TheModestMom Posted October 24, 2011 Share Posted October 24, 2011 Ladies I am SOOO struggling to teach my son math! He will be 8 on Friday. He just can't seem to grasp subtraction. We have made it through the Primer and Alpha MUS books, and I'm just not putting him in Beta until we can learn subtraction better. Even adding is still a struggle, just grasping the whole concepts. My husband thinks he is just being lazy and not applying himself. I honestly don't know what to think. It took him a bit to learn how to read, but now he does really good. I know one of these days math will just make sense to him, but until then....*sigh* Even doing things like 2 + ___ = 2 are hard for him. He wants to add something to it instead of putting 0. We have a flashmaster that he does for drills, we have done some online games. Any other ideas? I have to admit I am losing my patience with him during math time. This is just getting so frustrating for me. He is a very bright child, loves history, science, reading, etc. But he struggles with being diligent in doing things he doesn't want to do, and he doesn't like math. So a big part of me thinks this is just him not applying himself. Any ideas of what to try to get these facts in his head? We are currently doing a supplement to Mammoth Math ( or is it math mammoth? I can never remember) that was supposed to be on adding and subtraction. I *really* wish teaching textbooks had level 2 out, because I think he would like it. There just is no way he is ready for level 3 yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amy Jo Posted October 24, 2011 Share Posted October 24, 2011 I wouldn't worry about memorizing facts until he has the concepts. I find I have to repeat the concept of 0 often, as that doesn't seem intuitive to any of my boys so far. You may need to just work on zero, it's not a concrete number like the others. I turn a lot of problems into real things or at least real concepts. With my Ker, that means we use manipulatives for almost everything right now. The older boys, we may use manipulatives or just turn problems into apples/candy/coins/etc. It works best when I use their names. I think Miquon and Liping Ma's book have helped me the most. Reading up on living math might help; have him set the table (I have 2 plates, how many more do you need to get), measure, match things, etc. If he hates math lessons, I'd try a switch (Miquon is hands-on, MEP is free, there are a lot of math game ideas online) and go to SHORT lessons - 10 minutes perhaps. I'd try to work on the diligence issue separate from the math learning. Plus, he's only 7 - my 7 yo is doing a spectacular job of non-diligent foot-dragging right now! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
letsplaymath Posted October 25, 2011 Share Posted October 25, 2011 Even doing things like 2 + ___ = 2 are hard for him. ... Any ideas of what to try to get these facts in his head? Can he do it if you put away the worksheet and just ask him a real-life problem: "I have a sack for cookies. I put my two cookies into the sack, and then I give it to you. When you look into the sack, there are two cookies there. How many cookies were in the sack at the beginning, before I put my cookies in?" Young children often find word problems ever so much easier than abstract, numbers-only problems. They can make a mental image and imagine doing things with it, so the words of the problem act like a mental manipulative. (You can also teach him to act out problems with real manipulatives.) I would definitely not worry about getting math facts into his head until he can reliably solve word problems. Here are a couple articles from my blog that you might find helpful: Elementary Problem Solving: The Early Years : "One of the best mental math games relies on adult/child conversation, a proven method for increasing children’s reasoning skills. As soon as your child can count past five, give him simple, oral story problems to solve..." Penguin Math: Elementary Problem Solving 2nd Grade Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Testimony Posted October 25, 2011 Share Posted October 25, 2011 Young children often find word problems ever so much easier than abstract, numbers-only problems. They can make a mental image and imagine doing things with it, so the words of the problem act like a mental manipulative. (You can also teach him to act out problems with real manipulatives.) I would definitely not worry about getting math facts into his head until he can reliably solve word problems. [/url] [/b][/indent] :iagree: Word problems with young ones work very well. Also, I would not start with zero because it is more abstract. Maybe try one first and then go back to zero. At that age, he should know up to his ten facts. I would just start with if I had one and add another one what would I have? One is a lot more concrete and touchable. Add one to everything! Does he take vitamins? Have him count them! If he has only one of his pair of shoes have him find the other, that's one and one. Just my thought! Sincerely, Karen http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/testimony Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Halcyon Posted October 25, 2011 Share Posted October 25, 2011 Can he do it if you put away the worksheet and just ask him a real-life problem: "I have a sack for cookies. I put my two cookies into the sack, and then I give it to you. When you look into the sack, there are two cookies there. How many cookies were in the sack at the beginning, before I put my cookies in?" Young children often find word problems ever so much easier than abstract, numbers-only problems. They can make a mental image and imagine doing things with it, so the words of the problem act like a mental manipulative. (You can also teach him to act out problems with real manipulatives.) I would definitely not worry about getting math facts into his head until he can reliably solve word problems. Here are a couple articles from my blog that you might find helpful: Elementary Problem Solving: The Early Years : "One of the best mental math games relies on adult/child conversation, a proven method for increasing children’s reasoning skills. As soon as your child can count past five, give him simple, oral story problems to solve..." Penguin Math: Elementary Problem Solving 2nd Grade My younger son will ADORE the Penguin Math problems. Thank you! (hijack over :tongue_smilie:) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hsbaby Posted October 25, 2011 Share Posted October 25, 2011 I have used Funnix beginning math as a supplement for my dd 14. She is special needs and has really progressed while using it. Plus, it's on the computer which she likes:). I think it does a great job of explaining basic concepts. For example, with a question like 2+?=4, it would have the student draw four lines because that is their total, then draw dots on two of them because we know we gave that many, and then count the remaining lines to figure out how many are left to make up 4. I was fortunate to get it for free a while back, but would definitely pay the $25. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Critterfixer Posted October 25, 2011 Share Posted October 25, 2011 Have you tried a number line yet? One of my sons really struggled with subtraction because he really couldn't figure out whether four was smaller than five. (Seriously, you could give him a handful of cereal and he wouldn't be sure if he'd rather have the four or the five.) Subtraction was therefore a real problem. Enter the number line from MEP. He still will get stumped on mental subtraction in the larger numbers, but he is now confident enough to pull out his number line and do either actual subtraction or the difference between the numbers with ease. And number lines are pretty easy to make whenever you need one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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