My daughter is in algebra. I am pregnant and a couple weeks ago, I really hurt my back. I was in incredible pain and dh had to largely take over, while working from home. I instructed dd to just keep doing her assignments as long as she understood them. She asked me to correct them, but I told her I was too sick. I asked her if she felt like she got the answers right and she said yes, so I told her not to worry about it, go on to the next thing. I had written out her assignment for weeks in advance..through mid March actually. So, I am feeling better now and went through and correct the last couple weeks assignments. Let's just say...not good. Not 100% bad, she would be making a low B in the class if she were in public school. But math is something you get or you do not get. One end of chapter review she got a B on, the other she barely got a B on, and skipped over a fair number of problems by accident. The assignments in between had lots of errors. In the past, I would make her correct any mistakes on that days assignments. Now it just seems wrong to go back over 2+ weeks worth of assignments and make her correct them. I am not sure what to do. I figured I would start with the end of chapter reviews (I essentually use those as tests) and see if she can do well a 2nd time around. If not, then I guess I better go back over the assignments and see what she missed. Not sure. Also, I have a review book planned for when she finishes the curriculum, which at this point, she should be done by mid April. Clearly, she has enough time to go back over things, it is just it can be so self defeating to suddenly have to go back and redo large parts of 2+ weeks of assignments
I check all the math and circle the number of any they get wrong. Then they correct it and I check it again. Once I got behind on Crystal's and had to go back over several days work to get caught up. She had missed a lot of problems in that unit so we stopped what we were supposed to be doing and went over it all together. I am afraid if I don't go back and have her redo it that she will never understand what she is doing wrong. She is not strong in math so we try to make sure she doesn't get behind.
Rachael does her math totally independently. But if she gets a problem wrong, I expect her to understand what went wrong, whether that is looking at it and saying, "Oh, duh!!!" or actually re-doing it, or watching it being done on the CD to she understands where she made the mistake.
Our routine(which seems to work really well for us) is that dd does the math problems, I check them, she goes back and works on corrections and then we go over them together before starting a new lesson. Before I start anything new I want to make sure that dd knows what she is doing on previous problems. Usually she is able to find most of her errors but some days she does not see them or keeps making the same mistake at that point we go over the problem together (with her doing or leading the majority of the work). If I were you I would make her go and do those corrections. In math especially Algebra it is essential that the student have a firm grasp on material before you build on it. Algebra is the basis of most higher level Math. I would just work on the corrections for the next week or so and really make sure she has got it. You might find that the errors she is making are consistent through the problems and it is better to clear that up now.
I checked all the math, marked what was wrong and my ds' were required the fix it with the correct answer. We would go over why they got it wrong so they would understand why they made an error.
I check all math and have the kids correct anything they missed. I have them explain to me why they think they missed the problem...how they could correct it..etc. If they are clueless I go over it with them. Given your situation and having been there myself...I totally understand that you did not feel like checking her math. If she is good in math and you are confident that is knows her stuff...then don't be too hard on yourself. If you are uncertain try having your dh correct her work...or someone else. Now, I would not go back over 2 weeks worth of papers! No way! However, if she is having a problem and it stems from a misunderstanding from the beginning...then just go over the concept and not all the backed up papers.
I make my kids redo mistakes but given your circumstances I dont know what I would do either. Is there any free printables on line that covers that concept? Maybe print a few out and see how she does? Math builds upon itself and missing a concept can make it harder later on.
Math at the algebra level is fairly easy to self-check, so you might consider that in the future. I'm not sure where she is, but say she's supposed to solve for x in 2x + 7 = 15 if she gets x = 2, then she can plug it back in and see that 4 +7 doesn't = 15 Obviously the problems get tougher as she goes through, but as I recall the majority of algebra is pretty easy to check like that. It might be worth taking a few extra minutes to figure out how to teach her to self-check and save you the stress later. *and* she will figure out where she makes mistakes. Or you can have her look at the problem and figure out, how would I self-check this? That will make her actually think about the processes. You will probably still need to do an overlook to verify the correct answers. Sometimes it can be easy to mess up on the self-check the same way you messed up when you did the problem. But if she does that, then the odds are she's making a simple "duh" math error (I'm a math geek who made a ton of those when I went too fast), like adding 2+2 and getting 5. Or you can have her self-check every 2nd, 4th, or 5th problem if you'd rather. But the self-check does teach the process as well as the process itself. I know that's all future aimed, but you could have her go back through just a handful of what she did wrong and figure out where she made her mistake. Catching her mistake herself has several advantages: 1. she is learning as she figures out what she did wrong, and probably even more than she learned while she went thru in the first place 2. she feels better about her math as she has these realizations 3. the "this is wrong" comes from her, not you, so they are easier for her to accept/understand/take 4. she gets more of the work and responsibility while you struggle with being pregnant HTH! SG
I would not go back and make her redo past mistakes, just make a point to check them and have her correct them from here on in. My mom actually had me check my own work once I got to high school math. I would do my lesson, she would give me the answer key and I would make an X next to each problem I got wrong and then I would re-work it till I got the right answer. Obviously this wouldn't work with a dishonest child. My grade would be whatever I got the first time I checked my work. Towards the end of High school if I got above 90% on my lesson I would not re-work any of the wrong answers.
I 2nd the idea of having the child self check her answers. It sounds like you are pretty comfortable with her independent learning. I would have her go over the stuff she missed and see if it is mainly silly math errors or comprehension errors. My own ds' is almost 98% math errors rather than not setting up the problem right. I make him redo ALL of them, but mostly because it is a "natural consequence" of moving too fast. AND this may be off topic, but I heard a little "mama guilt" in your post...it is ok to not be on top of everything all the time. Maybe a B in algebra is ok. (I would have been thrilled for myself.)
In Algebra, however, it's more than just "checking" answers. Sure, it's easy enough to say RIGHT or WRONG. But you also have to really understand HOW that answer came about. And if there's a problem with that, it's NOT necessarily something she can correct on her own. Someone with understanding needs to sit down and explain it to her until she DOES understand how it's done.
I agreew ith Jackie - once you get to algebra it isn't about whether or not the answer was correct - it is about understanding how to move things around and apply the right strategy. The right answer counts of course, but the process (and showing the process) should be worth points all on its own. This is one reason I like TT. They correct and have the animated solutions to explain why they got it wrong. Personally I think moving forward in Algebra (or any math for that matter) when there is not 100% understanding will lead to future problems. That doesn't mean they need to get everything right all the time - but they need to be able to look at the problem and see that it was something minor that prevented them from getting the correct answer - or that it was a lack of understanding of the concept that prevented them from getting the correct answer. Minor things like accidentally multiplying wrong or having a positive instead of a negative are OK, as long as they see where they went wrong. OTOH - if they are unsure about which numbers to multiply or how to decide if the number is a positive or a negative - that is a huge issue that cannot be skipped.
I would have her redo them for Algebra. Almost every algebra problem you can check for yourself by plopping your answer back into the original equation. She should develop that habit before you check in the solutions manual.
Just have her do a few (new) problems in each section, and only have her correct the ones she misses from those. That way you can trouble shoot and find out what she needs to go over again without redoing all the material, and correcting too many problems. If you can print out fresh section/chapter reviews, you could have her do a few problems off of those, but maybe not the whole thing? Just as an evaluation tool, rather than completely redoing the math.
In this case, I would go through the work and see what she seems to have made mindless errors on (she understands the concept as demonstrated by most of the work, she just made some lazy or silly mistakes) and what she seems to truly be misunderstanding (most or all the a type of problem is wrong). If it's just errors, but she seems to demonstrate an understanding of the concept, I'd let it go at this point. If she doesn't seem to know what she's doing, go over the concept and then move on and see if she can implement it in her current work. If she can't you know you need to go back and redo some of it. If she gets it, just keep moving. Of course I have a couple of good math kids. I might feel differently if it were language in our case. Edie
We try and correct every day either my dh or I. Then what she got wrong we have her re-do and try to understand what she got wrong. At that point she goes to either my dh. On Tuesdays she takes advantage of math lab at the school and goes there for any extra support she may need.
We check it over as we do it for ds, dd I check work every so often because they are usually all correct! Once in a while we find an error and I go back through the work to find otu where it came from. But for the most part I grade her tests now and if there is one or two wrong I go back and grade that lessons work to find the mistakes. She does all of the practice work and all of the lesson work though on MUS , just for fun! lol! so I dont worry much.
