Hello! My daughter is 5 and I have a few questions about math...We started the year with Saxon K and found it WAY too basic...she hated it! We did a few of the kindergarten walmart workbooks, and she had no problem with those. So..my Learning consultant suggested she try Jump Math. It is a grade one book though. so...things were going fine until today. She understands more and less when there are pictures or manipulatives, but as soon as you ask her to use her fingers or a number line, she has no idea what I'm asking. For example, the book has questions: 5 is _____ more than 3. She can look at linking cubes and easily tell me that the answer is two, but doesn't seem to understand what the question is asking the way it's worded in the book. So...I'm wondering if it's her age and perhaps inability to think in abstract terms and she just needs some time to "age" or if it's the way the book is wording it. In your experience, can kindergarten kids think in abstract ways, or do they usually need concrete pictures or manipulatives? I'm now starting to think I should just back off and leave her alone!! Or maybe go to Right Start, which would give her the concrete abacus...but maybe she'd start to "see" it in her head like so may people report... sorry this is so long...and yes, I realize she is only in kindergarten...
What is a Learning Consultant? I'm unfamiliar with this.... Also. She's in K. It is VERY hard for them to learn abstract thinking....slow down, back track, don't frustrate her or it will set the tone for future learning. Go back and review skills that she is comfortable with. Sometimes it takes a few times of a new concept WRAPPED in concepts she can handle very well. That way she feels the successes of the stuff she knows, and then is not as intimidated of the things she needs to learn.
oh...sorry! i am registered with a school in Canada and our teachers are called Learning consultants. We report to them weekly. Some schools are very rigid about what they expect and others not so much...mine is a "school" that encouraged unschooling (Self Design is the school's name). Anyway, yes, I think you're right...I just wasn't sure if it was the abstract thinking that was the problem...or what the definition of "abstract" really is when it comes to math... Everything was just so easy peasy, and then all of a sudden..slam! she hit a "wall" so that's why I was thinking it might be a developmental thing...but then I haven't had much experience with this age or other curriculums etc, so...just thought I'd throw it out there! thanks for your response : )
Yes, it sounds like she's just not ready for that level of thinking yet. Try a different form of math that is hands-on (like simple fractions in the kitchen, using a clock, using a variety of measurement tools, identifying money, identifying patterns, etc.). Seeing the numbers in an abstract way will just take time. You can make mental images to see them, though. For example, I've taught positive and negative numbers right from the start with my kids. I use buildings as my mental image for them. They can visualize stairs or elevators going up and down the building (positive numbers), and can physically add & subtract using stairs at home. They can also visualize negative numbers when the elevator goes down to the basement of the building, assuming the lobby area is the number 0. If you're on the 3rd floor, and you take the elevator down 5 floors, where do you end up? It's easy to close your eyes and see the elevator dropping to 2nd, 1st, lobby, 1 below lobby, 2 below lobby, so the answer is -2. Draw a simple building (10 floors up and 5 floors below), make copies or laminate, and then use the picture over and over to teach a "number line" as a "building line" instead. I always hated number lines, too. (For now, I'd use elevators as your model, so that floors are whole numbers. Later, you can use 10 stairs for each floor as decimals between whole numbers.)
I have to put a plug in for McRuffy Math. Very hands on, not a day goes by that we don't use some kind of manipulative. There are lots of games built in, in K it seems there is one every week or two. The workbook is not overwhelming like many of them out there. I have one who struggles in math, she just doesn't process things "mathy" in her head and she is doing great with it. I also have a mathy kiddo using it and he loves it.
