Homeschoolers: Please help, need resources

[randomkid]

DD is in 2nd grade and has been doing well, but is struggling with math. Math has never been her strongest area, so I think we need to work on it now to make things better for her in the future. I'm also finding that recently she is just not retaining information. She had a Science test yesterday that I helped her study for and she only got 3 out of 7 correct. This is just not like her. School is becoming more challenging in this 2nd semester and DD does not like to struggle (I found the NPR article on struggling very interesting and so true!). I need to find a way to help her with Math at home and help her retain information. I think I really need to figure out her learning style. I know with spelling, she cannot just spell words out loud to me, but if I have her write them down, she can do it very fast with great accuracy.

In Math, she needs to be stronger in her math facts. Sometimes, I can ask her "What's 6+2?" and she looks at me like I have 2 heads. I really think this is a confidence thing, but it is causing her to struggle with the more advanced math they are starting now - like adding/subtracting double digit numbers. She missed 14 problems on her last test and I think it's just because she didn't want to think about them. Her response is always "I forgot". Of course, this all started AFTER parent/teacher conference which was a couple of weeks ago. I am hoping that having some time off over the holidays will help, but I still feel the need to work on these things.

I have great communication with her teacher and plan to talk with her today. I will ask her to let me know a few days ahead when a test will be and to provide the information to me sooner. For example, I knew she was having a Science test yesterday, but the information did not come home until Monday night. I feel DD needs a couple of days to study for something like that so we need the review sheets sooner.

My primary areas I want to focus on right now:
1) Math Facts
2) Figuring out her learning style
3) Strategies to help her retain info she has studied for a test.

[GvilleGirl]

Just a quick thought for math facts, but what about games? A lot of games use math facts. Until you know the combinations pyramid solitaire. Cribbage involves a lot of counting to 31, and knowing pairs and 15 combinations. You could play math baseball on the computer.

[inmypjs]

We do a combo of homeschool and public school. My DS is in 2nd grade.

Here is a nice summary of audio/sequential learning vs. visual/spatial. Audio/sequential kids usually do quite well in a traditional school environment, whereas visual/spatial kids often have a harder time.

http://www.visualspatial.org/vslasl.php

Many visual spatial kids have difficulty recalling math facts. Many understand math concepts just fine or even excel at advanced math, but just can't remember the facts. One thing that helped us is to differentiate between arithmetic (the computation part) and mathematics (conceptual understanding). Doing this allowed me to see that my son has trouble with computation, but not the concepts. He understands it very well, he just has trouble memorizing. If this is where your trouble lies, I would start looking into mnemonic aids.

We really like City Creek Press materials (www.citycreekpress). We used the Addition the Fun Way book and audio CD to help with memorization of addition and subtraction. They're not entirely memorized but we're getting there. My son is a typical VSL in that he has fabulous narrative (story) memory but trouble with rote memorization. So the stories for each math fact are great for him. The audio CD is great because you can listen in the car.

If she doesn't understand the concepts of adding and subtracting, you'll have to go back there. Math U See has been great at our house for cementing concepts. The brief video lessons and blocks are great. MUS's mantra is build it, write it, say it, and it really seems to work. So for example, if I say what is 6 + 2, and he doesn't know, he knows to get the MUS blocks out, build the problem and come up with the answer. Here is the web site: www.mathusee.com. Our school uses Everyday Math, and the spiral nature of that program combined with the reliance on number lines and grids was not good for my son. MUS is a mastery program and I find the blocks are a much better aid for him. You can often find the materials used on homeschoolclassifieds too.

I will say that traditional school seems to place more emphasis on fact memorization than conceptual understanding. My expectation with my son is that if he does not have the fact memorized, that he know how to find the answer - and he does. Does your daughter have any aids at school that she can use to compute the answer when she doesn't know it? I allow my son to use MUS blocks whenever he needs to - similar to the way the school allows kids to use the number line and grids.

Hope that helps a little.

[kijip]

Do you have math manipulatives? We have cuisinare rods and base ten blocks and that really helps a lot of visual spatial kids. Literally have her use the blocks to figure out the answer. Miquon is a good basic curriculum that helps younger elementary kids with both facts and conceptual understanding.

Beast Academy is another program that has been very useful here. It is by the folks at Art of Problem Solving. While the topics are a little beyond where she is at right now, it has a great way of presenting math concepts in a way that allows kids to fluently apply concepts to mechanics. My sons mental math ability increased after using this program.

I would make what you do different and supplemental to what they do at school because whatever they are doing at school isn't sinking in that well.

[kijip]

I second Math U See as well. It's a good program that a lot of our hs friends use.

[Simon]

Does she like card games or is she competitive at all? Ds1 is using lots of card games to practice basic math facts at school. Here are 2 of the games we play.

The simplest might be to divide the deck into halves and each person draws 2 cards, adds their face value and announces it. If correct, they get to keep the cards as 2 points, if incorrect it goes to the bottom of their own pile. A variation is to use a common pile and each person draws from there and either keeps points or returns their cards to the middle.

A variation on "Go Fish" is to have kids request the card that adds up to "10." So instead of trying make a pair (I have a 4; I ask you for a 4) instead I ask for a 6 to make 10. We take out the K, Q, Jack for that game or else we practice adding up to 12 or 15 or another number.

Math is not Ds1's strong suit so it is sometimes slow going and I let Ds1 use his fingers to count when needed, but it is helping him practice math facts and is a little more fun than plain flash cards.

Also, if you'd like to build her confidence then playing some games that just use the plain number line might help. Solitaire, for example, just involves knowing the number line up and down.

A game called Basura/Trash involves dealing 10 cards to each player who lines them up face down and put the remaining cards in a community pile in the center. They represent numbers 1-10 so take out K, Q, Jack and count Ace as 1. The first player turns over one card and finds its "place" in the number line. They set that card in its rightful spot and turn over the card (that was face down) there and try to find its correct spot and so on until they turn over a card whose number is already face up in the correct spot. That card is discarded. Next player takes a turn until they have to discard. You keep going either turning over cards that are face down OR drawing from the community card pile to try and filling your entire number line. Its very visual and should really help cement number order for her. Its also pretty fast so its easy to go rapidly through games and for each player to win several times.

Are the tests timed? Is she allowed to draw her own number line on the page or another visual reminder? This may be something she needs to use as a crutch to help her over the hurdle into confidence.

[gatorsmom]

Your DD sounds just like Gator as far as retention of math facts. He is now in 3rd grade. For the last 2 years we have been working and working on his math facts. We've used all sorts of things to help him remember them. But after working so hard on them, he'd forget them after a week or so.

Our teacher last year said she has seen this many times. She said sometimes it takes lots of repetition and then one day it finally kicks in. Gator's school is teaching Saxon Math which is really heavy on repetition and memory learning. In first and second grade they were taking timed tests and he was failing them all. Over the summer we worked really hard on his math and I'm thrilled to say his 5minutes timed facts tests this year are all passing grades. It really seems that his teacher last year was right- it just kicked in.

We were using flashcards but that wasnt working. We tried other techniques too which failed. So someone here recommended this website: http://www.aleks.com/ We do not do any of the courses. We only use the Quick Tables. I definitely think that would work with your second grader or any other Grade although the website says grades K-12 but then in other places it says only grades 3+. If you go to the website, click on "Course Products" then under Elementary you'll see the link for Quick Tables. It's really just an online game that presents different math facts and the student has a moment or 2 to type in the answer. It has been wonderful for us since Gator can log in when he has some free time. As he makes progress, the system opens up new math games he can play. At each 20% level increase, a new game is unlocked. I can't recommend it enough.

hth!

[roseyloxs]

We also have cuisinare rods (http://www.amazon.com/CUISENAIRE-RODS-SMALL-GROUP-155/dp/B001AZ6W7E) and base ten blocks (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1564514498). DS is only a kindergartner so I don't do anything formal with him yet but bought these for next year: Miquon (http://www.amazon.com/Miquon-Math-Lab-Materials-Orange/dp/0913684503) and Life of Fred (http://www.amazon.com/Life-Fred-Apples-Elementary-Serious/dp/B0067P9R24/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1352916682&sr=8-2&keywords=life+of+fred+apples). I included amazon links so you can read some reviews from people who have already used the materials.

[lmwbasye]

I strongly recommend getting some wooden c-rods and using the videos on the free site "Education Unboxed". Miquon would work well too.

[megs4413]

We have done EVERYTHING. I am starting to think this is just a developmental thing, like reading, in that some kids just don't have the facts click until later than they're expected to, but they DO get there. Just don't give up! That's really my best advice! We worked on this for two years and felt like we were getting nowhere (I tried every homeschool angle there was! rods, cubes, math-u-see, flashcards, games, etc) and none of it really seemed to help DD.

Here is what I think DID help, since my DD sounds a lot like your DC:

1. go low pressure. if this means that the exercise is supposed to be timed and DC can't function with the clock ticking, turn the dang clock off. practice the skill without the pressure.

2. build on small victories. My DD was able to grasp the +2 concept even when she couldn't do any other facts. She understood the skip counting thing. We CELEBRATED those victories. When she memorized her doubles facts, I flipped out with her. She really, really struggled with confidence. She was learning to believe that she simply "couldn't understand math." I pointed out to her every time she DID get math.

3. practice, practice, practice. My DD was trying to avoid doing math because it intimidated her and was a negative experience. This aversion and avoidance contributed to the overall problem. So, I had to stay on her to stick with it. That meant we would sometimes drill facts in the car while driving. We would play board games and I would shout out the associated math on the dice when we rolled. Just don't give in to the avoiding.

4. Identify your child's unique learning style. This really applies to any subject.

5. Work to mastery on one skill before moving on to another concept. I cannot stress this enough. DO NOT just keep piling on concepts without really getting your child to master previous ones. This just adds to the stress and feelings of being overwhelmed. They do this at public school (my DD spent 1st grade at PS) and it is just a recipe for disaster. I just flat out started telling the teacher that DD was going to keep working on her basic math skills at her pace. She simply did not HAVE to move on to fractions just because that's what the curriculum demanded of her.

Keep the faith! My DD was so lost last year and all of a sudden it just clicked for her this fall. It's still not her best subject, but she's growing in confidence and does have her facts up to 10 basically memorized.

[m448]

we use Right Start Math. I really like that they slow it wayyyy down when it comes to learning the math facts and really SEEING the numbers. We use an abacus (basic one) which let's them see the correlation between 5+x, etc. for almost all the numbers and the tens on each row then move onto base 10 cards.

They do sell a deck of different game cards and a book for just math games set up by skill. It came with our curriculum.

Another good tool for supplementing is Math Mammoth. You can get the full series or she sells individual books by topic (both paper or download) that help you hone in on just the area of struggle.

[randomkid]

Thank you all for taking the time to give me this info. Now, I just have to find the time to sort through it all to see what I think will help DD the most. The crazy thing is that she can do the facts easily with visuals - blocks, even just printed on paper, number lines, pictures, etc. But, they are starting "mental math" where you just know it and she struggles with it. What frustrates me is that DD pushes herself to do it without the visuals. The teacher even told me that she still allows them to use their fingers to count and she even taught them some tricks using fingers to make it quicker. On their worksheets, there will be blocks of tens and ones and the directions say "Add using mental math or cubes", but DD won't use the cubes. It makes me want to :banghead:. She is pressuring herself to do it mentally when the teacher is still providing the visuals. Some kids just take longer as a PP mentioned. I wish DD would realize that!

I again looked at her test where she missed 14. Most of it is because the work is incomplete, she didn't read the instructions thoroughly, or she just didn't do it at all. Not sure what was going on there, but will review it with her. DD hates having her mistakes pointed out to her, but it's the only way she will learn. She missed all of the money counting questions and she does great with those on homework. I truly believe it's her confidence. She knows it, but doesn't think she does. I'm hoping some of the practice will help her.

[inmypjs]

I wonder how she feels about her math skills. Do you talk about that? Maybe she is feeling pressure to "keep up" with those who can do the mental math? It almost sounds like she is zoning out, maybe as a way to avoid doing what she doesn't like and/or thinks she isn't good at. My son will do avoidance/escape behaviors when he feels that way at school. Does she have any problems with attention or focus in other subjects? I will say that one asset to my son's learning has been his excellent verbal skills. We've had a lot of good conversations about how he feels about himself during public school that have helped me figure out what he needs.