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4th grade math - how much time?


skimomma
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This is more for my own curiosity. How much time per week are you spending on 4th grade math. I ask per week because we only cover math four days a week. And did you see a big jump is struggle from 3rd grade to 4th grade?

 

I am noticing a HUGE jump from last year. I scheduled 45 minutes, 4 days a week and it is taking more like 1.5 hours! Last year, it was closer to 30 minutes. I know it is early in the year, we are getting into the swing of things again, and Dd's math does not start with review (new topics). She seems to be having more difficulty grasping the topics this year versus last year. We did "math lite" over the summer so it is not like we started up from nothing.

 

We are using Singapore 4A if that matters.

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Singapore 4A took us maybe 30-45 minutes. We came from MM4B though, so I haven't used Singapore 3 yet. I did see a jump from MM3 to MM4, as we now had to juggle multiplication standard algorithm and long division and all of that stuff. By time we did those concepts in Singapore, we'd already done them in MM,, and I recall multi-digit multiplication being a topic we had to slow down a bit on in MM.

 

I would not recommend spending 1.5 hours on math. Spread the lesson out over a couple days if you need to. You might be able to catch up later Web you get to a topic that she understands better. It's normal to need to slow down on some topics and speed up on others.

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I would not recommend spending 1.5 hours on math. Spread the lesson out over a couple days if you need to. You might be able to catch up later Web you get to a topic that she understands better. It's normal to need to slow down on some topics and speed up on others.

 

Yeah. I am with you on this and will be adjusting. My questions here were the first step in figuring out how to adjust. The time we are spending is still not on track for the day's lesson. Some of it is willful foot-dragging and carelessness on my dd's part....she tends to pull this stuff when presented with material that does not come easily to her. Math seems to be the trigger subject this year for that behavior. I know it will subside somewhat when she learns (again) that she will learn math even if it is hard. My job right now is to draw the line between a behavior issue and a true content issue.

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Using MEP it was about 30-45 minutes. Depends on if I got the blank look or the stare-at-the-paper-waiting-for-answer-to-appear look (math brain fog seems to surround him sometimes!). Have you tried changing the time of day? Mid-morning seemed best here this summer, a few hours after breakfast, but before the weather gets hot.

 

How about you work with her for X minutes, and if she's not done because of her attitude, she has to finish on her time? That will break up the lesson, give you both a chance to move on, and provide a consequence for her attitude.

Edited by mtcougar832
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How about you work with her for X minutes, and if she's not done because of her attitude, she has to finish on her time? That will break up the lesson, give you both a chance to move on, and provide a consequence for her attitude.

 

:iagree: This is exactly what we do...unfinished work (beacuse of attitude or lack of focus) becomes homework, done after schooltime.

 

If the lesson is taking too long because they just don't understand, we continue the same lesson at another time (could be later in the same day, or the next day).

 

Average time my 4th grader spends on math per day--about 45 min. or one hour. Depends on the topic, the kid, or the phase of the moon...;)

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:iagree: This is exactly what we do...unfinished work (beacuse of attitude or lack of focus) becomes homework, done after schooltime.

 

If the lesson is taking too long because they just don't understand, we continue the same lesson at another time (could be later in the same day, or the next day).

 

Average time my 4th grader spends on math per day--about 45 min. or one hour. Depends on the topic, the kid, or the phase of the moon...;)

 

Same here for my 6th grader. He usually has 3 division problems left everyday go figure.

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My 4th grader spends about 1 hour 15 minutes per day, five days per week.

We use Horizons math, plus supplement with CWP and extra math facts flashcard practice.

 

I think that amount of time is the right amount. I don't think we could cover everything well enough doing less time per day.

 

Math is very important at our house. I don't want my kids to be in the position up the road where they are in 5th or 6th grade, and I realize that they are not solid on their basic arithmetic, unprepared for algebra. I spend this much time on math because I am trying to make sure they are very solid in math.

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My fourth grader hasn't actually started fourth grade yet (next week!). In third grade I asked him to aim at 40 minutes of working well. If he hadn't finished his lesson, but was obviously spent, we put it away and tried later. If later didn't materialize we just picked it up where we left off on the next school day.

 

That method works well with that ds, and I expect we'll do the same process for fourth grade using 45 minutes as the goal.

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We use MUS so I think since the scope is so different he's probably working on totally different things than other 4th graders (he's actually in 3rd grade but a year ahead in math).

 

He's a mathy kid so math it's our quickest subject (language arts OTOH is a nightmare). He does 2-3 MUS worksheets a day and is usually done with them in 10 minutes or less. He sometimes does Beast Academy, the 3rd grade level, and that takes him much longer since so far it's been topics he's never been introduced to yet. BA takes him about 30+ mins for one side of a worksheet and we usually stop there.

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4th grade dd using MM 4A. We do 1 hour 3 days a week and .5 hour 2 days a week...so just 4 hours a week. Within that time she does seatwork from MM, review of previous concepts on the whiteboard, games, and fact memorization. She averages about 6-10 pages a week from MM, depending on the page and how many problems I have her do.

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My son is also working through the end of Singapore 4A. I think he hit something major fog when we started school. Throughout the summer he would do Singapore about once a week and worked on some Beast. This last week, he couldn't do the simplest problems in Singapore. I schedule 45 mins for math 4 days a week. But, if he is not done in that time it is homework, because he has a habit of wasting time especially in math. He figures he wants to be an author when he is an adult and doesn't need math. Needless to say his father and I have a different opinion.

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I say do what works for your kid.

My DD struggles with math.

She is in Math Mammoth 4A.

She does about an hour of math a day.

She averages a little over half a page of math per day.

You read that right. About an hour to do half a page of math, or about two hours to do a single page.

Since her brain shuts down after an hour of math, it takes two days to do a single worksheet.

There is no way she could work any faster than that. I know because I am sitting by her elbow the entire time.

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Hi, I think the quantity of time/ quality of math work will depend on your child's math abilities.

 

Last year my 4th grader was doing 3-4 hours of math daily 5 times per week. She works independently and asks questions when she needs some help. This year we do math daily because we have 3 different math programs to cover.

 

Here is an example of our math schedule:

Mon.-Russian math/ Logic

Tue.-Russian math/ RS Geometry

Wed.- Singapore math

Thur.- Singapore math/Logic

Fr. - Singapore math

Sat.- Olympiad problems

Sun.- Olympiad problems/working on mistakes/ Logic

 

She did LOF Fraction and Painless Fractions independently as an extra activity.

Edited by SneguochkaL
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Ds9 just started 4th and is doing 35 min of math each day. Any dawdling or fooling around and he has homework. We do math daily, so this works out to almost 3 hours a week. We are using Math Mammoth 3B, catching up to 4A, but making sure he understands all the concepts well before moving on.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I would not spend more than 45 minutes on math at that age. Most students do not have the ability to concentrate longer on math; the amount of careless mistakes increases, and they have a harder time understanding new concepts. Spending more time does not accomplish proportionally more, since the lkater time is not as effective.

If you need 1,5 hours per day to work on math, try spreading it over six days instead of four.

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