brownie Posted February 27, 2012 Share Posted February 27, 2012 DS11 - He is gifted, ADHD inattentive, probably dysgraphia too. (unmedicated so far) so needless to say...we have struggles and sometimes we forge ahead when it seems to be dysgraphia induced carelessness issues rather than understanding. We started AOPS pre-alg in Jan when he declared Saxon Alg 1/2 "boring". He is definitely much more excited about math now. He watches the videos on his own time and does alcumus for fun. HOWEVER, the last few days it has become clear that he is confused! This morning he tried finding a common denominator for multiplying fractions. It's not the first time. He forgets he can reduce before multiplying. He doesn't understand how to turn a division problem into a fraction (I have noticed recently that he is just all around confused about the difference between a divisor and a dividend ?!?! He has trouble putting a word problem into division form correctly whether it is long division or fractions. I tried reviewing last week.) We clearly need to back up. Things are going too fast and getting mixed up in his head. I think he needs some repetitive drills. I have explained the WHY of all these things. I think like AOPS "thinks" anyhow so I can handle this. He's a global thinker too...he gets the why and likes the why, but I think when it comes down to a multi-step problem, he doesn't have time to think through the why of how to multiply fractions. The protocol just needs to be automatic by pre-algebra and it's not. I have Saxon but that would be awkward to use since it doesn't present more than a couple of similar problems at a time. I have Singapore through grade 5 but it would make him angry to use the same book as his little brother. Any other suggestions for something fairly inexpensive, quick and effective? ds9 used Key to fractions 2+3 last year and it seems much of it would be too silly but maybe that's what we need. What about key to fractions 4? I think I need an old-fashioned drill until it's cemented style book. Brownie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wapiti Posted February 27, 2012 Share Posted February 27, 2012 (edited) How about a MM fractions topic book such as Fractions & Decimals 3? Very inexpensive, and probably an efficient way to go. The goal of the book is to go through all of the fraction and decimal arithmetic, using up to six decimal digits and larger denominators in fractions than what is commonly encountered in 4th and 5th grade materials. For some students, this may mean a lot of review, but some students need to restudy these topics if they did not quite master them in earlier grades. eta, again, if you don't need any instruction, just worksheets, you could try this free worksheet maker. Edited February 27, 2012 by wapiti Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bloggermom Posted February 27, 2012 Share Posted February 27, 2012 For math facts I recommend Math Rider and Timez Attack / Division Attack. I am not sure what games could be used for fractions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iucounu Posted February 27, 2012 Share Posted February 27, 2012 IXL is great for adaptive math practice. It's fairly cheap, and has tons of different sorts of skills practice, from word problems to straight fact practice. It might work fine for filling in holes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brownie Posted February 27, 2012 Author Share Posted February 27, 2012 He doesn't need math facts...he's got that down. It's mostly fraction protocols. What is IXL? Brownie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brownie Posted February 27, 2012 Author Share Posted February 27, 2012 Wow! MM is only $7 and I can have it for tomorrow morning as a PDF download. I looked at it and I like it. DS will esp be glad it is 6th grade level, as he is having a fit about backing up. He says he will fail 5th grade if we back up:glare: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crimson Wife Posted February 27, 2012 Share Posted February 27, 2012 Right now DD is working through a neat Teacher Created Resources workbook that reviews arithmetic and easy algebraic reasoning problems by having the student plot the answers on a coordinate grid to reveal a hidden picture. I am having her do one picture per day and I have slightly reduced the load of her normal curriculum (Singapore). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julie of KY Posted February 27, 2012 Share Posted February 27, 2012 I often use Math Mammoth or Key to ... for specific review and reinforcement. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MomatHWTK Posted February 27, 2012 Share Posted February 27, 2012 My 11 y.o. is just now starting into fractions. He's not getting converting fractions to decimals or division problems yet. Tell your DS that it is a lot to take in at once and lots of kids have to review it more than once. (My DS hates having to studying something more than one time.) You might check out the Khan Academy to see if they have any videos on fraction facts also. I find that my DS is OK with seeing different lessons from different sources on the same topic over reviewing the same materials. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brownie Posted February 28, 2012 Author Share Posted February 28, 2012 Good reminder on Khan - he loves online videos :) so if I can find the appropriate ones he would be happy to watch. Brownie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brownie Posted February 28, 2012 Author Share Posted February 28, 2012 Thanks! We started with a Khan video this morning. I made a brief list of them to use as review. The one on adding negative numbers is really nice. Some of the other fraction ones are lacking in a real explanation of why. It may come later but I didn't have time to dig through them all. Then we started the MM book, using the fraction pages. He got through about 70 problems in an hour and got 90% right....all his errors were computational silliness, not method based. Argh! So we will plow ahead and finish the workbook this week and I guess then see if it stuck. Still wondering if it is just too easy to repeat the protocol when they are all the same on the page, but mixing it up tends to lead to confusion. I may still have to create my own review to mix it up at the end. Brownie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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