Denisemomof4 Posted February 17, 2009 Share Posted February 17, 2009 My daughter does well in math. She breezes through her pages quickly making few mistakes. Most of her mistakes are silly, careless mistakes, and sometimes she struggles with multiple step word problems, but she's gotten MUCH better with them. While my daughter does memorize her math facts (we're almost done with gamma) before we move on to the next lesson, she doesn't retain them long term. I was going to buy her some manipulatives to help her memorize her facts but hubby said no, it's not necessary. She may memorize them again but there's no guarantee she'll retain them. My husband is the math whiz in our home. He has taught refresher calculus courses to engineers he works with and tutors college math students. He knows that sometimes she'll use her fingers for addition or subtraction and skip counting for multiplication, and he says that's perfectly fine. I guess I'm kind of hung on the fact that MUS people recommend memorizing facts...... I don't know what else to do. She will memorize again, but retention? If she were slow doing her papers or struggling I wouldn't question it. Others say that the more she does math, the more likely she'll remember her simple facts. Am I making an issue where I shouldn't? Denise Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heather in Neverland Posted February 17, 2009 Share Posted February 17, 2009 We use MUS and ds did "memorize" facts but he also "forgot" many of them. :D Two things have resulted from this: 1. He found unique ways to do those "facts" ...like he may not remember what 7x8 is but he remembers 7x7 and counts up from there. Or 12x12 is 10x10 plus 2x2, ya know? 2. The more he "needs" to use them the more he remembers them. In Gamma he just tried to figure out the ones he couldn't remember. Now we are half-way through Epsilon (fractions) and because he needed all the multiplication and division facts to make the fraction problems go faster, he seems to know most of them by heart now. So although I drilled him to death with flashcards, he really didn't "retain" all the facts until he really needed them for other reasons. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eternalknot Posted February 17, 2009 Share Posted February 17, 2009 I have MUS, and have been sharing your concerns. I decided that it was an issue worth exploring and addressing, but not rabidly so. My solution was to look at some CDs to play in the background, and that's been working out okay. We have a Schoolhouse Rock CD for math, and our libary had a very boring, hypnotic (but surprisingly effective) CD by Hap Palmer that chanted math facts. My 3 year old can recite the math facts, from a few weeks of listening to her brother's Hap Palmer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parrothead Posted February 17, 2009 Share Posted February 17, 2009 We had the same problem. I stopped and refreshed the facts. Then I bought a book of timed tests http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Book-Math-Timed-Tests/dp/1561896764 We went through the whole book between the end of last year and the beginning of this year. Dd didn't start Delta until (January 09) we finished addition, subtraction and multiplication. She ended up teaching herself the division facts. She is already on chapter 17 of Delta. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harriet Vane Posted February 17, 2009 Share Posted February 17, 2009 I am a firm believer in math facts drill for the entirety of a kid's academic career. We do this both through "normal" drills but also by playing cards or other, fun math games. Just a quick, 5-10 minute warm-up before jumping into the regular math for the day keeps reinforcing those math facts. It has had remarkable results for my two kids. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tess in the Burbs Posted February 17, 2009 Share Posted February 17, 2009 We did MUS and I felt like my son wasn't retaining anything...so we switched programs and suddenly he knew them all! for us we needed a change...it was all in his brain though ;-) but he still has blanks some days. We had one person suggest he had a problem: expressive language delay. basically he filed information in his brain with no organization so he seems to not know things you know his knows! he 'relearned' the facts at least 4 times and is solid now. my daughter seems to be the same way. she's been drilled on the facts 4 times already and we start again next week. I think she retains one more fact each go around....sigh. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alana in Canada Posted February 17, 2009 Share Posted February 17, 2009 We're still working on math facts here as well. My son has been doing Singapore 4A--multiplication and division f fractions and at first he was quite frustrated not knowing, so I brought out the "cheat sheet" for a one day. After that we mislaid it and he just got on with skip counting. I t does improve with practice! Strider--I'd be very interested in knowing more about those cards games and other warm up things you do. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
runamuk Posted February 17, 2009 Share Posted February 17, 2009 We're almost done with MUS Gamma and just stopped for a couple of weeks to review math facts. I copied pages from earlier in the book and did timed drills. We listened to Schoolhouse Rock and played flashcard games. I have a multiplication battle/war card game I found at Barnes & Noble; instead of a number or face, each card has a multiplicaton problem. The different approaches seem to have helped - Ellie's feeling more confident with multiplication and makes fewer mistakes. I think it's just a matter of time (and sometimes taking some time off) and a matter of repitition. I was counting on my fingers when I was my daughter's age, but by the time I moved up to Junior High, I could rattle off my math facts in no time at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melinda Posted February 17, 2009 Share Posted February 17, 2009 Is there a game you could play (or make up) to help reinforce the skills you want to cement in her mind? Games have always helped me to learn things more easily. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LadyAberlin Posted February 17, 2009 Share Posted February 17, 2009 I noticed in my upper level math classes that a lot of us who were very good at Algebra and up were not all that great on fact memorization. We used calculators and because we had memorized the facts at one point in our lives we could tell that the answer the calculator gave us was correct. That is more important. I would just continue to review periodically, but I wouldn't stress about it. Also I've noticed that the people who were great at arithmetic were horrible at Algebra. Arithmetic is more rote memorization and Algebra and above is more of a process. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keptwoman Posted February 17, 2009 Share Posted February 17, 2009 I use a basic facts speed test weekly to keep the facts memorisation polished. I do require automatic recall or at the very least being able to work forward or back from an equation nearby (like working out 6x7 by knowing what 5x7 is and adding 7) I don't like skip counting as a way to remember. It's clunky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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