How important are math facts for a 5 year old?

[IceFairy]

I try very hard to believe in Oak Meadow as a complete program...but 6 weeks in to OM1, I feel the math is lacking. I wonder if DS (he is 5 years and 4 months old) should know his math facts. Like that 2+2=4 or 1+2=3 and so on.... He can count to 100, knows bigger/smaller, shorter/taller, knows his shapes, can write his numbers, and can add and subtract with manipulatives, and understands very very generally muliplication, division, and fractions.

 

I keep getting this small tug to supplement...am I crazy?

[regentrude]

I would NOT expect a five year old to know any math facts. At that age, I'd work on number recognition, counting, patterns and some gentle introduction to addition. he will remember the facts eventually; I would not spend any effort on it at this point.

[Ellie]

They're not "important," but if you think he can learn them, there's no reason not to. Just don't be frustrated with him if he hits a wall and can't seem to remember them until he's older. :)

[Cassy]

I don't know anything about Oak Meadow. My DS5 has gone through RightStart A over the past year and has just started on RightStart B. We spend about 20 minutes to half an hour doing math each day. RightStart is quite strong on teaching concepts, but does teach facts as well: counting in twos with both odd and even numbers, combinations of numbers to 10, days of the week, months of the year, shapes, hours, half hours and quarter hours. All these facts are learned slowly and steadily, often through math games, which he loves. RightStart feels gentle and fun, but very thorough. Not everyone is a fan though :tongue_smilie:. Singapore math is another very thorough curriculum, which we sometimes use to supplement.

[Barb_]

Not important yet.

[momtoamiracle]

It will come with practice. I wouldnt worry about it at this point. It is better right now for him to understand the concepts, then when he has the facts memorized, they are solidly known and not just by rote.

[Plateau Mama]

I wouldn't expect them to know them at 5. At that age I'd start explaining 1+1=2, but I 'd have no expectation that they'd know them. My 4.5 year old knows 1+1=2 & 1+2=3 that his sibs taught him. He sometimes can hold up the correct fingers for other problems and then count them.

 

When my older son was in K they didn't really do any math. 1st grade was the basic 1+1=2. They didn't expect him to actually know any of them. I'm guessing they taught that in 2nd but I wouldn't know.

[kitten18]

I would NOT expect a five year old to know any math facts. At that age, I'd work on number recognition, counting, patterns and some gentle introduction to addition. he will remember the facts eventually; I would not spend any effort on it at this point.

:iagree::iagree::iagree:

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

I am playing two games with my 5yo DS each day, and he is slowly but surely mastering his facts within 10 this way. We are playing Jelly Beans and Making 10's and 100's, both of which can be found under games at EducationUnboxed.com. The only change I made is that we keep score in the 10's game using an abacus, since we use Right Start as our main curriculum.

 

If you have not used cuisinaire rods before, give yourself and your son some time to adjust to them- you will be surprised how quickly he learns which one is which. And then, he has a very tactile representation of addition, subtraction, etc, etc.

 

As my son learns his facts this way, he reaches for the rods less and less, usually just to check his answer.

 

We LOVE the Rightstart and Miquon/Cuisinaire combo. So, so, so great for small kids, especially wiggly boys.

[Farrar]

I would NOT expect a five year old to know any math facts. At that age, I'd work on number recognition, counting, patterns and some gentle introduction to addition. he will remember the facts eventually; I would not spend any effort on it at this point.

 

:iagree:

 

That said, OM has the reputation for being maybe a little too easy in the early years for some people. If your ds is actually bored or finds it too easy such that it's not engaging, then feel free to supplement with other resources. However, don't go into it with the idea that a 5 yo needs to know their math facts. Some will, most won't.

[Tracy]

I would not expect a 5yo to know math facts at all. But I would expect the math program to present them in such a way as to help a child begin to learn them.

[CatholicMom]

I would not expect a 5yo to know math facts at all. But I would expect the math program to present them in such a way as to help a child begin to learn them.

 

:iagree:

[PentecostalMom]

I would NOT expect a five year old to know any math facts. At that age, I'd work on number recognition, counting, patterns and some gentle introduction to addition. he will remember the facts eventually; I would not spend any effort on it at this point.

 

They're not "important," but if you think he can learn them, there's no reason not to. Just don't be frustrated with him if he hits a wall and can't seem to remember them until he's older. :)

 

:iagree:with both of these. My dd is still working on hers.

[ChandlerMom]

Math facts are nice in that they are concrete things we can test and measure and see progress and know our kids are learning. Unfortunately, math facts are trivial (and stored in every calculator), math CONCEPTS are important (and you have to understand them to set up a problem).

 

Focus on the concepts, let your child play with math. There is plenty of time to memorize, and in fact they may start to realize that the REASON we memorize math facts is because we get tired of counting. What better way to learn 2+2=4 than to count it with objects so many times that you just don't have to look any more (or in some Waldorf schools, use your fingers and muscle memory).

 

The more common and tougher to fix problem is the kid who is such a prodigy, knows all their math facts at such a young age...and totally stumbles at word problems. Why? Because they know the facts but didn't ever really learn how to use them, what they really mean.

[staceyobu]

We are using singapore math for K and it has been pretty easy so far. Basically counting up to 10. Stuff like color 4 cats on the page. There has been some bigger/smaller and we just started patterns. It's also covered shapes. My five year old can do some basic addition... but the math program hasn't covered it yet.

[IceFairy]

Thanks everyone. I feel a lot better.

[*Michelle*]

I don't know if it's important or not, but we're doing Saxon 1 and, roughly 3 months in, a lot of facts have been covered. My son has memorized +1s, -1s, +0s, and doubles. What I am seeing is that he is extrapolating those facts on his own with real-life problems. I don't know whether or not he would be doing that without the knowledge base he has acquired.

 

If he had issues memorizing them, I wouldn't stress at this age. But he seems to handle it okay, so we'll keep it up.

[duckens]

I think it depends on the 5yo, and it depends upon the curriculum you are using. I am not familiar with the scope and sequence of it, so I can't comment specifically on it.

 

Our experience:

 

Oldest dd will be 6 in December.

 

We are more than halfway through Saxon Math 1. Saxon Math 1 has a full sheet of facts to do in each lesson. We did flashcards in addition to the lessons introducing new facts and these worksheets.

 

A month ago, I realized that dd was not keeping up with mastering the facts she was supposed to know so far. This caused stress for dd to complete these sheets or to do the flashcards. And I realized that from here to the end of the curriculum, the cycle of learning new facts was only going to increase in speed and difficulty.

 

We quit doing curriculum, and only worked on facts for a couple of weeks. At this point, we have resumed curriculum, but I have challenged dd to use an electronic game 3X/day for 10 days to see how her flashcard facts improve.

 

So, in my opinion, it will depend upon where your curriculum is taking you, and what kind of challenge this is for your 5yo. No matter the subject, we don't want our kids to be expected to complete a task for which they do not have the resources.

 

We are using a Flashmaster (checked out from the public school homeschooling program). The car is a good place for her to practice this.

 

However, there are many, many apps, computer programs, boardgames, and file folder games for math facts if you choose to supplement. Many are free or low cost through the internet. I'm sure you would get many good ideas if you started a thread on that.

Edited October 29, 2012 by duckens