HSMom2One Posted February 29, 2008 Share Posted February 29, 2008 How important is speed when it comes to math drills? Our Calculadder drills set a goal of three minutes per page, but my dd 8yo takes two-three times longer than that. She gets the majority of answers right and is pretty sharp actually, but when it comes to speed she just isn't interested. Other than this, I think she is doing well in math this year. Because she does get a majority of right answers nearly every day with the drills and with our Saxon math lessons, I'm encouraging her to try to work on speed rather than pushing her to do it. My strength is in language, not numbers --and this is our first year of hs. Please let me know if you think I'm missing something here. Thanks! Lucinda Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rhondabee Posted February 29, 2008 Share Posted February 29, 2008 And, the more I push for speed, the slower he goes....so I just quit worrying about it. I don't know if that's the most sage advice, but I just know in my heart that if I push this child past a certain point, it is counterproductive. So, I strive for accuracy and know that with daily practice the speed will surely come. Occasionally, we do time a facts sheet just as a "Wow - do you think you could do this whole page in 3 minutes?" special challenge activity that is only rewarded for how much is accomplished, not "graded" as "not good enough yet". I don't want to make it a point of daily contension. (I'm not sure how Calculadders works) Best wishes! Rhonda Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
momofkhm Posted February 29, 2008 Share Posted February 29, 2008 How important is speed when it comes to math drills? Our Calculadder drills set a goal of three minutes per page, but my dd 8yo takes two-three times longer than that. She gets the majority of answers right and is pretty sharp actually, but when it comes to speed she just isn't interested. First let me say that my youngest at 7 wants to do everything his older sisters are doing which includes getting math drill. Last year he used Calculadder 1. But without being timed at all. My thing is that when they get two 100 in a row, they get a pass to the next level. If he was getting all the answers right, he would pass. I feel like he got to know the facts last year and on into this year as well. Then instead of him going on to level 2 next, he has spent the year re-doing level 1 but getting timed. For all three kids whatever they finish in the time given is great, but they are also expected to finish the page, just circle the ones they didn't do within the correct time. But you don't move on until you get them all right and in the allotted time. There were a few levels this year that he got 100 on most pages, but never finished all the problems. We ran out of those pages, but since he obviously knew the answers, we moved on anyway. The last section of the book was just finished yesterday, in time with two 100% in a row in only 6 days! I would say don't time her. Let her learn the material without being timed. You can always do the book over and time her that go round. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HSMom2One Posted February 29, 2008 Author Share Posted February 29, 2008 You both have great thoughts and ideas on this and I appreciate it. I will proceed without worries. ;) Blessings, Lucinda Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
siloam Posted February 29, 2008 Share Posted February 29, 2008 Lucinda, My oldest could do them in time at first, and ended up really upset when they got too difficult and she couldn't beat it after covering it for a couple of weeks. My poor 2nd dd was worse, she totally freezes up. In the end I got rid of them, because they were having a negative effect here. Plus we use a base 10 math here, so I also couldn't see why we needed to memorize the facts they cover. I don't care what 17-8 is because I can simply think: 10-8=2+7=9. Done. 17+8 is just as easy 17+3+5=20+5=25. In the end I play a lot of Right Start games with them. Basically they have modified games like go fish, memory...any pairs type game, so that instead of finding pairs you find two cards that add up to 10. Now the girls love working on their math facts. :cool: Heather Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SnowWhite Posted February 29, 2008 Share Posted February 29, 2008 My ds is doing "Math Minutes", but he's doing them in less than 2.5 minutes, not less than a minute. I agree that accuracy is more important than speed, and I want him to continue succeeding. I do like to use the practice sheets because they help him get automaticity through practice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rhondabee Posted February 29, 2008 Share Posted February 29, 2008 I have to admit I had to stare for a minute at your "reasoning" behind 17-8. :o Then I paniced and thought, "OK, what *is* 17-8?!?!?!" (What a day! First it's seeing all the homeschoolers at the library with kids who actually browse for their own books and sit quietly at tables and make notes ~ then it's come to the K-8 boards to find that I've completely lost all sense of subtraction. I think I'm going to bed. :rolleyes:) :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kathy in MD Posted February 29, 2008 Share Posted February 29, 2008 The first that eventually she'll need to follow a teacher/prof as he explains a multi-step problem. If she's slow, she'll either be back at step 1 trying to figure out what happened when the prof is finishing the problem and asking for questions or she'll be keeping up with him, having no idea what happened or why and she won't even know what to ask! The second is that she'll probably take take timed, high stakes tests in the future. Speed is essential for good scores. Third is that normally people who take that much longer to do something don't really know the material. Or they lack confidence. And this would be my concern for now. Accuracy is more important than speed, but don't over emphisis accuracy till she's wanting to check, double check and triple check her answer. I'd try for some occasional games or races to encourage math speed. And I'd periodically return to older drill sheets where her speeds were slow in the hopes of improving the speed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
siloam Posted February 29, 2008 Share Posted February 29, 2008 I have to admit I had to stare for a minute at your "reasoning" behind 17-8. Then I paniced and thought, "OK, what *is* 17-8?!?!?!" (What a day! First it's seeing all the homeschoolers at the library with kids who actually browse for their own books and sit quietly at tables and make notes ~ then it's come to the K-8 boards to find that I've completely lost all sense of subtraction. I think I'm going to bed. ) :) You aren't the only one. I go over any problems my children get wrong with them, and yesterday I had two problems in a row I marked wrong that were really right, which my oldest just loved. :rolleyes: Today she was SURE I did it again, then she checked her work and discovered I was right this time and she had made an error. :D Whew! I have never been so glad she make a mistake. ;) Heather Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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