I waited for it to be introduced in the lesson itself. Then we used it when the lesson said "Using your Calculator".... up until jr high/middle school when they had multiple add this then multiply this to get this... word problems and such are easier to enjoy instead of dread if they can use the calculator occasionally. Mine love to figure it in their heads though so calc. was like a plus. Now ds uses one almost daily for pre alg.
It depended on the child. If I knew they knew how to calculate it in their head, then I let them use the calculator. Ds was more of a lazy student. He wasn't cooperative for a long time, so he didn't get to use it until he had a better attitude. (pre-algebra this year) But Dd has a good attitude about school work, so she is using it right now in 6th grade for the functions she knows like the back of her hand.
Our son is in 6th this year and has never used a calculator for math. He's good at "doing it in his head," I just wondered if I should allow him to use the calculator for some things to speed things up...He usually (98% of the time) has a good attitude, and is not a lazy student (just distracted sometimes).
We take the summer off from HSing. Oldest DS, when we start back can use a calculator after I see that he remembers his facts. He will be a senior this year but has memory LD. So once I see that he can use it if he wants. Maybe with your ds could use it every other time or twice a week. Or maybe you could just let him use it to be super nice on any given day, as long as he keeps up the good work. I personally wouldn't let him use it all the time, if he is like me, if he uses it all the time, well lets just say that my oldest got his memory LD from me.
We didn't use one until it was introduced in the end of algebra 1 and then only when they said to use it. I called around to some colleges to see what type of calculator they recommended purchasing and most of them stated that they don't allow them accept in a few upper level courses. Most of them require all the problems written out step by step.
When DH just took a placement test for the community college, he was not allowed to use a calculator. All he got was one pencil and one piece of scratch paper. And he had up to calculus level questions on the placement test. So the boys won't be using them. At all. Period. Unless they get into graphing where they have to have a TI84 or something, there is no need.
We never even got to use the graphing calculator. :/ Why do some of the scientific calculators say that they are able to be used on the SAT and ACT then? That was one of my deciding factors in letting them use the calculator for functions they have already mastered.
My kids are young so I have not introduced a calculator to them. I may never let them use one. My high school math teacher (algebra 2, trig, and calculus) never let us use a calculator, so I may follow her lead.
Because I think they can be for those tests. The test DH took was the college's test. They don't require the SAT or ACT and ignore the scores for placement purposes. In other words, for our two-year technical community college, the ACT/SAT aren't good enough. The only math classes I've taken where I was allowed to use a calculator was for graphing in Trig and then last year in Stats. I couldn't use one for the other three college math classes I took.
I don't think I will let him use a calculator on a regular basis right now. But, I did let him use one last year, I think it was just one assignment using pi and I told him he could do THOSE problems only with a calculator. I probably won't even do that every time, but a break once in a while is nice. I have some close friends who are homeschooling 4 children (5 yrs-14yrs. old). The father raves about his oldest son's math ability and says that he is way ahead. They let him use a calculator on all his math assignments. This young man (who is a wonderful friend to my son) has a watch set on military time. In order to convert the military time to regular time, he uses his fingers. I think that shows a lack of knowing the basic skills down pat.
I don't let my kids use a calculator and I don't know at what age I will let them. We are just going to wait and see how things go, but I know they won't use one for sure until they reach 9thish grade levels.
Jackie I think it ws 5th or 6th grade in life paks or sos? But anyway I was glad because there are times when a calculator is useful and it has been fun figuring out how many more times something is... I let ds work on a chart to see how many times a certain number times itself would equal a certain number and that sort of thing too. But usually they only use them when it says specifically "using your calculator.. blah blah blah"
In CLE in the sixth (fifth??) grade they begin having a few lessons where they teach how to use a calculator, and a few where they say Use Your Calculator, but other than it being specified in a lesson, no, my students don't use one at all. I never had one in school (not even in college), so I think it's a crutch. Besides that, quite a few years ago when calculators were all the rage in public schools, some research came out that showed that using calculators below fifth grade (fourth grade specifically) was detrimental to understanding the math. The calculator user also has to have enough math sense to be able to detect whether a calculator answer looks reasonable or they've made a major mistake in entering numbers/operations.
Which was my problem. If I had a list of numbers, I could add it on a calculator four times, and get four different answers. I have a finger-system of my own to add large columns. It was much more accurate for me than the calculator. I had a friend in college who had to add up receipts at the end of the night, and if there was a discrepency, it was very rarely my total that was wrong, but his with the calculator.
OP is allowed to use the calculator for any science calculations because that's how math is done in science. Other than that the calculator is for graphing algebraic expressions or regression and stuff like that - no basic math on the calculator for math class.
My parents let me LEARN to use a calculator when I was little, but I learned first with an abacus, then pencil and paper, then with a calculator. The majority of my math was done pencil and paper, probably...95% of all the math I did in my childhood was pencil and paper. (We did EVERY problem in the book, "Use Your Calculator" meant nothing) If I could do it again, I wouldn't use a calculator at all. I used one alot in every day things because I couldn't calculate in my head well at all! I would've gone Abacus/Manipulatives Pencil and Paper Mental Math instead of Calculator. When they need to learn to use a calculator, let 'em watch Video tutorials and do a few worksheets with Calculators. Its not hard to learn, but they become a severe crutch if you depend on them.
