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ALmom
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| Posted: Aug 27 2008 at 1:43pm | IP Logged
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Ok, I'm working with a 14 year old who is all over the place in math - concept wise. The bottom line is there are some odd gaps and I think the most efficient way to tackle things for him is to select books on specific math topics that begin at a very easy, introductory level and move on up in difficulty in the topic. There are some areas where he has pretty advanced understanding of both the concept and the operation, others where he does the operations fairly well without what should be the foundation and other places where he has a very young understanding of concepts (but once you work with filling in the gaps, he picks up quickly) - things like thinking something that isn't an equilateral triangle standing upright, isn't a triangle and not knowing anything about a point or a line, knowing how to do the steps of double digit multiplication with carrying, but not knowing anything beyond the 3 X tables).
So far we have ascertained that we need to do very basic measurement, we need to do some geometry moving to 3-dimensional once we know the 2 dimensional is in place, telling time using a clock face. I'm sure I'll discover other gaps as we continue to observe and work with him.
A lot of this should/could be done with cooking,or in natural home interaction, etc. and I include him when we are doing these kinds of things. However, he doesn't seem to just absorb this like a toddler would and I need to be more systematic in making sure he really has the basics in his head. He is still confusing liquid measure with measures of length - trying to tell me that 2 cm are the same as a pint or something to that effect. We haven't even touched the metric system at my house, just trying to straighten out the English system. He does now at least have a general feel that a foot is bigger than an inch. Last year we tried to develop the whole concept of measuring, using comparison of size (what is bigger - smaller which he seemed to have to using a string to measure real things and cooking, etc. We started with linear measure and then went to liguid measure. This was a first, rudimentary introduction and he seemed to forget most of it over the summer when he was not here. He needs to do a lot of hands on, real things. If there was a cooking book that gave measurements in various forms where you had to actually convert, that might be good as a follow up to reviewing the basics and doing real measurements. However, he doesn't like the feel of lots of things, so he isn't likely to really measure anything if I send him out with a list of things to measure. He'll hang around, put any number down and hope that I won't notice. He absolutely has to have someone with him (think toddler) for anything outside of workbooks. I cannot be his shadow for the duration of his stay at my house, though, so we do need something that at least moves him forward some. A workbook would be grand, even if not ideal, if it suited the purpose of providing additional work and reinforcement in something where there was a hands on introduction. It is best if it is not too crowded on a page due to vision issues, and the directions are very short and to the point (about 3rd grade reading level for the moment.
See, that is the funny part about this child. He has no problem doing long division. He knows money inside out (necessity and relevance will get him to do things that otherwise doesn't happen so anything that will make a skill relevant to him will help. He doesn't necessarily have the curiousity or spark to learn, so this has to be developed as we move along, as well. Since his siblings borrow from him, etc., he knows money - no one is going to cheat him! - but doesn't necessarily translate this into full understanding of place value on other kinds of problems because he honestly doesn't care about the other kinds of problems, though I can use money as an example to help comprehension at least and then just be a meany about putting forth effort. He just learned basic shapes, but has no problem whatsoever with fractions and basic adding and subtracting and finding common denominators with fractions or even finding the area of an object.
Bar and line graphs are easy for him to read. He could do the steps of long multiplication with borrowing, long before his facts were solid. Obviously we had to work on those and he now has those solidly.
I really do not have a lot of time to dig for books, so I was wondering if anyone knew of any books that did an introduction to telling time in one book and that did measurement in another, etc. After that, is there a particular text that has a lot of review but not Saxon disconnected that we could use. I use Singapore with my own children but this child needs more repetition of concepts and cannot move forward too quickly or he starts confusing things in very odd ways. His math is the one area that he can generally be independent and this is a real need as I work with this child on therapy for an hour each day (he has a tutor that works with him on therapy and reading and other things for an hour) but I have my own I must work with (2 of mine do therapy - one vision, one other) and 5 that are schooling, 4 officially with the state. He also feels like he is doing normal 14 year old things if he has some workbooks of his own. He did 4th grade workbook last year and it was OK but not really my favorite. I think there was too much in the book on things he already knew and we had to go hunting for younger books for things the book assumed you already knew. When we pulled out younger books, it was hard on his self-confidence. I'd rather have an ungraded, topic oriented workbook. He hates manipulatives (sensory issues) but I do make him use them when he is plain just not seeing a concept. I do keep it short - just long enough to comprehend.
Ideally, I'd be out measuring stuff with him, doing all kinds of projects, etc. to make this real and relevant. I'd engage him and spur some interest (he is not at all motivated to learn, but tends to work at finding the quickest way to the least amount of work). But I can only do what I can do. If someone knew a math workbook that would integrate some hands on suggestions with a lot of workbook pages and review especially if it was single topics so we could tackle the areas of greatest gaps first, that would be great. Any suggestions?
Janet
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lapazfarm
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| Posted: Aug 27 2008 at 3:47pm | IP Logged
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I have seen some specific topic workbooks in teacher stores and even in some drug stores. I think Evan-More has some good ones. In fact, I think I used one once as a review for a specific skill, I forget which one. Probably decimals or something.I know they have them for many levels.
Also there are those big grade-level "comprehensive curriculum" workbooks you see in Sams and other stores, which might have more of a variety of subject matter.If it bothers him to see "first grade" on the cover of a workbook, you could cover it with contact paper or something.
Have you thought of something like a Leapster or perhaps some computer games to address the skills? Is he computer savvy at all?
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Theresa
us-schooling in beautiful Fairbanks, Alaska.
LaPaz Home Learning
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JodieLyn
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| Posted: Aug 27 2008 at 4:48pm | IP Logged
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There's some I've heard of.. haven't used them myself.. the "key to.." series.. like "key to fractions" but I don't know the age range or how many different concepts there are.
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G-18, B-17, G-15, G-14, B-13, B-11, G-9, B-7, B-5, B-4
All men who have turned out worth anything have had the chief hand in their own education.
-Sir Walter Scott
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lapazfarm
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| Posted: Aug 27 2008 at 4:54pm | IP Logged
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I think there are Keys to Measurement as well.
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Theresa
us-schooling in beautiful Fairbanks, Alaska.
LaPaz Home Learning
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4Real Forums : Living and Loving Numbers
Topic: math book
