Cake and Pi Posted October 28, 2015 Share Posted October 28, 2015 I understand that it's best to have kids work for a set amount of time rather than X number of pages since the difficulty of the problems vary. What I'm wondering is, how long should said amount of time be?? How long do you have your DC work on Beast Academy for a session? Has that changed over time or remained constant? Also, Hi! This is my first post here :001_smile: (It's so exciting!) 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eternallytired Posted October 28, 2015 Share Posted October 28, 2015 Hi Lace! You're looking familiar. :-) Welcome to WTM, and enjoy your upcoming addiction to the boards here! I don't have a set time for BA work. I look over the upcoming problems, gauge their difficulty, and determine how many pages I'd like to see him finish. If things take vastly longer or shorter than anticipated, I adjust my requirements on the fly. (Actually, I wouldn't term them "requirements" since I usually say, "I think you can probably get through ___ today, but we'll see how it goes.") On days when he's frustrated or unfocused, I cut our time short; on days when he's really hitting his stride or is loving the work, I let him go for longer. We've done as little as 15-20 minutes and as much as an hour or more depending on the day. (He's ADHD, so sometimes it's impossible to get him to focus, but when he gets really immersed, it's impossible to peel him away.) Sorry if that wasn't as helpful as you might have liked... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kateingr Posted October 28, 2015 Share Posted October 28, 2015 At my house it's usually 20 minutes of independent work plus 10-15 minutes of discussing any harder problems together. My son loses focus after half hour, so I get diminishing returns after that! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kateingr Posted October 28, 2015 Share Posted October 28, 2015 And hi, and welcome! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LMD Posted October 28, 2015 Share Posted October 28, 2015 Similar to eternallytired here. I have a math block scheduled, I look over the pages and estimate how much can be done within 30-40 mins. Usually it's about 2-3 pages, sometimes more sometimes less. I make changes as needed, cut short or let them run! You'll get a feel for it. Eta, to answer your other question, yes, my oldest has definitely built up stamina for tough math. We had shorter sessions and lots of frustrated tears at the beginning. Now she's nearing the end of 4 and hardly struggles at all. Welcome to the forum! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slache Posted October 28, 2015 Share Posted October 28, 2015 No idea, but welcome to the hive! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soror Posted October 28, 2015 Share Posted October 28, 2015 Ds started at 9 was it, we've always done a good amount of math, when he only did BA it was generally about 45-1hr+(we've had 2hrs+ days of math even when he was younger), when he did it along with other things probably about 20ish minutes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kirstenhill Posted October 28, 2015 Share Posted October 28, 2015 I usually do about 30-35 minutes with my DS8. He really wants me to sit with him on all but the easiest pages, so it is somewhat limited by my available time. If we do more than that, we don't have time to finish our "together" work before I need to work with DS6 on his math and reading. Some days that 30 min. is plenty for him and other days he would definitely do more if I had the time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheAttachedMama Posted October 28, 2015 Share Posted October 28, 2015 Hi!! Welcome!!! It sounds like we probably spend longer on math per day than most families. I usually pencil in about 45-60 minutes of math per day. However, we didn't start off with that number! We slowly built up to it over a long period of time. I try to get them in the habit of working diligently and joyfully. Similar to reading, you want math to feel like a joy--not a terrible chore. You wouldn't start a brand new reader out with a 60 minute long silent reading period, right? It would be too much and make them hate reading. So I would start out with however long they can pay attention and stay interested. Lets say that is only 10 minutes. Meet the child where they are, and then slowly build that time up. We did that, and now we are happily working away for about 45-60 minutes on math. IF I notice that they are losing interest--I cut that time back down. Again, JUST like reading a book aloud, I want to stop while they are still asking for more not when they are bored and exhausted. That way they look forward to it. (Just to clarify----not all of that time is spent working problems. For example, some of that 60 minutes is spent curled up on the couch reading the beast book together. Some of that time is spent warming up with math facts or mental math, and some of that time is spent working through the actual practice book.) Also, my child (9) does not do the beast book independently. He does his singapore semi-independently, but not beast. (We alternate beast units and singapore units.) I know when we do beast in our house, it is going to be a lot more teacher intensive than singapore. This is our own experience and may not be the same for everyone. When we do beast, our time is spent reading the beast book together (that way I can understand how things are being presented too!)---then we usually work through the problems together. I sit right there beside him while he does math. I use beast to teach mathmatical thinking. SO--I give him a chance to solve the problems independently. When he gets stuck I sort of cheer him on and ask leading questions trying to lead him to the answer. (I am basically trying to get him to think mathematically.) However, there have been PLENTY of times I can't even solve the problems! In those cases, I sort of peak ahead to the solution---and then we work backwards through the problem until we understand HOW it was solved. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miss Tick Posted October 28, 2015 Share Posted October 28, 2015 We spend 45-60 minutes on math a day. Ds just starts, and when we get close to the end time I will point out where I think he should stop. In our house my older two do Math at the same time (different programs) and I sit with everybody at the table, mainly working with my younger dd, but answering other questions as they come up. Younger dd usually gets all her schoolwork done in a little over an hour due to her age, but there is an exciting part of the morning where I am answering questions from three different math programs. Keeps me alert! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UCF612 Posted October 28, 2015 Share Posted October 28, 2015 My son does 45 min of Beast. We started with 60 mon but determined 45 min was the right mix of enough without being too much for him. He also does 10 min of Xtra Math online a few times a week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cake and Pi Posted October 28, 2015 Author Share Posted October 28, 2015 Cool. Thanks everyone! It sounds like the 30 minutes I've been limiting him to is probably pretty reasonable at this point, and we may move it up to 45 over the next year or two. These WTM forums are pretty much awesome. Not sure how I missed them until now. (And thanks very much to Jackie for sending me over!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LMD Posted October 29, 2015 Share Posted October 29, 2015 We generally spend about an hour total on maths, the 30 ish mins of BA isn't the only thing we do. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SeaConquest Posted October 29, 2015 Share Posted October 29, 2015 We are in the 45-60 minute camp with my DS6. We do a lot of BA orally, so that he is not slowed down by having to write everything out. Last year, math was almost exclusively oral. This year, I would say that we are 75/25 oral to written work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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