4Real Forums: Math U See Zeta- takes long

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Living and Loving Numbers
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Topic: Math U See Zeta- takes long

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Kristie 4
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Posted: Jan 31 2008 at 9:24am \| IP Logged

My two oldest are about halfway through Zeta now and the pages are taking them so long all of the sudden. Some of this is definitely the post vacation thing, but still it seems to be taking them so long. Yesterday they each finished 1/2 page in 45 minutes and a few days before that ds12 took almost 2hours to get through one of the systematic reviews. I would generally never let it go that long and I am going to just require half a page for a while when it is a systematic review. All those many decimal division problems and circumference and area of a circle problems just have so many long calculations.

Has anyone found this with Zeta??

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Kristie in Canada
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lilac hill
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Posted: Jan 31 2008 at 10:38am \| IP Logged

We are right there with you--Lesson 16!
Once she has more mastery and I am sure she can remember when to use diameter and radius and squares correctly, I will allow some calculater use.
I do not want to make Zeta only about correct calculations but more about the concepts he is teaching.

I know that using a calculator is a bit unconventional but it has worked well for my older daughters who could not multiply easily

Hard to believe but math facts were a real sticking point and we turned math into 2 subjects--calculation/computation and more conceptual work. We had to do something or we would never have gotten beyond basic math.
DD#1 has revealaed that she was well into high school before she was sure of her math facts, repeatedly imputing it into her calculator helped her and finally learning mental math facts sped up her calculus and statistics. DD#2 has had a similar experience. BTW--both have done very well in Algebra, Algebra II/Trig, geometry and stats. DD#1 has done fine in college too, although not a math major

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Viv
Wife to Rick (7/83), Mom to dd#1(6/87), dd#2(1/90), and dd#3(6/94) in central PA.

Kristie 4
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Posted: Jan 31 2008 at 12:36pm \| IP Logged

Thank you so much for the input. Yes, I think I will let them use the calculator more. I just think that after the 6th looooong division with decimals problem anyone is bound to get a little befuddled.

Again today we had quite a slow math time- but DS12 got PERFECT on his page. He was thrilled

(Math doesn't come easy to this child.)

I have noticed that with my dd10, a bit of a math whiz, she has the concepts down pat with the Circumference and area of a circle so I think the calculator would just help her get through them so she can get onto her knitting and drawing

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Kristie in Canada
Mom to 3 boys and one spunky princess!!

A Walk in the Woods

Mary G
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Posted: Jan 31 2008 at 12:55pm \| IP Logged

Kristie 4 wrote:

... so she can get onto her knitting and drawing

Not necessarily a bad reason

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MaryG
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cathhomeschool
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Posted: Jan 31 2008 at 2:25pm \| IP Logged

We are using the old Math-U-See books, so we don't have zeta. When working area and circumference of a circle (and other problems that involve multiplication or division of large numbers), I let my son use a calculator. He understands the concepts. The point (in my book) is to make sure that he knows which formula to use and how to apply it, not to provide way-too-much-tedious-practice with long multiplication (and division).

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Janette (4 boys - 22, 21, 15, 14)

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Kristie 4
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Posted: Jan 31 2008 at 4:29pm \| IP Logged

Thanks for the support Janette- I know I would grab the calculator at that point!

Yes, Mary, it is amazing all the things we can pass onto our kids when we are with them day in and day out

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Kristie in Canada
Mom to 3 boys and one spunky princess!!

A Walk in the Woods

LLMom
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Posted: Feb 01 2008 at 9:28pm \| IP Logged

Yep, same thing for us.

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Lisa
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