Princess Ariel Posted June 30, 2014 Share Posted June 30, 2014 was it worth it? I don't know where I was when this was previously discussed :sad: but I found some threads on it from back in January. Anyhow, I ordered the trial which is only 3 days long, and went through some of it with ds 15 who is diagnosed with dyscalculia. It seemed pretty easy at first but when he got to some areas, I could see he was having some difficulty. I am really considering getting it for him, in spite of the fact that he is 15. He is on TT6 but I discovered he has been accessing the calculator on the computer sometimes to work the problems and so he isn't really doing as well as I had thought. I also have to test him yearly and his math scores were really low even using a 7th grade test. (CAT 5, math computation low level, math concept and application, well below average) He said a lot of it he didn't know at all. I just want to know from those who actually used it, if it was worth the price. I wish I had known about something like this when he was a lot younger! He worked at it for quite a while yesterday but when things got harder he got pretty discouraged so we quit. Also, how easy is it to coordinate with the Ronit Bird materials that were mentioned? Do they work nicely together or does it take a lot of planning? Thanks much! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OneStepAtATime Posted June 30, 2014 Share Posted June 30, 2014 1. If he is having some difficulties already with just the trial version, and is struggling with TT, then Dynamo Math may help. 2. You need to make certain you print out the teacher lessons and do those BEFORE he does the on-line lessons. 3. I found that printing out both the worksheet AND the worksheet with answers was helpful. I could have the kids do the worksheet, then check their own work. We discussed and reviewed afterwards and then played games and did stuff from Ronit Bird or repeated the teacher led lesson to reinforce or reteach when they struggled. 4. It does take planning to pair with Ronit Bird, but not inordinately so. And sometimes I replaced a Dynamo Math lesson with a Ronit Bird lesson for the teacher led part if RB seemed a better fit for my kids. 5. Keep lesson sessions short. In other words, do the teacher led DM lesson, then the on-line, then the worksheet and stop. One lesson. One session. Then if you feel he is interested and ready, maybe tackle an RB lesson later in the day that ties in with what he did in DM. Again, keep it short so he has time to process and think it through. 6. I would suggest you might put TT aside for a couple of months while he works through DM/RB, then maybe reincorporate TT. 7. If and when you do reincorporate TT, it may work much better if you have him do work in the workbook first, and maybe break it up into shorter segments, then enter the answers on-line. 8. When you print out the DM lessons, make certain you label the worksheets. Sadly, the worksheets aren't clearly labeled as to what lesson they are tied to. 9. Printing out the worksheets and support material was a bit of a challenge. I bought A-4 paper since that is what the material is formatted for. Otherwise things sometimes got clipped. Was DM worth it? Yes. It hasn't solved every issue but things are much further along now. Edited to add that both kids liked checking their own work. It helped them to feel more engaged in the material. I completely deemphasized grades and helped them to see that the grade is meaningless if they don't understand the material. Cheating would be pointless. Gaining understanding of WHY they did some problems right and some wrong is what matters. We still reviewed together after they graded their papers. I had them put a check next to all the ones they got right, so that they felt a boost, and only put a small question mark next to ones they got wrong. If they made a lot of mistakes, then they went back to figure out why they got it wrong and make the correction. We would discuss it, maybe do a few problems on the dry erase if they really struggled and I would repeat the teacher led part and have them do the on-line lesson again. Then I would sometimes print another sheet of problems for them to review and do later that day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Princess Ariel Posted June 30, 2014 Author Share Posted June 30, 2014 Wow, One Step! You really go above and beyond and I really appreciate it!! :hurray: Thanks so much! If anyone else has anything to add, I am all ears! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterPan Posted June 30, 2014 Share Posted June 30, 2014 I just wanted to say if you want someone to wave the Braveness Wand and tell you it's ok to dump TT and go non-traditional for a while, I'll wave it. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OneStepAtATime Posted June 30, 2014 Share Posted June 30, 2014 I just wanted to say if you want someone to wave the Braveness Wand and tell you it's ok to dump TT and go non-traditional for a while, I'll wave it. :) I love the way you wave those wands. You do it with such flare, OhE! :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imagine.more Posted July 5, 2014 Share Posted July 5, 2014 I'm considering using Dynamo Math this year with my daughter. In fact I'm mostly convinced, just trying to get the guts to spend the money :) OneStep, which Ronit Bird books have you been using with Dynamo Maths? Any tips for making it look good on paper (in public school logic, not normal people logic) that I'm going way backwards in math? We're in PA and have crazy strict portfolio requirements and the districts are starting to overstep their bounds with some other local homeschoolers, particular those with special needs students. Princess Ariel, from what I can tell if your son has already hit a few snags in the trial and has a diagnosis of dyscalculia then it'd definitely be worthwhile. I know from experience with remediating dyslexia that it's often scary but totally worthwhile to quit the traditional grade-level curriculum for a bit and just work on remediating the underlying conceptual issues before moving on. Cheryl Swope, a classical homeschooler with 2 special needs kids who wrote Simply Classical, said she repeated an entire year of math with her son at about middle school age because he was suddenly struggling a lot with it and she was sure his math scores would go down. But at his annual test his math scores actually improved! So taking the time to get the core concepts down can be totally worth it and even in a quantifiable way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OneStepAtATime Posted July 5, 2014 Share Posted July 5, 2014 I'm considering using Dynamo Math this year with my daughter. In fact I'm mostly convinced, just trying to get the guts to spend the money :) OneStep, which Ronit Bird books have you been using with Dynamo Maths? Any tips for making it look good on paper (in public school logic, not normal people logic) that I'm going way backwards in math? We're in PA and have crazy strict portfolio requirements and the districts are starting to overstep their bounds with some other local homeschoolers, particular those with special needs students. Princess Ariel, from what I can tell if your son has already hit a few snags in the trial and has a diagnosis of dyscalculia then it'd definitely be worthwhile. I know from experience with remediating dyslexia that it's often scary but totally worthwhile to quit the traditional grade-level curriculum for a bit and just work on remediating the underlying conceptual issues before moving on. Cheryl Swope, a classical homeschooler with 2 special needs kids who wrote Simply Classical, said she repeated an entire year of math with her son at about middle school age because he was suddenly struggling a lot with it and she was sure his math scores would go down. But at his annual test his math scores actually improved! So taking the time to get the core concepts down can be totally worth it and even in a quantifiable way. Well, I don't live in a state where we have portfolios or reporting so I haven't had to deal from that end. As for Ronit Bird, mainly it has been Overcoming Difficulty with Numbers. If you get that book and look it over you may be able to find ways to word what you are doing to make more sense for reporting purposes. Not sure, though. I don't know how picky they are or what you actually need to provide. I wish I could be of more help there. Our state is really odd. In some ways there really is virtually no supervision and they don't seem to care at all but if your kids were in ps school for a few years it can be really challenging to get them out without the schools harassing you. Depends on the area and the school district. But we don't have to report or file anything each year once homeschooling has officially started. We are considered private schools and can do whatever. I guess that is good and bad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heathermomster Posted July 5, 2014 Share Posted July 5, 2014 I would describe Dynamo Math as the primary math and RB as support material. RB provides multi-sensory, hands on activities to teach and strengthen basic numeracy, math reasoning skills, subtraction, long division, and multi-digit multiplication. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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