serendipitous journey Posted January 16, 2012 Share Posted January 16, 2012 (edited) -- we're using mostly MUS for Button, I've just incorporated MEP. He's currently working through the Year 2 program, at an accelerated speed ... MUS helped with many things but mucked his mental math up. Is MEP going to be pretty good at regaining that flexibility, or ought I consider something additional like Singapore's HIG? (he doesn't like the Singapore program but I could pull the mental math out). Button seems particularly talented in/interested in math and science, so I esp. want to give him a robust background; if it were not seeming like such a major trait, I wouldn't fret it ... PS: if he's so talented, why the mental math glitch? who knows. I think it's b/c when I started making him track the regrouping on paper he began doing that in his head, too. May have been a mistake but I can't undo it now. ETA: it's happiness with manipulating big numbers -- at least, building up to that -- that I'm esp. thinking of ... Edited January 17, 2012 by serendipitous journey Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acurtis75 Posted January 16, 2012 Share Posted January 16, 2012 This isn't an answer to your question but I'm just curious. We are using MUS and haven't seen an issue with mental math. We've always done the extra problems in the teacher book to practice the concept but I've found dd goes through phases where she'll do problems in her head and then other phases where she rights them down. Is it possible he hasn't lost the ability but just stopped doing it. If you do the multi-step problems in teachers' book can he do those but just doesn't do multi-digit addition and subraction in his head? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
serendipitous journey Posted January 17, 2012 Author Share Posted January 17, 2012 This isn't an answer to your question but I'm just curious. We are using MUS and haven't seen an issue with mental math. We've always done the extra problems in the teacher book to practice the concept but I've found dd goes through phases where she'll do problems in her head and then other phases where she rights them down. Is it possible he hasn't lost the ability but just stopped doing it. If you do the multi-step problems in teachers' book can he do those but just doesn't do multi-digit addition and subraction in his head? hmmm... right now we're working through Delta and Epsilon (now that long division's gotten hairy, we're lightening things up with fractions for More Fun :)). There are two sorts of multi-step math problems that I see in the Delta manual. One sort simply cannot be done by Button in his head, I don't think they are meant for mental math ("Riley had a nature collection. She had 25 acorns, 16 dried seed pods, and 8 feathers. She divided the acorns into five equal groups, the seed pods into four equal groups, and the feathers into two equal groups. She gave her mother one group of each kind. How many separate items did her mother get?"). The other sort are with smaller numbers than I'd like for Button to develop mastery over ("25 divided by 5, plus 3, times 7, equals?"). Before he started the multi-digit addition he could mentally add, say, 47 and 28 without stress. Now, a year later, he is about back up to that level of computational comfort. But if he sees a word problem calling for a doubling of 150, he writes it out longhand and is very anxious at the thought of solving it mentally. That's what I'd like to improve on; I'd like some guidance and structure moving him toward being extremely mentally facile with numbers. I am thinking I might should add something like Ray's Arithmetic for those goals ... thanks for replying! any thoughts are welcome ... PS: DH says I should just drill him daily on mental problems of increasing complexity. That stresses _me_ out! Right now I want something to hold my hand a bit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stripe Posted January 17, 2012 Share Posted January 17, 2012 I think there are a fair number of mental math exercises in MEP -- usually there are some at the beginning of each lesson plan -- do consult the lesson plans, not just the students' worksheets. I also have found that an additional 5 min. per day of practice from some other source can help a lot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acurtis75 Posted January 17, 2012 Share Posted January 17, 2012 hmmm... right now we're working through Delta and Epsilon (now that long division's gotten hairy, we're lightening things up with fractions for More Fun :)). There are two sorts of multi-step math problems that I see in the Delta manual. One sort simply cannot be done by Button in his head, I don't think they are meant for mental math ("Riley had a nature collection. She had 25 acorns, 16 dried seed pods, and 8 feathers. She divided the acorns into five equal groups, the seed pods into four equal groups, and the feathers into two equal groups. She gave her mother one group of each kind. How many separate items did her mother get?"). The other sort are with smaller numbers than I'd like for Button to develop mastery over ("25 divided by 5, plus 3, times 7, equals?"). Before he started the multi-digit addition he could mentally add, say, 47 and 28 without stress. Now, a year later, he is about back up to that level of computational comfort. But if he sees a word problem calling for a doubling of 150, he writes it out longhand and is very anxious at the thought of solving it mentally. That's what I'd like to improve on; I'd like some guidance and structure moving him toward being extremely mentally facile with numbers. I am thinking I might should add something like Ray's Arithmetic for those goals ... thanks for replying! any thoughts are welcome ... PS: DH says I should just drill him daily on mental problems of increasing complexity. That stresses _me_ out! Right now I want something to hold my hand a bit. We're on lesson 26 or 27 in Delta which means we thankfully have a break from long division which was about to drive me nuts. Dd can do it but doesn't want to so I had to sit right next to her and supervise every step. Today's lesson was on volume and I don't know who was happier dd or I. Last week math took what seemed like all day. Today it was 15 minutes. On the issue of mental math I think your dh is probably right. Do you do the mental math in the instructor guides? That plus maybe using some of the systematic review questions as extra mental math will probably do it. If your son is anything like my dd long division might have just burned him out on th subject of math right now. You might try using mental math as an incentive. For example, I told dd she could do the problems in her head today by saying she didn't have to write the answers down if she got them right. She thought she was getting away with less work but I was actually working on her mental math. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
serendipitous journey Posted January 17, 2012 Author Share Posted January 17, 2012 On the issue of mental math I think your dh is probably right. Do you do the mental math in the instructor guides? That plus maybe using some of the systematic review questions as extra mental math will probably do it. If your son is anything like my dd long division might have just burned him out on th subject of math right now. You might try using mental math as an incentive. For example, I told dd she could do the problems in her head today by saying she didn't have to write the answers down if she got them right. She thought she was getting away with less work but I was actually working on her mental math. ... that last bit is a terrific idea! and maybe I should just be sure I am doing the IG mental math for now, and rethink it next year if there still seems to be a deficit. I think there are a fair number of mental math exercises in MEP -- usually there are some at the beginning of each lesson plan -- do consult the lesson plans, not just the students' worksheets. I also have found that an additional 5 min. per day of practice from some other source can help a lot. Thank you for the prompt to look at the lesson plans! I am sometimes lazy about that. Do you happen to have a particular idea for another source? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
poetic license Posted January 18, 2012 Share Posted January 18, 2012 Thank you for the prompt to look at the lesson plans! I am sometimes lazy about that. Do you happen to have a particular idea for another source? There's the Verbal Math Lesson book series. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stripe Posted January 18, 2012 Share Posted January 18, 2012 Thank you for the prompt to look at the lesson plans! I am sometimes lazy about that. Do you happen to have a particular idea for another source? I've used worksheets from online sources and computer games. You could also do something like Right Start games. I've got these bookmarked http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/maths/index.html http://www.mathfactcafe.com/default.aspx http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/maths/ and I know there's one more I'm not seeing. I got the idea from Mater Amabilis (of adding 5 min of drill everyday), and I use it when required, or when I think my kid is not getting enough in regular instruction. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
serendipitous journey Posted January 19, 2012 Author Share Posted January 19, 2012 Thank you both, poetic license and Stripe. I'll look at those tomorrow (or at least by Saturday, which is DH's day with the kids :)). It seems likely I'll be moving Button to MEP math and just maintaining the skills from MUS; it is becoming too hard to keep him not-bored and not-frustrated :glare: -- can't stand to end on a glare, esp. after everybody's kind help, so :):):) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tarreymere Posted January 19, 2012 Share Posted January 19, 2012 I agree that you might want to download a copy of Ray's Arithmetic as a free ebook from google ebooks. Ray's is very focused on mental math and has a lot of mental math exercises. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dmmetler Posted January 19, 2012 Share Posted January 19, 2012 One thing you might want to check first-what are the instructions on the page saying? I don't use MUS, but I've run into this with practice pages where DD has written out every single step when I knew she didn't need it (and in some cases, was less accurate as a result-her math skills exceed her transcription skills at this point). It wasn't until I realized that the page directions specifically stated to write out your work that it clicked that she was just following directions, to her detriment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jenbrdsly Posted January 19, 2012 Share Posted January 19, 2012 One thing you might want to check first-what are the instructions on the page saying? I don't use MUS, but I've run into this with practice pages where DD has written out every single step when I knew she didn't need it (and in some cases, was less accurate as a result-her math skills exceed her transcription skills at this point). It wasn't until I realized that the page directions specifically stated to write out your work that it clicked that she was just following directions, to her detriment. That sounds very Constructivist, and it's great that your daughter has the capacity to do that type of math/writing exercise once in a while. My DS6 is still learning how to do that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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