possible transfer to ps, bringing math up to level UPDATED

[MooCow]

Ugh. I cannot believe I'm writing this.

DS is in 6th grade and is about a year behind in math, and some writing skills.

Right now, I'm focusing on math. He has lots of holes that I thought I was plugging

up. Wrong.

 

Can anyone please advise me of any online math programs that focus on bring him up

to level. Remediation is what I think he needs.

 

Thank you.

 

I really want to keep homeschooling and so does ds.

 

There's more to the story I'll share later.

 

update:After testing, I ordered a mini set of math mammoth from clurrclick.  I printed it out

and he is doing it. Not happily, he never liked it, but it's getting done.

Then I pulled out a half dozen of lessons from this years saxon (that we both hated)

and he remembered that he WAS taught it, and knew how to do it.

 

So we talked about it. That he likes learning by mastery and I HAVE been giving review sheets,

but it's being done half fast.

 

so no.more.half.fast. hopefully :)

 

And more mm to fill the missing plugs. Thank you!

Edited February 24, 2016 by MooCow

[OneStepAtATime]

:grouphug:  :grouphug:  :grouphug:

 

Are you saying you may put him in school because he is behind in math or are you saying you may have to put him in school for other reasons and are worried he will be too far behind in math to succeed?

 

It depends on why he is struggling and how serious the struggles and what you have been using for materials and how you have approached math as to what I would recommend.  Although it seems counter-intuitive, you may need to take a step back to move forward.  

 

For instance, if he is struggling because he has weak subitization skills then running him through the Ronit Bird ebooks might help solidify his math foundation.  If he is weak in those skills then just pushing forward means you are continuing to build his math skills on a house of sand.  Get the subitization skills solid and he can make progress.  It means taking some time to go back to the basic building blocks of math, though, which many parents and students resist at this age.  However, once these are solid, progress usually is much faster afterwards.  

 

Or is he behind because he doesn't have math facts memorized but he has strong conceptual understanding?  A child can have strong conceptual understanding but struggle with math facts.  If that's the case, I would work on conceptual material separately from math facts.  Let him use a math chart for lessons and do math facts work at a separate time.  This might include the Ronit Bird e-books and something more hands on like Dynamo Math or Right Start math at a lower level than his current grade level.  Math U See is also good for many students to remediate and catch up in math.  CLE is also sometimes useful for this but take the placement test.  He may place behind his grade level but CLE is easy to accelerate.  

 

You might post on the Learning Challenges board.  There are many parents there that have helped their math struggler and some have had some really creative approaches.  You might also check out Soror's Relaxed Math thread that is pinned (can't recall where).

Edited February 18, 2016 by OneStepAtATime

[MooCow]

:grouphug:  :grouphug:  :grouphug:

 

Are you saying you may put him in school because he is behind in math or are you saying you may have to put him in school for other reasons and are worried he will be too far behind in math to succeed? for other reasons and yes worried about him being behind

 

It depends on why he is struggling and how serious the struggles and what you have been using for materials and how you have approached math as to what I would recommend.  Although it seems counter-intuitive, you may need to take a step back to move forward.  That's what I thought I was doing this year, we went back to grade 5 using bits and pieces to fill up holes I thought were there. Apparently there are more because I curriculm hopped.

 

For instance, if he is struggling because he has weak subitization skills then running him through the Ronit Bird ebooks might help solidify his math foundation.  If he is weak in those skills then just pushing forward means you are continuing to build his math skills on a house of sand.  Get the subitization skills solid and he can make progress.  It means taking some time to go back to the basic building blocks of math, though, which many parents and students resist at this age.  However, once these are solid, progress usually is much faster afterwards.  He's weak in remembering them, so three times a week we run through times tables, and every day he has a practice review math sheet.

 

Or is he behind because he doesn't have math facts memorized but he has strong conceptual understanding?  A child can have strong conceptual understanding but struggle with math facts.  If that's the case, I would work on conceptual material separately from math facts.  Let him use a math chart for lessons and do math facts work at a separate time.  This might include the Ronit Bird e-books and something more hands on like Dynamo Math or Right Start math at a lower level than his current grade level.  Math U See is also good for many students to remediate and catch up in math.  CLE is also sometimes useful for this but take the placement test.  He may place behind his grade level but CLE is easy to accelerate.  He gets the concept-sometimes right away, other times not. He resists learning anything new if he doesn't understand it right away. He also does a lot of mental math, and it pretty good at it. BUT we're doing harder things and I tell him to write it/do it step by step so he won't make little mistakes. Which he tends to do.

I switched to the key to series this year, finally finishing fractions next week. And I also critical thinking level f mathbook. He enjoys "logic" and programming.

 

You might post on the Learning Challenges board.  There are many parents there that have helped their math struggler and some have had some really creative approaches.  You might also check out Soror's Relaxed Math thread that is pinned (can't recall where).

 

 

 

[Tsuga]

Can you tell us about the diagnostic you used to determine where he has gaps?

 

Also, was it that he failed entire sections, or is he simply pulling a 70% and you are concerned that that is not good enough?

 

Some children test a grade level below but can still manage a "C" at their own grade level. It's important to understand where he is.

[ElizabethB]

Give the ADAM K-7 test, it links to partial remediation for areas below grade level with videos from Kahn Academy.

 

https://www.letsgolearn.com/lglsite/ADAM_math/parents/

 

Then you can finish remediation on your own. It is good at IDing areas that need work.

 

Sit with him while he takes the test and don't let him enter "I don't know" as a choice, it will stop the test for that area and prevent you from finding all the gaps.

Edited February 18, 2016 by ElizabethB

[benzino]

What is this stickied relaxed math thread?  I searched the board but nothing appeared?

[Arcadia]

:grouphug:

 

Aleks has a 48hr free trial. They have a free placement test which while not perfect follows PS topics.

 

What is this stickied relaxed math thread? I searched the board but nothing appeared?

http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/499692-looking-to-do-some-relaxed-math-here-want-to-share-ideas

[freesia]

I would have him do daily xtramath.org lessons for basic fact fluency (you can set the time for 6 seconds for the first run through if 3 is discouraging).

 

Then I would get an Aleks membership and have him take a placement test and work to remediate holes.