Sophie Posted October 27, 2011 Share Posted October 27, 2011 Ds loves word problems and basically never makes any mistakes. BUT, he can't write down the addition/subtraction sentence for me, after giving the right answer. I've tried and tried to explain, to show him what to write down, but he doesn't get it. Is this really that important? Can I just let him do his work mentally, without him writing down how he came up with the answer? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beaners Posted October 27, 2011 Share Posted October 27, 2011 How old is he and what level of problems are we talking about? One of the important parts of word problems is being able to translate words into equations. Being able to set things up properly is as important as a correct answer, in my own opinion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sophie Posted October 27, 2011 Author Share Posted October 27, 2011 Mep Year 1B and MM 1 with a 4yr old. He really wants to move on, but I've been holding him back because of this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beaners Posted October 27, 2011 Share Posted October 27, 2011 My guess is that he's having a little bit of trouble matching the abstract and concrete thought processes. I would personally keep going forward slowly but be prepared to redo or back off material. A slightly more advanced concept might make the whole thing click, or it might just take more time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acurtis75 Posted October 27, 2011 Share Posted October 27, 2011 I wouldn't hold him back but you might try writing numbers 1-9 (2 sets) and the =,+ & - signs on index cards and playing a game where he makes math sentences. I did things like: Here is the number 5...please make me 4 different sentences that equal 5 with these numbers 2, 3, 7, 8 We did this a lot when we were learning math facts since she was not that great at writing things down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kathy G Posted October 28, 2011 Share Posted October 28, 2011 Have you looked at any of the visual spatial articles on hoagies or by Linda Silverman? I know these get varying reviews and I am not totally sure if it would fit your situation. However, I have 2 visual spatial kids who could solve complex problems in their head long before they could set up simple computation. The computation came later and it helped that I allowed them to move ahead without being a stickler about computation (even though I really wanted to be a stickler!) http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/visual-spatial.htm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
serendipitous journey Posted October 28, 2011 Share Posted October 28, 2011 ... I wouldn't hold him back either; and I'd make sure to keep him fluent with mental math as he masters the "accounting" of tracking everything on paper. Button stopped doing mental math easily when I hammered in multi-digit addition and forced him to do regrouping; he still hasn't regained his original intuition and fluency with mental problems, he tries to do them in his head like they're on paper. We're working on it, though ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boscopup Posted October 28, 2011 Share Posted October 28, 2011 I think the ability to show his work will come with maturity. I started making my oldest show his work more starting around grade 3 math, IIRC. He's now showing his work pretty well. At 4, I don't think he could have told me how he was finding an answer. I think that's just a developmental thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blondeviolin Posted October 28, 2011 Share Posted October 28, 2011 I wouldn't worry about it...my oldest is still having a hard time remembering what a plus or minus sign looks like. When she was four, she would write a bunch of numbers and then translate her equation. LOL (The numbers were in the right spot, but there were no operational signs.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2smartones Posted October 28, 2011 Share Posted October 28, 2011 I have one math-y kid and one read-y kid. Both started out the same way. Word problems are easier because you can see the answers whether you know what the problem looks like or not. Just keep up with the word problems and give the written part another year or two to catch up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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