robsiew Posted September 6, 2012 Share Posted September 6, 2012 My 11ds (almost 12) is having a hard time with his math work. He understands the concepts well, but he makes errors in calculation all over the place. Just minor ones, but mistakes nonetheless. He is a slow worker so he can't get a whole lot slower. I don't want to tell him to "slow down" or he'll take all day to get math done! I've tried telling him to double check his work at each step, but that hasn't seemed to help either. I'm not sure what to tell him. Maybe less problems so he can really focus on just a few? Right now he does 2 pages of Math Mammoth a day and he's half way through 6A. Maybe just go down to one page? He is naturally a "big picture" kid (like his mom) so details mess him up a lot. We're fighting a wiring issue here... not just carelessness. When I sit down with him he can find the errors and knows what's wrong.... and again, he's getting the concepts. Then again maybe it's adolescent fog! Any "cures" for that? :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regentrude Posted September 6, 2012 Share Posted September 6, 2012 My 11ds (almost 12) is having a hard time with his math work. He understands the concepts well, but he makes errors in calculation all over the place. Just minor ones, but mistakes nonetheless. He is a slow worker so he can't get a whole lot slower. I don't want to tell him to "slow down" or he'll take all day to get math done! I've tried telling him to double check his work at each step, but that hasn't seemed to help either. I'm not sure what to tell him. Maybe less problems so he can really focus on just a few? Right now he does 2 pages of Math Mammoth a day and he's half way through 6A. Maybe just go down to one page? He is naturally a "big picture" kid (like his mom) so details mess him up a lot. We're fighting a wiring issue here... not just carelessness. When I sit down with him he can find the errors and knows what's wrong.... and again, he's getting the concepts. Then again maybe it's adolescent fog! Any "cures" for that? :lol: Both my (very mathy) children hit a spot around this age when they started making lots of careless mistakes. Particularly sign mistakes when simplifying expressions. It has definitely something to do with maturity and the age; for us, patience and practice solved the problem after a few weeks. In order to avoid careless mistakes, we found it helpful to do math on graph paper, to write equations neatly underneath each other, and to use color for different signs. (Not sure what exactly are your son's trouble spots; maybe you can find a way to use color to help the visual.) I would also limit math to a specific amount of time the student can work with concentration. I found that my son could not focus for more than 45-60 minutes on math; anything more than that would drastically increase the number of mistakes. You might want to try out and see where your son's limit is. And then, yes, you might have to limit the amount of work so that he only works fro a time span for which you know he can work with focus. If this is too short, you can experiment with having two shorter math sessions in the day instead of one long one. If he gets the concepts, I recommend patience and practice. The problem will likely solve itself in time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robsiew Posted September 6, 2012 Author Share Posted September 6, 2012 Thank you for your response! This is very helpful! I'm glad to hear we aren't the only ones struggling with this. My ds has always been strong at math, but his confidence is wavering because of all the mistakes he's been making. I think what you've suggested will help guide him through this phase. :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
letsplaymath Posted September 7, 2012 Share Posted September 7, 2012 My kids have never been good at working on their own. We found MM was a wonderful curriculum for Buddy Math. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mystie Posted September 7, 2012 Share Posted September 7, 2012 Would some review practice help, perhaps? If it's the basic operations he's missing but he gets the concepts, perhaps doing some drill sheets of the facts would help. When my sons lock up or start crying after getting frustrated with their math, I send them outside to run for a minute, then we do a different thing, then they finish their math, but they're able to come back to it fresh. Too long a stretch at math means their work quality deteriorates. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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