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Alcat
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| Posted: April 07 2005 at 7:35am | IP Logged
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Hi there!
I was wondering if you all would have some suggestions for my poor ds who will be 7 in May...
He has an awful time with Math. We began with RS and he needed more drill, baby steps and comsistancy; so we switched to MUS- which I like and he hates (he has hated everything even our breif forray into Singapore). The only time he enjoyed math is when I gave him some cheesy drill sheets that would drill the same problems in the same way, and it was 30 problems to a page
I am sticking with MUS and I'm using flash cards about twice a day to go over his facts. I want to use more manipulatives- but he doesn't seem to like them. He does like games.
Does any one have any suggestions for games for math facts (we are currently stuck on the 8's). Does any one have a math computer program they really like (someone mentioned the Singapore game, I would love to hear more about that...)
I feel helpless because he is just like me and just doesn't "see" math. He is amost 7 and dosen't even know how to subtract  I feel like an awful mom  Even my husband, who is a math guy, was at a loss. I see ds doing that short circut thing where he gets frustrated and overwelmed and just stops thinking or trying so he moves on to guessing...
Is this a learining style issue or a cognative issue? Will math begin to click for him... Help
Thanks in advance.
God Bless,
Alison
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mom to ds15, dd13 ,ds11, dd8, dd6, ds4, & dd18mos
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tovlo4801
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| Posted: April 07 2005 at 11:06am | IP Logged
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Alison,
I can sympathize with you. I have an 11 (almost 12) yo who is still struggling with math facts. We are using MUS as well. My son doesn't exactly LOVE it, but he's fine with it. We added Calculadder last year to our day. If your son likes doing drill sheets of the same type of problems, Calculadder might be a nice addition. They advance slowly through math fact mastery with timed drill sheets. We also have the learning wrap-ups and Turbo Twist Math. The Turbo Twist Math is a computerized "Bop-it" type hand-held math fact quiz game. Your son might enjoy that? If he likes games, I'd do lots of them. There are SOOO many math games out there. We've bought a couple at Target that we play here sometimes. We play Countdown! a lot. But I know there are tons of others out there. An internet search should pull up some good options. As far as the manipulatives goes, maybe he'd do better with real-life manipulatives. I'm terrible at doing this sort of thing, but I know there are many here who just do this naturally. The idea is to be tuned into the math that goes on everyday. Baking, counting places for setting the table, adding and subtracting money to figure out a purchase of a special toy. I know there were a lot of suggestions for this in Ruth Beechik's math section of The Three R's. I'm curious to see what other families are doing. We need any ideas we can get here too!
Most of all, don't be too stressed. It's pretty normal to be working on the facts at your son's age. He's still really young. I'm sure that your ds will get those facts down in no time, but if he does end up struggling into the later elementary and middle school years it's not the end of the world either. I just posted about my concern for my sons lagging math skills. One of the suggestions I received was to let him use a calculator on MUS problems so that his math facts trouble doesn't keep him from mastering new concepts and then we spend blocks of other time specifically working on the math facts.
The facts will come! If it turns out there is a need in the future, there are always ways to keep his math skills moving forward while he continues working to master those darn facts. 
God Bless,
Richelle
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MacBeth
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| Posted: April 07 2005 at 11:31am | IP Logged
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Alison, my kids have had great success using wrap-ups for math. I like them becasue they do not generate any paper  and the kids can check themselves. Since the same set of facts is in the same order each time, the speed of memorization is great.
I know they are widely available, and they are listed on my
math page. I do not use the CDs that come with the latest set, but we do use School House Rock for help with memorization, skip counting, and speed.
A computer game the kids have enjoyed is Math Blaster. One kid found it a bit too intense (speed-wise) but the others liked it, and it's not too expensive to try.
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God Bless!
MacBeth in NY
Don's wife since '88; "Mom" to the Fab 4
Nature Study
MacBeth's Blog 
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Alcat
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| Posted: April 07 2005 at 8:51pm | IP Logged
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Thank you for the encouragement
Today was a better day. After stepping back and thinking about the situation I remembered that we have this problem every time we take a break- we took a week off of school for Easter.
I know now that when we do take breaks I MUST play lots of math games with ds to keep his math fact fresh. Thanks for the suggestions I will try the wrap-ups and I think the turbo twist math would make for a good birthday gift. These type of games/manipulatives will be very helpful durring our down times, much more interesting than mom drilling with flash cards
God Bless,
Alison
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mom to ds15, dd13 ,ds11, dd8, dd6, ds4, & dd18mos
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Liz D
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| Posted: April 07 2005 at 10:04pm | IP Logged
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Hi,
What are wrap-ups??? I'm mystified. Liz
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Liz
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MacBeth
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| Posted: April 07 2005 at 10:23pm | IP Logged
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Liz D wrote:
Hi,
What are wrap-ups??? I'm mystified. Liz |
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Click here
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God Bless!
MacBeth in NY
Don's wife since '88; "Mom" to the Fab 4
Nature Study
MacBeth's Blog
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Molly Smith
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| Posted: April 08 2005 at 5:10am | IP Logged
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Alison, I just wanted to add a little game my 7ds made up the other day as we were studying doubles facts. He had me print out cards with 1+1, 2+2, 3+3, all the way to 10+10. We also printed out cards with the corresponding answers 2, 4, 6, all the way to 20. He then wanted me to hide all the equations and sums all over the main level of our house. He found them, gathered them on the coffee table and matched the equations to the sums. Granted, the hiding had nothing to do with the solving, but it was all HIS idea and he loved it and he knows his doubles--that's what matters to me!
Then we laid all the cards out face down on the coffee table and played the memory game with them. I later caught my 5ds doing it on his own! He loves memory games.
My 7ds is very reluctant in math. He's good at math, but it needs to have a meaning and purpose for him to study it. He likes filling in the calendar, because it's important to him to know which day of the week it is (so he knows what's coming up in his life). He hates facts worksheets unless we set the timer and he has to beat the clock.
He loves any games we make up for the 100 number chart, so we do that a lot! Guess which number is covered...how fast can you find 17? 92? 55?...make a vertical line--what do you notice about the last digits?...make a horizontal line--what do you notice about the first digits?...find or make a game piece of some sort for each player, start just off the board by the 1, have a cup or bag with pennies and dimes, when it's your turn blindly grab the first coin you touch, if it's a penny then move your marker one space, if it's a dime move your marker 10 spaces, first one to the end wins...or get to 100 and work your way back to zero.
We do better with "on the fly" games. We own a number of board games, but this child gets bored easily with repetition and likes to make up his own games. It goes against my nature, but I just try to relax and trust his instincts--we are definitely learning together and I'm so thankful this particular child is home!
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Molly Smith in VA
Mom to seven beautiful children, ages 1-14
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Cindy
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| Posted: April 15 2005 at 7:27am | IP Logged
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Ok- here is an answer you may not expect. I just gave up.
My now 14 yos had a terrible time getting the mult facts. He understood the concept of what mult was early on, but could not memorize. He is not the memorizing type- unless it means something to him. Also he is stonger in creative, spatial, literary, etc- so memorizing 'random ' numbers didn't come easy.
I tried everything:
flash cards, mult songs, skip count, pennies taped on cards, wrap ups, math shark, computer games, - you name it.
I tried on and off over the years, thinking as different developemental levels came up, he would pick it up.
I didn't want to slow down his progress in the conceptual areas, so I gave him a mult chart to use when he needed.
The end result, is he has picked up most of them through life. It did get progressively easier as he got older. Finally last year as he was doing some math, he realized himself that this was hard only because he was having to stop and think for every calc and look up the answer. *He* decided then he wanted to learn them. He learned much faster in that short span than all the time I spent drilling.
Now, he is still shaky, but is progressing, still using the chart occastionally. I wanted him to understand the two aspects of math- concepts and mechanics and keep going on the concepts, which he is and enjoys.
I am glad I 'gave up' to an extent so I didn't completely kill his joy of math... which I got close to doing.
We are doing LOF together with with my other son and they both are armed with calculators!
I am finding as he works with the numbers he is picking up the mult tables and am not worried he will know them throughouly.. someday.
Cindy in Texas
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Cindy in Texas
It Is About The Journey
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tovlo4801
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| Posted: April 15 2005 at 7:39am | IP Logged
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Cindy,
Thanks for the post! I needed to hear that. I have to admit that I never really mastered math facts myself. The truth is we can manage to function in the world without complete mastery. I went on to do very well as an ACCOUNTANT for heavens sake!! Now as an adult I'm beginning to get the facts down finally. Working with my son is helping, but it actually came with my part-time data enry job. I get paid by the piece so I have to keep a running list of the pieces I've completed and the time it took me. After a while adding up these columns of numbers I began to independently develop strategies for adding up these numbers quickly. Isn't that silly? After working as an accountant for so long, I began to get the facts after coming home to work/teach and started adding up rows of numbers and flashing my son multiplication facts. 
For our family, we're not completely giving up, but we are allowing the calculators and moving forward with other concepts too! It's working pretty well here too.
God Bless,
Richelle
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Cindy
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| Posted: April 16 2005 at 12:18pm | IP Logged
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tovlo4801 wrote:
Cindy,
. I went on to do very well as an ACCOUNTANT for heavens sake!! Now as an adult I'm beginning to get the facts down finally. |
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Hi Richelle!
How inspiring to hear! I have read a lot about learning styles and Mulitple Intelligences this last year which has really helped me understand that everyone learns differenly. I went to PS, made A's memorized tables and went on to be in Finance, etc. I wondered what about those who think more creatively, spatially? Can they, too? You just showed me.. and what you say is echoed by all that I have read. It is a challenge to learn and raise kids at the same time.. wish I had all the knowledge when I started, you know?
Thanks for your post--- keep us informed on how things go..!
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Cindy in Texas
It Is About The Journey
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Leonie
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| Posted: April 16 2005 at 8:02pm | IP Logged
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Cindy, I agree !
My fourth son found learning/remembering maths facts to be HARD - so we gave up. We did Maths games, maths journals, real life.
By the time he got to twelve, I noticed that he really knew his maths facts - and how to tell the time - both things he had struggled with for years. He just grew into them.
He is sixteen now and is not a mathematical person but he does have the basics down and can do algebra, etc.
I have also been making some maths file folder games with my nine year old recently, as he is a hands on person. Perhaps making and playing these file folder games, related to maths facts. may be helpful for your ds, Alison.
Leonie in Sydney
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tovlo4801
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| Posted: April 20 2005 at 9:37am | IP Logged
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Alcat wrote:
| Does any one have any suggestions for games for math facts (we are currently stuck on the 8's). |
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Alison,
I was thinking about you as I looked through the CBD Homeschool Sale catalog I just got in the mail. There were two math games in it that I thought might appeal to your son. The first I just might buy for my kids. It's called Light 'n' Strike Math. It's an electronic game that drills math facts. The screen shows a math equation and then the kids take a rubber mallet and whack out the answer on a pad. My boys love whacking things with a mallet, so this might be wonderful fun for them!
The second is called Math Whiz. It looks like it's set up a lot like the Turbo Twist Math I mentioned before except it's shaped more like a handheld game system.
There were several other games in the catalog, but I remember you seemed to think your son would particularly like the electronic games. The address for CBD is www.christianbook.com. HTH.
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ALmom
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| Posted: May 19 2005 at 3:02am | IP Logged
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One of ours also got "stuck" early on in math. It turned out that part of her problem was vision. She had poor visual memory because she had poor vision (her acuity was 20/20, she just couldn't see because she wasn't using her eyes together). The main thing is that things did eventually click for her and when they did she zoomed.
Here are some ideas for game type drills. Subtraction is the reverse of addition so it helps if they know the addition facts really well. Then grasping the relationship of addition and subtraction by putting fact families together also helps. Subtraction is also a little like thinking in reverse so try some silly games counting backwards (a piano teacher taught music reading the bass cleff in a similiar way). We saw a game in a mindware catelogue that was intrigueing. It was basically scrabble with numbers. My boys hated manipulatives even when they may have needed them some. We did some Miquon math sheets. I would say that if your child is enjoying the written worksheets and repetition (even if you think it a little silly), it may be because it is helping him build confidence in some way. We've taken breaks and let our children run with stuff like that at least for a little while. Doing the same type problems over and over is one technique of memorizing. It can seem like drudgery for some children but some children are like my son - get down to business and cut out all fluff and the more basic it was, the more he liked it. For him the Drudgery stuff made him feel secure. He has all kinds of concepts in his head and thrives on a Saxon approach (ie drill and repetition, he seems to get concepts intuitively). For early math we did do a lot of developmental math (for this child only as it can seem like drudgery) for math fact type things.
Hope this gives a few ideas.
Janet
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TracyQ
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| Posted: May 24 2005 at 9:22am | IP Logged
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We have used Quarter Mile Math. I bought it at www.timberdoodle.com It has worked very well these years. I bought the K-9 bundle at the time, so all three kids use it, including my high schooler.
The kids race (they choose either horses or cars). They race against their previous races, so they're trying to better themselves.
It's helped quite a bit. I may look into something else for next year to use along with Quarter Mile, just for a change, but it has really stood the test of time for us.
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Blessings and Peace,
Tracy Q.
wife of Marty for 20 years, mom of 3 wonderful children (1 homeschool graduate, 1 12th grader, and a 9th grader),
 homeschooling in 15th year in Buffalo, NY
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mom3aut1not
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| Posted: May 24 2005 at 7:02pm | IP Logged
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Other alternatives for math games or activities would be Family Math and the games from Activities for Learning website. In fact games are used for drill in their curriculum (Rightstart Math).
http://www.activitiesforlearning.com/index.asp?PageAction=VI EWPROD&ProdID=12
I like using games for reinforcement!
Another idea I got from another hsing mom was to make my own 3x5 cards with multiplication facts on them. (One of my dds has short-term memory problems and has a lot of trouble memorizing almost anything.)
However, I only worked on a few new math facts at a time. Let's say my dd knew all the 2x facts and also knew that multiplication is commutative. Then I would introduce 3x3 and 3x4 and review a selection of the 1x facts and the 2x facts. As she mastered the new ones, I would put them in the Review Frequently section of the card file and retire other well-known facts into the Review Infrequently section. It took a year or so, but it worked. It also did not overwhelm her or cause meltdowns.
In Christ,
Deborah
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Marybeth
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| Posted: May 26 2005 at 11:37pm | IP Logged
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Here are 2 suggestions my aunt gave me when I was teaching in my own classroom.
1. Use dice and let them roll them and add, subtract or multiply the #s ie: they roll a 2 and 6 they add to 8 subtract to 4 or multiply to 12
2. They give you a math quiz and have to correct it themselves! This was always a big hit in my classroom b/c they loved when I made a mistake. 
My aunt would always tell me children either are strong in reading or math at one time. They seem to have trouble being proficient in both as beginning learners. Yes, exceptions there will be....this was her assessment after 42 years of teaching little ones.
Just her 2 cents.
Marybeth
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MaryM
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| Posted: July 25 2005 at 5:41pm | IP Logged
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Does anyone have recommendations for any of the different CD/cassettes for drilling multiplication facts through song? I've seen that there are many different ones available and would like feedback on anyones favorites.
Thanks.
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Mary M. in Denver
Our Domestic Church
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4Real Forums : Living and Loving Numbers
Topic: Help with math facts
