Catching up in math?

[3lilreds in NC]

We are behind in math, no two ways about it. How would you go about catching up? One recommendation I've heard is to have a child spend 45 minutes a day on math until they are caught up. I am sure they would get through a lot of math that way, but would they retain it? Also, would you have them do 45 minutes of solid math, or break it up into, say, 3 sessions?

 

TIA - I am trying really hard not to freak out about math but I fear I'm headed down that road again. :)

[sagira]

My plan is to break up Math into two sessions: the teaching and the drill. It could even be teaching, practice and drill on some days. Would keep the child's skills fresh.

[Leanna Tomlinson]

I understand your panic. BTDT. I thought I could offer a few words of encouragement. Some short term and some very long term.

 

Short Term: I see you use MUS. Is she in Alpha? Beta? I have had 2 dc get bogged down in Beta; I think it was a maturity issue. We were easily able to catch up when we hit Gamma by doing 2-3 pages a day in the first half of the book. My son was a whole year behind at one point and now he is about to finish Delta at the end of 4th grade. Right on schedule. Yes, we did some work in the summer, but he would never have been able to handle 45 minutes a day on math. I did add daily computer drills to get the facts down and that helped a lot. Also, I sometimes take a break and jump ahead and teach the clock units or the graph unit all in one day. It feels good to get through six worksheets in one day.:)

 

Long Term: If you follow MUS, or many other math programs, on schedule, your dc will reach Calculus by 12th grade. Many kids do not need to get there. If you child is more gifted in the Lit/Lang areas, she will never need calculus. So....maybe you're not as behind as you thought? My eldest dd, now a freshman at college, struggled greatly in math. She never even made it to Pre-Calc (not that I wouldn't have preferred her to move more quickly:tongue_smilie:) She is happily majoring in History and minoring in Lit and Publishing. She got a B in college Algebra and carries a 3.7 after her first semester. I know it may seem ridiculous to talk about college and high school now, but isn't that really why we feel behind sometimes? We look to the future and panic? So I thought I would just show you that here, in the future, my math challenged daughter is doing great!:001_smile:

[yvonne]

From the ages of your children, you can't possibly be too far behind! Do you mean you haven't finished the year's curriculum? Or have they not mastered specific skills that you think they should have mastered by now? Are you doing math daily?

 

My boys are 8 and this year and last one of the most useful (and the least time-consuming!) things we've done has been to have them go through all the addition facts OR subtraction facts OR multiplication facts OR division facts _every_ _single_ weekday! Rod and Staff has the best, most complete sets of math facts flashcards. For a while we charted their progress as measued by how long it took them to go through the stack to keep them motivated. (I have boys... they like a challenge.) This year we've really been able to see the fruits of their labor. They don't get bogged down in computation and this has freed them up to focus on thinking, which is becoming more critical in Singapore 3 & 4.

 

If you're "behind" bec. you're not getting math done daily, perhaps a program that is less teacher-intensive and very straightforward like Horizons would work? We do Horizons & Singapore. Horizons is so straightforward that it is extremely easy to keep moving forward. We do one two-page lesson a day. You can almost fly on auto-pilot with Horizons.

 

yvonne

[Amber in AUS]

We follow the acronym DIP, drill, instruct, practice. Sometimes we do them consecutively with small break and sometimes we do something different in between. Depends how quickly DD catches on and how long we spend in any of the phases.

 

I would think about trimming some questions where they are getting it, do math every day, yes even Sat and Sun. Short lesson or review straight after breakfast before anything else is done for the day. Continue math over the summer.

 

Just my 0.02c

[mamaof2andtwins]

It depends on the math you are using, but you could do one and a half lessons per day. If your math has test or quizzes, you could do the next lesson in sequence on those days.

 

I have thought of continuing during the summer, but that never seems to work for me.

 

I would give my 7th grader 45 minutes of math, but I probably wold not give my young 4th graders 45 minutes of straight math.

 

Jennie

[Closeacademy]

Who says you are behind? The book? Friends? Whatever.

 

Don't worry about the pacing. What is more important than being on lesson 57 on day 57 is that your child actually understands the concepts being taught.

 

If you work at this as a skill and teach her the concepts a little each day only moving onto the next concept when she owns the skill you just learned you will never be behind. Don't worry about pacing just work with her on the skills and make it a prority.

 

If she doesn't have the skills down when she gets to upper math it wil be a problems so take your time, don't rush and have fun. Learn together. :001_smile:

[3lilreds in NC]

Here's the thing: We started over this year with Alpha, because the girls didn't know their math facts. Emma will be in 4th grade next year according to her age, and it bothers *me* that we're in 1st grade math. It was absolutley my choice to do it this way; I am sure they could have handled Beta.

 

I had thought we would get through Alpha by Christmas, and through Beta by the end of the school year, but Emma has had a very difficult time memorizing math facts; we're still not there. However, she understands how to add and subtract and I think we're ready to move on and just keep up with the drill. Abbie is, certainly, and I don't feel like I can hold her back at the same level anymore just because Emma is older.

 

I am not sure Emma would handle 45 minutes of math per day, either. I'm considering switching to MCP because I'd like a wider range of topics, for one thing. Also, when my dad was here, they played a lot of Monopoly, and he just showed her how to do the subtraction on a piece of paper with borrowing/regrouping and she did really well - maybe we do just need a more traditional approach to math.

[Leanna Tomlinson]

If you already have the Beta book, I say just get started. You may be suprised at how fast the beginning of the MUS books can go. One thing I did with dd (age7) is build problem facts for her and put it in plain sight, one at a time, until she got it. She could not remember 5+3=8. I put a 5 and a 3 on top of and 8 and let it live on the school table. After 2 days of "seeing" it sitting there, she had no problem adding 5+3.

 

I have also done two books simultaneously. The last weeks of MUS can be difficult because of all the accumulated review. The first weeks of the next year usually move much more quickly. At one point last year my ds(3rd grade at the time) was doing 1 page of Beta and 2 pages of Gamma a day.

 

I told you about my eldest dd in my last post. In hindsight, I wish I had approached math the way you are doing it. We started with MUS and then I panicked because she was "behind". I curriculum hopped all over the place (at least 5 more) only to realize that it wasn't the program, it was HER. When she returned to MUS for Geometry,(not the program I would choose for my 14yo math-bright son), she said, "I wish we'd never left MUS. I really understand this."

 

I'm not saying it's wrong to switch, or that you shouldn't switch, but she still may have problems, and that is OK!

[Karen sn]

Well, when I felt "behind" I played with money.

We played cash register - start out with having them come up with exact change (we used real money).

Then move on to your counting back change and THEIR ability to do the same.

Lots of money play with REAL money. (We even went to the bank for half dollars and whole dollar coins).

 

You will be amazed at how much they learn through this experience.

Take your time - don't stress it.

We started in the begining of the summer and by the end of summer she could calculate the change (in her head) that was due her before it was given. She was 10.

 

DO NOT FREAK OUT.

I have some links for you!

 

You want them to really grasp WHAT they are doing and WHY so that they can carry these basic elementary concepts with them as they progress into the deep, intricate world of higher math.

 

If it makes you feel better - I have seen kids in PS who LOOK like they are so advanced and blah blah blah. They can not add in their head, they do not know their multiplication facts, and although they could get the correct answer (pick a,b,c,d) they did not understand any of what they were doing. It literally made me cry. They rush these kids through so they can get to the big math and look like they are really progressing but they never get the basics that are needed to do it well.

 

Another thing we did was Michele's Math

http://www.redshift.com/~bonajo/mmathmenu.htm

 

Check out http://www.livingmath.net

 

I also like this site:

http://www.themathpage.com/ARITH/arithmetic.htm

 

I feel that a good education AT THE VERY LEAST prepares our kids for the real world. I feel that money in math is soooooooooooooooooooooo very important and yet how many kids can count back change? How many kids are learning how to manage money? How many kids can add in their head?

 

Take it slow - do not stress. In the fake world of PS - it appears that your homeschooled kids are behind. I say compare them if you must - but do it when they are all 20 and we'll see who really comes out ahead.

[Karen sn]

From the ages of your children, you can't possibly be too far behind!

 

I agree with this!

[emmsmama]

When I pulled dd at the beginning of Gr. 3 I started her in RightStart Level B (technically Gr. 1 level), but we breezed through it very quickly. She is now almost to the end of Level D (technically Gr. 3 level), so we will finish 3 levels in 2 years. I also plan to continue math lessons this summer so the info. stays fresh and we will get closer to "grade level" by the end of her Gr. 5 year. However, I will say that dd is covering stuff in Level D (Gr. 3), that normally wouldn't be covered in public school until 5th grade, so I'm not stressing out. Once kids "get it", they can progress quickly through a lot of things that would have been too difficult if you pushed it earlier.

[3lilreds in NC]

When I pulled dd at the beginning of Gr. 3 I started her in RightStart Level B (technically Gr. 1 level), but we breezed through it very quickly. She is now almost to the end of Level D (technically Gr. 3 level), so we will finish 3 levels in 2 years. I also plan to continue math lessons this summer so the info. stays fresh and we will get closer to "grade level" by the end of her Gr. 5 year. However, I will say that dd is covering stuff in Level D (Gr. 3), that normally wouldn't be covered in public school until 5th grade, so I'm not stressing out. Once kids "get it", they can progress quickly through a lot of things that would have been too difficult if you pushed it earlier.

 

You know, you're definitely right about this. I noticed that while money math was like pulling teeth last year and brought on tears, this year they did it without even having to think much about it.

 

I guess what set this off was my dad coming here and telling me that Emma needs serious help in math because she can't do 3-digit subtraction in her head at the age of 9. I told him we haven't done that yet, and him sitting there pestering her certainly didn't help, either. I *know* we need to get moving and work on math more.

 

I think what I will do is have math be somewhat self-paced for Abbie, and let her go as she wants to go. We don't have Beta yet and I need to wait just a few weeks because I just spent all our homeschool budget for the moment on our LBC for next year. I think, though, that I will see if dh will let me get the Math Mammoth supplemental worksheets, and then we will start working on some other things while we finish up Alpha.

 

Thanks, ladies, for all the input. I know I'm probably worrying needlessly, but math is the one area I don't feel particularly confident in teaching.

[3lilreds in NC]

Just start Beta and drill those facts every. single. day. It will be fine. Your dad just doesn't understand the sequence. It is different, but different isn't bad. We are homeschoolers, we are use to different. Don't make a radical change because you are have a moment of panic. As you move through the books you will see how it all comes together.

 

You're right. Thank you for reminding me of this. I will keep on, keepin' on and know that it will turn out fine.

[motherdear]

My older son had a lot of trouble in Math, but I kept plodding along. The result was that he did terrible and hated math very very much. Now, the minute things seem to be confusing to my younger son we stop and review review review!!! Be sure your child knows his math facts instantly! You'll be glad you spent the time and you won't be behind, either.