LAmom Posted January 23, 2013 Share Posted January 23, 2013 My dd 4th grade uses Math Mammoth. I have liked using it for the most part. It is very easy to teach, I basically pull out 2 sheets and have her read directions and ask questions if she has them. BUT, she generally slowly works through the page (acting very bored...) and it takes her about 1-1/2 hours to complete 2 pages (generally). UGH! She hates math and I want her to love it. Haha. Is Singapore "more exciting" or Saxon? I do have CLE but don't really know how to incorporate it. Any ideas for a nonmathy student? She needs to be more efficient. Maybe not the math program we use but her? Or both? I don't know. She loves reading, history, literature, science, etc. MATH....dreaded. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blondeviolin Posted January 23, 2013 Share Posted January 23, 2013 What's causing her to be slow? Is she looking off into space in between problems? Does she not have her facts memorized? Is the work too easy? (Too easy sounds weird, but sometimes if it's too easy kids can tune out.) MM has a lot of problems. It's okay to only work half the problems. My oldest has worked through some of MM 2 and MM 3. We play the "half game" I star half the problems, if she gets them right, she's done. If she gets one wrong, she has to correct it and then do an additional problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LAmom Posted January 23, 2013 Author Share Posted January 23, 2013 What's causing her to be slow? Is she looking off into space in between problems? Does she not have her facts memorized? Is the work too easy? (Too easy sounds weird, but sometimes if it's too easy kids can tune out.) MM has a lot of problems. It's okay to only work half the problems. My oldest has worked through some of MM 2 and MM 3. We play the "half game" I star half the problems, if she gets them right, she's done. If she gets one wrong, she has to correct it and then do an additional problem. She stares off looking bored, staring at her brother doing school or watching the baby crawl on the floor. She has her facts memorized though slowly recites the answers. I don't think it is too easy for her. She gets things wrong. I've started to only make her to do half and if she gets one wrong she has to do another question. I'm starting to cut her off after a certain amount of time and then make it homework before she can do her "fun reading." Maybe I need to be more 1:1 and encourage through the problems? I don't know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boscopup Posted January 23, 2013 Share Posted January 23, 2013 Dawdling with Math Mammoth is pretty common. Has she only ever used this program? Or have you tried other things and she dawdled with those too? My son did best if I took the workbook in MY hand and taught the concept at the white board. We'd go over some problems together at the white board, discussing it all the way. Then I'd assign however many problems I thought he needed (based on how he did with the white board work). For example, if he clearly understood it inside and out, he might only have to do 5 problems. If he was needing help with every problem we did, he might have all the problems to do (multidigit multiplication required ALL problems to be done, since that just plain took practice to get into his head, but anything involving fractions we could often skip most of the section - he just "gets" fractions). Another thing that helps is "buddy math". Have her do a problem, then you do a problem, then she does a problem, then you do a problem. That sped things up quite a bit when we used MM. I did switch my son to Singapore, as it is much more kid-friendly. We switched from the early part of MM4B to SM4A, then skipped some things in 4A that he already knew. I don't have any issues with dawdling in Singapore. There are so few problems, that he's not overwhelmed at all. The book is more setup for direct teaching at the white board and then assigning the workbook pages. Now this IS a mathy child, though I have to wonder if your DD is really non-mathy or if she's just bored. It can be hard to tell. That's why I asked if she has done this with every program you've tried. Another thing you might try is just doing math at the white board and putting the workbook away. See how she does. Does she understand the math? Or does she struggle with the concepts? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LAmom Posted January 23, 2013 Author Share Posted January 23, 2013 We have only used MM. Well, actually, I tried Singapore 1a and didn't like all the books. Lol. I like that I hand her a sheet and I can teach my others while she does math. Maybe I should give her more time. She does understand concepts. It seems to be boredom. Is SM really teacher intensive? I understand the importance of teaching math at times. I sit with my 2nd grader while he does math (mostly to help him read directions). Is it the mastery that might be boring? Maybe she needs spiral? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boscopup Posted January 23, 2013 Share Posted January 23, 2013 We have only used MM. Well, actually, I tried Singapore 1a and didn't like all the books. Lol. I like that I hand her a sheet and I can teach my others while she does math. Maybe I should give her more time. She does understand concepts. It seems to be boredom. Is SM really teacher intensive? I understand the importance of teaching math at times. I sit with my 2nd grader while he does math (mostly to help him read directions). Is it the mastery that might be boring? Maybe she needs spiral? I don't find Singapore to take me much more time than teaching MM did, but again, I took the MM workbook in my hand and taught the lesson at the white board. It was NOT self-teaching here. I also found that once we got past a certain amount of time (20 minutes in 1st grade, 30 minutes in 2nd), he wasn't going to move any faster. So spending 2 hours on math backfires. In Singapore, I take the HIG in my hand and teach at the white board, we go over the textbook problems (in his hand), and then I tell him to do the workbook exercise. I'm not really juggling books. HE is. :D Then in a separate session, we do CWP at the white board together (we both work the problems at the same time and see who gets done fastest... sometimes it's me, and sometimes it's him!). My first grader isn't doing CWP or IP yet. I just have him do TB/WB. I'm not really teaching him at the white board yet, but I just teach from the textbook. Then I sit with him while he does the workbook. Sometimes, the Singapore lessons go so fast that we end up doing 2 lessons in a day. DS1 did that this week and got 4 days of work done in 2. I'm letting him do Key to Decimals the rest of the week. DS2 likewise had easy lessons this week (just started 1B), so he's been doing 2 lessons per day. Then we'll get to a topic that takes longer, and we'll slow down. My oldest has never dawdled at hard math. He breaks down and cries if it's hard. He dawdles if it's easy. And I can say that we were downright burned out on MM by time we got to 4B, and that's after skipping whole sections as needed (since he was accelerating). It wasn't the math he was burned out on. He still loved doing math outside of MM. He just didn't enjoy MM at all by that point. When it was a new topic (like long division), he did get excited and work a bit quicker. But when it was stuff he already knew fairly well or just didn't need to practice that much, he dawdled big time. For him, a spiral program wouldn't help because he doesn't like a lot of review - he would be bored doing mostly review questions all day. He needs to move, but he doesn't need the incremental steps of MM. Singapore has been better for him in that regard as well. We rarely stay on a topic THAT long. I think decimals took 2 weeks or so? And that was working on different operations each day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
QTMom Posted January 23, 2013 Share Posted January 23, 2013 I was having the same problem with my 2nd grade ds. He has ADHD and is very good in math, but he doesn't like doing the workbook pages. I couldn't get him to finish a lesson without a struggle. We were using CLE math 2. It would take forever to get through a lesson because he would drag his feet through the workbook pages. I switched (started a week ago) to Teaching Textbooks 3 and he is doing SO much better. I loved CLE because I felt it was really thourough, and I was really hesitant to switch, but I am glad I did. We are also doing Xtramath online daily to drill math facts. I hope he keeps on loving the TT after the "new-ness" of it wears off, but as of right now I do not have any regrets switching. I hope you find what will work for you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kristi26 Posted January 23, 2013 Share Posted January 23, 2013 My oldest is not mathy at all. Lol. He really doesn't enjoy it...and is also working with a new diagnosis of dyscalculia too...but he said he LOVED Life of Fred. We did the Fractions book this year before doing MUS Epsilon and he said he really felt like it helped him to grasp the concepts better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blondeviolin Posted January 24, 2013 Share Posted January 24, 2013 Well, my oldest is only six... If I don't sit with her, she dawdles at math. BUT, I notice a huge difference if I rewrite problems on the white board? All of a sudden it becomes cooler. It might be less overwhelming since I can't fit as many problems on the board as there are on the page. (I'm talking lap-sized white board here.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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