s/o Time spent on 4th gr. math....

[smilesonly]

for those of you with dc working 45-60 mins, what exactly are they doing? is part of that time the teaching time, or are they doing worksheets/copying problems, etc.. in that case, how many pages are they completing in that time?

 

thank you!:001_smile:

[Chrysalis Academy]

. . . related- for those of you who said math could range from 30 min - 1 1/2 hours: Is this because you assign a set number of pages to do in a day, and sometimes they dawdle and don't get it done? Or because some topics take longer for you to teach than others? I'm still working out how to do this - I've been shooting for 45 min (an hour better) of math, honest effort, and not worrying too much about quantity. I'm finding that if I make her sit longer, the quantity & quality of work per unit of time goes way down, and the attitude suffers too. I'm better off moving on to a new subject and coming back to math the next morning . . . Just wondering how others handle this.

 

-Rose

[Roxy Roller]

for those of you with dc working 45-60 mins, what exactly are they doing? is part of that time the teaching time, or are they doing worksheets/copying problems, etc.. in that case, how many pages are they completing in that time?

 

My twin 4th graders do 4 pages worth of math, as well as, time on xtramath.com to work on speeding up their math facts. This is mainly worksheet time. They do two pages in Math-U-See Delta, and then two pages in Horizons Math 3(which I do for a spiral review).

 

. . . related- for those of you who said math could range from 30 min - 1 1/2 hours: Is this because you assign a set number of pages to do in a day, and sometimes they dawdle and don't get it done? Or because some topics take longer for you to teach than others? I'm still working out how to do this - I've been shooting for 45 min (an hour better) of math, honest effort, and not worrying too much about quantity. I'm finding that if I make her sit longer, the quantity & quality of work per unit of time goes way down, and the attitude suffers too. I'm better off moving on to a new subject and coming back to math the next morning . . . Just wondering how others handle this.

 

I assign a set number of pages every day, but some of the time is spent in dawdling, for one of the twins, so his time can sometimes be over the 1 1/2 hours. The other twin can be finished the same amount of work in a 1/2 an hour if he really applies himself, it depends on the day.

[kalanamak]

We do 30 minutes of lesson and him working the new problems with me on hand. Then we play a game, do a practical math thing (measure wall, measure cork squares, calculate how many squares we need to cover wall, e.g.) or do flash cards for 15-30 minutes. Later that week, while I'm at work, kiddo does a drill sheet I leave out for him on the topic.

 

It comes out to 15 hours/month minimum x 12 months. A lot more math than I got as a kid, and it is showing.

[Beth in SW WA]

Every day is slightly different in terms of our math lessons.

 

Last night we did a few pages on rate from a Singapore 5b workbook. (We do minimal math on our CC days.)

 

Dd does ip/cwp online w/ her tutor, Rachna, via Cybershala.com. They meet for 1 hour twice a week.

 

Some days we do only HoE verbal problems.

 

Today dd8 sat at the computer and did lesson 64 of TT Prealg. We paused often for her to use her HoE cubes/pawns to solve problems like these (which can take at least 5+ minutes each considering our lengthy discussions). We always do the check by plugging our answer in and reworking the problem.

 

x - (-17) = -18

 

x/-4 = -12

 

-5x = 95

 

This morning my dds watched Scholastic Rock videos on money.

 

We spend at least 60-90 min day on math-related materials. Again, every day is different.

 

HTH!

[Bensmom]

We are using Horizons 3 and it takes ds about 45 min. to complete the two page lesson. Math is his least favorite subject and there is a tremendous amount of stalling:glare:

[kalanamak]

We are using Horizons 3 and it takes ds about 45 min. to complete the two page lesson. Math is his least favorite subject and there is a tremendous amount of stalling:glare:

 

Yes, this is why I break it into short lesson, game reinforcement, and drill without mom there, and Papa tapping his toe waiting for it to be done so they can go to the gym.

[Jenny in GA]

HA!! :lol:

 

Haven't read the replies yet, but I was considering starting a thread asking the very same thing!

 

My 8 year old and 10 year old both do MUS. My understanding is that a single page, front and back, is a day's lesson.

 

My 8 year old is usually done in about ten minutes. My 10 year old might be done in 15-20. I often supplement with a couple Singapore worksheets, but even with that, I don't think my 10 year old ever spends more than 40 minutes tops.

 

Now I'll read ...

[boscopup]

It takes my son about 45 minutes to do his 4th grade math work. It's a lot of longer problems and word problems, so it just takes more time than the younger grade work did. We usually do about 2 pages of MM. If we finish in a shorter time (25-30 minutes), I'll add a second session of math in the afternoon to do other stuff, like PCM, CWP, or IP.

 

For dawdling, some ideas... 1) break up the math into separate sessions, 15-20 minutes each session, 2) buddy math - you work a problem, he works a problem, etc. Both of these have helped with our dawdling issues. My son is easily distracted by his brothers running around, unfortunately. :glare:

[Violet Crown]

All math at our house is sit-down-with math (except Alcumus, which can be done at will in the evenings). Middle Girl gets morning math with Daddy MWF, which is gentle introductory geometry, probability, or other things that he thinks she ought to get familiar with. At some point she and I do facts drill or speed techniques with Standard Service Arithmetics as our "Arithmetic" lesson; then we work through the problems in her AoPS book as her "Math" lesson. We have neither a set amount of time nor a set number of problems; I just pay attention to the level of difficulty (for her) of the problems, how she's doing that day generally, and try to stop when she's still being successful but before she gets frustrated. A fine art! :D

 

In the end, it comes out to about an hour or more of math a day. I don't keep strict track.

[smilesonly]

my ds did 4 worksheets from mm and it took him 25 mins. none of it was challenging as it was review and just learning the mm styles...

 

i'm thinking i can get about 75 mins each day if i keep breaking his work into 20-30 min. sessions.

[boscopup]

my ds did 4 worksheets from mm and it took him 25 mins. none of it was challenging as it was review and just learning the mm styles...

 

Is he at the correct level? Or do you maybe need to skip ahead a bit within that level?

[smilesonly]

Is he at the correct level? Or do you maybe need to skip ahead a bit within that level?

 

no,no. i have him working through 2a and 2b, just to get holes filled in before heading into level 3.

 

i'm not sure this is how i should be doing it, but he is begging to do mm(which we have used as a supplement till now-and i'm still largely undecided about exactly how to proceed) and refuses to do r&s-his main math program.

 

i just know from my experience with my older dd, that this is a critical time to either switch or forge ahead.

[boscopup]

no,no. i have him working through 2a and 2b, just to get holes filled in before heading into level 3.

 

i'm not sure this is how i should be doing it, but he is begging to do mm(which we have used as a supplement till now-and i'm still largely undecided about exactly how to proceed) and refuses to do r&s-his main math program.

 

i just know from my experience with my older dd, that this is a critical time to either switch or forge ahead.

 

If he wants to do MM over R&S, let him. MM is an excellent program.

 

I had to accelerate through a few grade levels of MM. I approached it like this: I looked at each chapter to see what holes we likely had. If I didn't think there were any, I'd give him the chapter test. When he aced it (because I was right every time :tongue_smilie:), we moved on to the next chapter. Same deal. If I thought there was something that he needed, I then went section by section, having him do a few problems. If he could demonstrate mastery, he didn't have to do the whole section. If he couldn't, we did that section as much as we needed to. Once we got to where I thought he should be, we slowed down and went section by section as usual, and now we've slowed down to about 2 pages per day, since we are needing to do all or most of the problems at this point. Previously, we would sometimes do half the problems if I felt like he didn't need as much repetition. Just depends on the topic!

 

Hopefully that helps! MM is very flexible. :)

[smilesonly]

If he wants to do MM over R&S, let him. MM is an excellent program.

 

I had to accelerate through a few grade levels of MM. I approached it like this: I looked at each chapter to see what holes we likely had. If I didn't think there were any, I'd give him the chapter test. When he aced it (because I was right every time :tongue_smilie:), we moved on to the next chapter. Same deal. If I thought there was something that he needed, I then went section by section, having him do a few problems. If he could demonstrate mastery, he didn't have to do the whole section. If he couldn't, we did that section as much as we needed to. Once we got to where I thought he should be, we slowed down and went section by section as usual, and now we've slowed down to about 2 pages per day, since we are needing to do all or most of the problems at this point. Previously, we would sometimes do half the problems if I felt like he didn't need as much repetition. Just depends on the topic!

 

Hopefully that helps! MM is very flexible. :)

 

yes, i've heard that mm is complete, flexible, solid and overall great.:001_smile: the problem is that ds was allergic to numbers, eventually developing math-anxiety. i stopped all formal math until this summer-basically starting from kinder level.

 

i had put several math curricula before him and let him choose which one he wanted. he chose r&s. but, now is insisting that he "can't live with r&s anymore.";)

 

my hesitancy in totally switching him is that i've also read that mm becomes hard to teach/guide in the older levels. r&s does much more hand-holding for a math-idiot like me.;)

 

i dunno....:confused: i will say that i won't have him repeat more than a day what he already knows well....

 

thx!:grouphug:

[boscopup]

yes, i've heard that mm is complete, flexible, solid and overall great.:001_smile: the problem is that ds was allergic to numbers, eventually developing math-anxiety. i stopped all formal math until this summer-basically starting from kinder level.

 

Ah, that makes sense. Hopefully he'll start to enjoy math more. :) My friend's daughter was incredibly math phobic. My friend put her in 2nd grade CLE when she pulled her out of school halfway through 3rd grade. This year in 4th grade, the girl has suddenly exploded with math understanding, now being able to go beyond what she's learning in CLE 300 (they're accelerating it at this point before moving into 400 level). It was sooooo helpful to take her back to a point where she could be confident in math and feel like she was good at math. It's been really neat to watch. Hopefully that will happen for you. :D

 

Maybe keep some different materials around and mix it up now and then. It can be boring to do one curriculum all.the.time.

[Embassy]

for those of you with dc working 45-60 mins, what exactly are they doing? is part of that time the teaching time, or are they doing worksheets/copying problems, etc.. in that case, how many pages are they completing in that time?

 

thank you!:001_smile:

 

We spend about 45-60 minutes a day. Most of that time is spend in independent work, but it does include some teaching if my son needs it. It also includes mental math practice, drill, and time with living math books/videos. Those aren't everyday, but spread out over the week. Pages to complete can vary. I have a goal to be completed by the end of the week that is usually completed on the last day of the week. I have him do a couple problems in Singapore's CWP each day and then the corresponding workbook pages for the textbook pages he has studied. If I could guess pages I would say 4 or 5.

[HappyCamper]

This may be too late to be helpful. But DD9 does one page of MUS Epsilon (Ch. 28, so it takes a while) and one page of MUS Zeta (Ch 12, also takes a while). Twice a week we watch a MUS video for the lesson. She also does about 15 minutes of MathWhizz M-F. On Fridays, we just do one page of MUS Zeta, then some Kitchen Table Math with a whiteboard, and one Hands-On-Equations lesson. I am having her go through the MUS Zeta material before completing MUS Epsilon as she needs to cover certain material before she takes the ISEE exam in January. After January, I anticipate reducing MUS and increasing Kitchen Table Math and Hand-On-Equations since she enjoys that more. But I need her to be able to understand the concepts in Zeta. . . .:001_smile:

When she was in school, I was so up in arms that the teachers were teaching to the test and here I am . . . . .

[Embassy]

. . . related- for those of you who said math could range from 30 min - 1 1/2 hours: Is this because you assign a set number of pages to do in a day, and sometimes they dawdle and don't get it done? Or because some topics take longer for you to teach than others? I'm still working out how to do this - I've been shooting for 45 min (an hour better) of math, honest effort, and not worrying too much about quantity. I'm finding that if I make her sit longer, the quantity & quality of work per unit of time goes way down, and the attitude suffers too. I'm better off moving on to a new subject and coming back to math the next morning . . . Just wondering how others handle this.

 

-Rose

 

Most of the time my child is not doing the same thing the whole time we spend on math. For instance he may start with LOF then move to CWP and then to the Singapore text/workbook and then to a math game or mental math practice or drill. Sometimes he does spend the whole time on one thing, but usually not.

[kwg]

Good lord. I need to do more math.

 

 

:lurk5:

[mytwomonkeys]

my daughter uses CLE. math is 45-60 at the most. we start with multiplication drill & do the entire pile of multiplication cards (but it goes quickly - it really is just drill). then we do the lesson which is 4 pages (every blue moon it is 1 or 2 page). that's it.

[Halcyon]

i was one who posted in that thread-my son generally does 80-120 minutes a day, usually closer to 80. He reads through the lesson in the text, and if he has any questions, we address it on the whiteboard. He then does one to three lessons in the TB, depending on difficulty. Then he moves to the WB, completes the related sections and then to IP where he does 2-3 pages. A few times a week we work through some CWP questions. He spends time on Alcumus, problems from one of his living math books, geometry questions that we find online, or Math Olympiad questions. We play math games to cement knowledge on most days for 20 minutes or so. Each evening he does math homework for about 20 minutes, primarily on previous topics to check for retention (long division, fractions, names of unusual shapes, etc.)

 

I don't have a set amount of time for him to do math. I watch for fatigue, disinterest, frustration, distractedness and we move on to another subject at that point. Sometimes he enjoys barrelling through for an hour or two, other days, he gets irritated and we switch over to a living math book or Zaccarro. I try to play it by ear, but my goal is to challenge him, both in terms of content and the length of time he works. Keep in mind, a portion of each math day is spent on review, facts, etc.

[wy_kid_wrangler04]

My daughter does 1 lesson in Horizons (3 pages) this includes any teaching she needs (rarely does she need help, just occasionally) and this includes 3-4 minutes of calculadders (depending on what worksheet we are on)

[Clear Creek]

for those of you with dc working 45-60 mins, what exactly are they doing? is part of that time the teaching time, or are they doing worksheets/copying problems, etc.. in that case, how many pages are they completing in that time?

 

thank you!:001_smile:

 

 

We spend about 15 minutes each day doing mental math, drilling facts, learning new material, etc. (basically all the stuff in the R&S math TM). I assign her about 30 minutes worth of work from the daily lesson...each lesson is on a 2-page spread, and the number of problems in each lesson varies considerably. I have a pretty good idea of how much my daughter can (should?) accomplish in thirty minutes of focused work, so that is what I assign each day. Now, whether it only takes her thirty minutes is up to her! :lol:

[smilesonly]

Good lord. I need to do more math.

 

 

:lurk5:

 

:lol: you're not alone!:grouphug:

[Momling]

:lol: you're not alone!:grouphug:

 

Yeah, my 4th grader does a lesson with me with Singapore. Then she does the corresponding workbook page(s).

It can take her as little as 15 minutes (or as much as an hour if she's procrastinating...) It depends on her mood and the length of the exercises.

 

We do maybe 5 minutes of review, 5-10 minutes of instruction with me and exercises from the textbook, then as much time as she needs for the workbook. The workbook exercises are generally pretty quick.

 

She catches on quickly, but doesn't take pleasure in math. But... for the first time ever, math is not torture. Singapore is gentle and incremental and neither too hard nor too easy. I know she would cry if I increased her workload. I have to remind myself to stay the course and not change what is working nicely -- even if everyone else in the world is putting in an hour or two for math and we're only getting 20 minutes. It's okay.

[2squared]

I know she would cry if I increased her workload. I have to remind myself to stay the course and not change what is working nicely -- even if everyone else in the world is putting in an hour or two for math and we're only getting 20 minutes. It's okay.

 

This is us too. At this point, my 4th grader would definitely cry if we did any more of anything. Even though other people have children who can do 60 min+ of math and write novels, my 4th grader just can't. She is a perfectionist with a lot of performance anxiety. She is a wonderful little girl, but spending hours and hours on formal schoolwork isn't going to be a winning situation for her.

[Violet Crown]

I know she would cry if I increased her workload. I have to remind myself to stay the course and not change what is working nicely -- even if everyone else in the world is putting in an hour or two for math and we're only getting 20 minutes. It's okay.

:iagree:

Great Girl only wanted to do math. She did math for literally hours each day when she was little (actually now that she's big, too...) Middle Girl loves math, too, but isn't obsessed by it, and we do significantly less math than her older sister did. On the other hand, Great Girl cried and cried if made to do any kind of music or art. So we just didn't do any, which I now regret a little.

 

You do what you need to do for each child. That's why we're homeschooling, right?

[Penelope]

My goal is 45 -60 minutes of solid work. It might be more than that on a day we play a game or work on facts.

 

We use Singapore text, wb, IP and CWP. After each level we do some fun supplemental things. What he does on a given day depends. When we were working on decimals, he did 4 or 5 tb and wb exercises per day and still finished math facts practice within an hour. With concepts that might be more time consuming or difficult for him, he might do one workbook exercise and then some IP pages. We shoot for one page of CWP most days of the week.

 

His limit is about an hour. There are times I've assigned more than he could reasonably get done in an hour, and I've learned to cut it short as long as he has worked diligently. If he is dawdling, it can take much longer than 45 minutes.

[happypamama]

My 4th grader typically covers about 4 pages of math a day, and the time is 20-60 minutes, plus more if she's doing review practice. Her book is split into lessons of 2 pages each, where the first page is direction and examples, and the second page is practice problems. We typically do 2 lessons a day. We discuss the concept, and I may or may not explain it how the book does, depending on what works for her. Then we do as many of the practice problems as needed for her to show me that she gets the idea. Math is not her favorite subject, and she doesn't like to write, so if we can do the problems orally, we do; things that require writing are going to take more time. Then for things that we have covered, but where she still needs practice to become fluent in the steps (currently adding and subtracting fractions with different denominators), I assign some written practice problems for her to do in addition to what we do together.

[....]

I try to keep math under an hour for the 4th grader.

 

She works thru 2-3 pages of Math Mammoth and a problem from Singapore Challenging Word Problems 4.

 

She might do a workbook page of Miquon (she's finishing up Miquon also).

 

Once a week, she and I get Kitchen Table Math out and a dry erase board. We work thru stuff - like we just did exponents...and that whole section on angles, rays, lines, segments...

 

Sometimes, I get a book from the library and we read that together...like g is for googol or something...

 

That's our math. :tongue_smilie:

[mommyto4]

My son does an exercise or two from SM4 after I teach him the concepts from the textbook. He then will do either flashcards or a Mental Math sheet for 5 minutes or so. He usually spends 40-45 minutes on math.

[Homemama2]

It's hard to go by 'pages' to compare, because the amount of problems per page varies quite a bit between programs.

 

My kids do a Rightstart lesson and a page of MM each day. My fourth grader also does a page of CWP most days (unless we're running out of time.) My 4th grader is also in the group where if I gave him more math per day he would flip. He's just not mathy and that would probably kill his love of learning. It's hard to not to compare with others but all kids are different in their interests and abilities, which is why I love hsing. You can spend as much time as YOUR child needs, wants, or will tolerate on a subject, and can help them reach their highest potential.

[boscopup]

It's hard to go by 'pages' to compare, because the amount of problems per page varies quite a bit between programs.

 

Definitely! I counted problems one day... What is 2 pages in MM (a typical amount assigned in that program) is 4 pages in CLE (length of a typical lesson in that program). I counted individual problems, and they were equivalent. It was very eye opening for me, actually! That was comparing 4th grade level in both.

[ondreeuh]

My son does a page of MM and a lesson of Saxon every day. I go over the instruction for MM, he finishes the page, I check it, he makes corrections. Then I go over the Saxon lesson quickly. The Saxon lesson is all review (he's covered everything in a different program, but makes enough mistakes to not skip ahead) so it takes him about 30-45 minutes to copy the problems and complete the lesson. On school days he does this part at school during math time. Then at home I check and he corrects, and I teach the new lesson and he does the practice problems.