Halcyon Posted February 29, 2012 Share Posted February 29, 2012 Over the last month or so, my 9 yo has been doing his math more and more slowly. I don't know why. He is normally focussed and applies himself quite diligently to his math, but lately, he's just spacing out. I give him a certain amount of time to complete his math, and the rest is homework. But this is getting a bit ridiculous as he is really not getting but 1/3 of his work done during the "school period" and a part of me feels it's counterproductive to keep moving it into "homework period". Should I assign less work for a while? I am leaning that way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2_girls_mommy Posted February 29, 2012 Share Posted February 29, 2012 We have dealt with this this year too. I have found here that is was mostly on the 3 digit x 3 digit multiplication problems and the long division. It seems that even though she has had the facts down and been studying them for a long time that all of the steps involved are kind of overwhelming. When she sees a big number of them, she starts out discouraged. Then she is careless and misses a bunch, and then she got to the point of not caring. We handled math class like you with a time schedule and homework (and still do) but I had to make a slight detour in how I handled math to get it back on track. BTW, I mentioned this was going on to a friend of mine who has homeschooled 4 of her kids though middle school so far. She told me that all of her kids went through this in 5th grade at around long division. She said they all sat and stared and took long amounts of time at around the same place. It did make me feel a little better that we weren't the only ones going through this. I didn't assign less work. I always pare down an assignment though, so I didn't need to. I actually stalled a week on a particular chapter. I told her she hadn't mastered the chapter until she could take and pass the test in under an hour. Obviously she couldn't do it the first time because she wasn't able to even do the daily work in under an hour. So after the first go round on the test, we did it daily instead of moving on in math. Each day, I gave her a timed multiplication table warm up. Then she spent the remaining hour taking the test. Wherever she was when the time was up, I graded it, and we talked about what that grade means and how she had improved and how she could improve more. Then in the evening for homework she would finish the test for homework. It really gave her time to just sit on that chapter for awhile and gain speed in the basics, instead of moving on to a new chapter when she obviously hadn't mastered the last one. It was weird to get off schedule and not move on for an extra week. But in the end, it paid off. She also seemed to care more and had that goal to work for. Anyway, might not work for you, but it was we needed to do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kalanamak Posted February 29, 2012 Share Posted February 29, 2012 We have long stretches of slower and faster. If kiddo is really putting on the brakes, I wonder aloud if he is not quite understanding the topic, and I get out drill or extra work. If he isn't getting it, this helps, if he is, he shapes up. But, we went from a rather ripping pace to a more "normal" pace as math got more complex. My son is better about not gazing out the window, but actually *thinking*. He has asked for the "5 second rule". If he makes a mistake, I let him move along to the next step BEFORE correcting him, because he often catches himself and goes back. This was his request! I was thrilled. I decline to make math a horror. I commiserate that it is tough. Also, we do only 30-45 minutes, but do it 7 days a week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PollyOR Posted February 29, 2012 Share Posted February 29, 2012 It's February. ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Halcyon Posted February 29, 2012 Author Share Posted February 29, 2012 (edited) My 10 year old goes through those periods too. Lately I haven't felt so focused myself. I don't know what it is. I'm thinking it is probably normal and should pass. You could try offering incentives for finishing more quickly and/or a timer. I've used timers in the past. I always gave way more time than I thought necessary (so as to not stress my son out too much). He liked the challenge. Thanks Wendy. I've been trying the timer, and he hates it. He just wants to keep working til he's done, even if that means two hours. But there are other subjects in the world, and seriously, if he put his mind to it, he could get these questions done in 30 minutes. Part of me thinks he is bored. I just talked with him for a few minutes and suggested we take a break from MM and do some LOF or AoPS. He freaked momentarily ("but I want to get MM done by x date!" ) but I said if he's unhappy with math right now, there are other options which are more challenging and "fun". It's okay if he mixes it up a little bit. So we did some AoPS problems together and he was actually smiling while doing it. The problem is, he's not really ready to do AoPS full on right now, so this might work for a week or two, but we need to finish MM. Edited February 29, 2012 by Halcyon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woodland Mist Academy Posted February 29, 2012 Share Posted February 29, 2012 Also, we do only 30-45 minutes, but do it 7 days a week. Interesting idea! I'll be giving this some thought. Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brehon Posted February 29, 2012 Share Posted February 29, 2012 Hormones? My 10 1/2 yo son does the same thing. I think it's brain fog. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Halcyon Posted February 29, 2012 Author Share Posted February 29, 2012 Hormones? My 10 1/2 yo son does the same thing. I think it's brain fog. Maybe. I just don't know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Halcyon Posted March 1, 2012 Author Share Posted March 1, 2012 Update: today we did LOF Fractions (we're in the last stretch of the book; he had worked on it last year but we put it aside) and I tried to keep things very relaxed and mellow. He did a bridge and one chapter, and I had him stop while the going was good. I ordered Decimals and we'll work on that for a bit...I'll bring back MM5 in a couple of weeks and see how he does. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roxy Roller Posted March 1, 2012 Share Posted March 1, 2012 We have dealt with this this year too. I have found here that is was mostly on the 3 digit x 3 digit multiplication problems and the long division. It seems that even though she has had the facts down and been studying them for a long time that all of the steps involved are kind of overwhelming. When she sees a big number of them, she starts out discouraged. Then she is careless and misses a bunch, and then she got to the point of not caring. We handled math class like you with a time schedule and homework (and still do) but I had to make a slight detour in how I handled math to get it back on track. BTW, I mentioned this was going on to a friend of mine who has homeschooled 4 of her kids though middle school so far. She told me that all of her kids went through this in 5th grade at around long division. She said they all sat and stared and took long amounts of time at around the same place. It did make me feel a little better that we weren't the only ones going through this. I didn't assign less work. I always pare down an assignment though, so I didn't need to. I actually stalled a week on a particular chapter. I told her she hadn't mastered the chapter until she could take and pass the test in under an hour. Obviously she couldn't do it the first time because she wasn't able to even do the daily work in under an hour. So after the first go round on the test, we did it daily instead of moving on in math. Each day, I gave her a timed multiplication table warm up. Then she spent the remaining hour taking the test. Wherever she was when the time was up, I graded it, and we talked about what that grade means and how she had improved and how she could improve more. Then in the evening for homework she would finish the test for homework. It really gave her time to just sit on that chapter for awhile and gain speed in the basics, instead of moving on to a new chapter when she obviously hadn't mastered the last one. It was weird to get off schedule and not move on for an extra week. But in the end, it paid off. She also seemed to care more and had that goal to work for. Anyway, might not work for you, but it was we needed to do. :iagree:with the bolded. All four of my older DC had to slow down at this point. We ended up taking a break for a week or two at that point. I found that the complexities of long division(I am talking 2 and three digit divisors) seemed to be taxing on their brains and taking some extra time off gave them time to process all that they had learned. We then picked up where we had left off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SweetMissMagnolia Posted March 2, 2012 Share Posted March 2, 2012 yep we go through this too.....have started doing less and breaking lessons up into shorter periods..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Perogi Posted March 2, 2012 Share Posted March 2, 2012 Wow, that long division is a killer, isn't it?! My mathy 8yo has struggled some with Singapore 3A's long division. I did a search here not too long ago and saw that lots of kids go through it when it comes to long division. She's also more prone to space out lately rather than buckle down and focus on the work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mhg Posted March 2, 2012 Share Posted March 2, 2012 Is he a typical typeA perfectionistic firstborn? My son tends to be a bit perfectionistic and if he doesn't think he can get things just right, he'll balk/regress. Any of that perhaps? just a thought FWIW. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Momling Posted March 2, 2012 Share Posted March 2, 2012 I remember you guys switched to MM fairly recently? Could it be that his honeymoon with MM is just over and he's not feeling it anymore? (Not that he shouldn't just get on with it anyway... just that it might explain the slow-down...) Anyway, I think my daughter is at nearly the same place in her math development. She does like the AOPS videos on topics we're working on, but also isn't ready to tackle too much on her own. She has liked LOF Fractions on her own and decimals is arriving in the mail some time next week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HayleyKC Posted March 2, 2012 Share Posted March 2, 2012 I just mentioned this on a couple of other threads. Games! I've struggled a long time with my daughter taking hours on her math and totally spacing out and doodling. It's dreadful. I started doing 20 min of math games before she did her math work. I did this until she picked up pace. Now it's just every so often or as I see her hit a lull again. For math games, I use the MM game links listed at the beginning of the chapter, also rightstart has a book of math games that I've used as well. I also bought "sum swamp" on amazon at one point and even though it was behind her work level, it was still math related and helped her brain get into math. It over all made math fun, built her drill skills and then suddenly she began to like math more and feel like she was good at math again. So it began a positive chain reaction to where today for example she had a longer than usual assignment that was 5 pages and she was done in about 40 minutes. For a frame of reference she's been known to let a 2 or 3 pg assignment take 5 hours!! So things are much improved. Can't say it enough, games really do help. :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Halcyon Posted March 2, 2012 Author Share Posted March 2, 2012 I remember you guys switched to MM fairly recently? Could it be that his honeymoon with MM is just over and he's not feeling it anymore? (Not that he shouldn't just get on with it anyway... just that it might explain the slow-down...) Anyway, I think my daughter is at nearly the same place in her math development. She does like the AOPS videos on topics we're working on, but also isn't ready to tackle too much on her own. She has liked LOF Fractions on her own and decimals is arriving in the mail some time next week. Could be. There are definitely more problems on the page, and more drill, but I think it's good for him. We often do every other one,and we skip section he already knows. But yes, we did switch recently and yes, it could be that he's just not that into it anymore. Again, we'll probably just keep on with MM. Right now, he's finishing LOF and like you, Decimals is arriving soon. He's enjoying it, and I like the other poster's suggestion to play some of the games suggested in MM--I don't know why I didn't think of that. He's jealous of his brother using Math Blaster ;) I also think I am requiring him to do too many pages and I need to rethink that. Shorter lessons for a while will probably be a better choice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jennynd Posted March 2, 2012 Share Posted March 2, 2012 :iagree:with the bolded. All four of my older DC had to slow down at this point. We ended up taking a break for a week or two at that point. . :iagree:We just took a week break because I feel he really need it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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