Is there harm in memorizing addition/sub facts at a young age?

[lorisuewho]

I have not worked on memorizing basic addition/subtraction facts with my kindergartner. Instead (through Rightstart) we have focussed mostly on how numbers work and can be taken apart and put back together to make addition easier.

 

However, as we move out of Righstart B I really would like him to have more facts memorized. I know from threads here that many just memorize them naturally through the games and use, but thus far my ds hasn't.

 

So we are going to do flashcards and bingo, etc.

 

Here is the thing, my almost-5 year old is going to want to do it to. He loves memorizing stuff. Probably the 3 year old will be interested also.

Will the younger children miss out on constructing/deconstructing numbers if they have facts memorized? Or do you think they will still get as much out of Rightstart and miquon even if they have many facts memorized?

[Bloggermom]

I don't think it hurts at all. My 4.5 and 6 year old play Math Rider which teaches all the facts. They also love Timez Attack.

[LittleIzumi]

Well, the littles might be able to memorize the facts but they won't have any meaning for them, so I'm not sure how it will affect learning math when they won't understand what "1 plus 1 equals 2" means at all anyway. It will just be random words they memorize until they understand 1-to-1 correspondence and adding.

[Crimson Wife]

Oldest DD knew all her addition & subtraction facts within 10 before she ever started with formal math and she still got a ton out of RS B.

[Tanikit]

I think the harm can only come if they never learn what it means - math is about quantities and they need to know what one and two etc are and then that adding them together makes a larger quantity. Learning things off by heart should not be a problem if they get to play with manipulatives as well.

[ekfk]

My younger child is almost 4. I have been teaching her quantities and counting. I just started her on Essential Math and we're also doing Marshmallow Math. I also plan to add in the free MEP math program at some point before K as well. I plan to start addition and subtraction math facts up to 10 when she's 4.5 years. That way she'll have plenty of time to learn them. But I'm giving her a basic conceptual understanding first, so the facts will make some sense when she starts.

 

I regret that I didn't focus on math facts early with my first. She is trying to learn advanced concepts in addition and subtraction while trying to memorize math facts at the same time. I think it would have been far easier if she had the facts down first. I can already see a big improvement in math since she mastered addition facts but she's still struggling with subtraction facts.

[learnersinbloom]

I think you can do some memorization exercises alongside the conceptual stuff from RightStart and they should complement each other well. That's what I'm doing with RightStart A - I let them solve addition/subtraction on abacus or other manipulatives so they understand what it means, then on a separate occasion they do just the flashcards without using the manipulatives. I don't see any harm in doing that - as humans we memorize a lot of basic concepts to help us solve the more difficult problems more efficiently.

[Ellie]

Nope, no harm at all. In fact, I think it's a good idea.

[lorisuewho]

Thanks! I feel much better about this adventure, knowing that it won't prevent my youngers from still "playing" with numbers and understanding them as they grow in math.