011 by Halcyon