Math Struggles... please help me not cry over this!

Ok, so Rylee is not a mathy kid at all. She gets it, but slowly. I think most of her problem is she seems to have no short term memory. She also seems to not have any ability to think in numbers.

We are using McRuffy, and with all the different hands on, she seems to eventually get it, but not quickly and her lessons seem to take anywhere between 1-2 hours any more. I'm almost tempted to go back to the beginning of the 1st grade book and have her repeat it this year (we are about halfway through it since I switched us back to McRuffy in Feb). Would I be crazy to do this? Would it help her grasp the math, maybe move a little faster in it and well maybe just maybe increase her short term memory?

For anyone who doesnt' know, I do think McRuffy is a bit ahead. By the end of K they are doing stuff I have seen towards the tale end of some 1st grade books, I'm pretty sure once we get through to the end of McRuffy 4th they would easily test into TT6 or maybe even TT7.

Most days by the time she is done with math I'm about in tears, and I'm pretty sure she is as well, though she tries to just keep moving along.

 

I think if it's that much of a struggle, I would go back, too. It also may be that the way McRuffy teaches it is too fast or maybe doesn't focus on each topic long enough. I say that bc DS can't handle covering multiple topics during a given day. He does better doing one function a day or even for a few days before moving to something else.

 

You know, I like that it is spiral and covers multiple things a day.. but maybe she needs just one thing a day and maybe pick something as review on Friday? I do not have the time or energy to build our own math program. She does like McRuffy, she loves the games and such in it.

What is Math Mammoth like? Is it spiral or mastery? Anyone know?

 

I can honestly say I feel your pain completely. Although my son is gifted mathematically, my daughter is the total opposite. I jumped on Teaching Textbooks when she finally reached the 3rd grade level just to minus me from the equation. Prior to TT, there was great weeping and gnashing of teeth on both our parts.

You might check out City Creek Press at citycreek.com. The mnemonic method really seems to work with my daughter. In fact, we're paused between 4th and 5th grade maths right now while my daughter focuses just on the Times Alive stuff.

I did discover that some of my daughter's math issues were simply the result of a stubborn streak in her. She knew I'd eventually wear down and do quite a bit of the problem for her just to move on. I didn't figure that out until TT where I would just tell her to go over it in the lecture again. Amazingly, she started getting correct answers to stuff a lot more frequently than she used to, and I don't think it's solely because TT was such a superior program.

Prior to TT, I did have her repeat the 1st grade math stuff. We'd tried Saxon which didn't work at all, so I switched over to Bob Jones for math. BJ was much more colorful and we had fewer tears and break downs with that until we made it to the level we needed to do TT instead. We also just slowed way down, but I'm in Texas and we don't have to fit in a certain amount of material in a specific amount of time like some other states require.

All that to say that I doubt there's one thing that's going to be a perfect fit. I do empathize with you, though, and really do understand your frustration in this area. I remember getting so upset and her getting upset and just absolutely hating math time. It really felt like there was no solution to the problem. But, time and maturity and a little deep breathing really does help a lot, I think.

 

We tried MM once a few years ago, but I couldn't really get a good grasp on how it was teaching. I know the newer editions of BJU math focus on just one or 2 topics for each lesson, though the TE is a bit expensive if you need it.

 

Thanks Shelley

In PA we are one of the most rigid states.. BUT, we just have to show sustained progress, and actually she isn't old enough yet that we have to report, now next year we will, but they do not even need to know what curriculum we are using or what grade level it is, we just need to turn in some samples and well if she is doing 2nd grade next year but is moving through the book from the beginning to the end of the year it will show harder work.

I'm not a huge fan of grade levels, but I still worry.

Now I do own MM, so I went and looked. Well everything minus the fractions that are covered in MM 2A, McRuffy 1 covers everything in the MM2A book.. and well I didn't take time yet to look at 2B, but I have a feeling that most of that is covered in McRuffy1 as well. McRuffy1 gets them adding and subtracting 3 digit numbers, reading an analog clock, counting coins, multiplying by 2, and does have some fractions, though they just seem to be halves from what I see at a glance.

 

I dont' care much for MM, that is why I own it and don't use it..lol It's just very abstract thinking for me, and it makes it hard to try to teach it to another person if I don't necessarily think the way it's trying to make me think..lol

 

That was exactly my problem, too. LOL

 

How would she do with a Math-u-see type approach? They do mastery, one topic at time and only a few worksheets a unit are "review" but even then, they are review of topics they've "mastered". MUS did not work in our house because it's not how my kids work - BUT it sounds like maybe your daughter would like it?

 

Is there a specific thing that is taking her longer?

 

What types of things is she doing that lead you to believe she has a poor short term memory?

 

I don't think she could handle a year of one thing without being bored. She also would not like the black and white aspect of it.

I think I may just keep going, adding in an online game program (hmmm which one, dreambox? IXL? something else?) and also giving her some extra practice sheets each day that deal with things she struggles with.. skip counting, coins, heck she even has issues with the teen numbers (she confuses like 15 with 50 quite often or 19 with 90). I'm looking right now for skip counting dot to dots, if anyone has a great resource for that I would love to know it.

 

Is this confused when she sees the numbers, hears the numbers, or both?

 

Everything math :cry:

She really struggles with:
skip counting, by any given "skip"
coins~ remembering which is which, adding them together (esp now that quarters were introduced)

Her short term memory worries me because I can tell her something (about almost anything) and she is clueless. Ask her what we did last week or last month and she can give you a detailed report. I see the short term memory slacking in reading to. When a new word comes up, we work through it and 2 sentences later when that word comes up again, poof she has no clue she ever read it before and we are starting from scratch again.

 

both

 

I would go back to a spot in her math book where she is having lots of success and slowly build from there while you work with her on her short term memory skills. I used to work with kids with short-term memory issues and did some similar things with one of my kids. I'll see if I can find any good resources for you.

You mentioned that she was able to remember things she did a month or so ago. Are those things that she was actively engaged in (i.e. hands-on, activities, events) or are they details from a lesson or book?

 

lessons, books, things she was actively engaged in, any of it can pop into her head after a while.

Now she can remember things that she hears in stories or things from movies or cartoons. Like things that she can see as a picture in her head. If the story is above her head or she just isn't into it, she can't recall things from it.

 

She sounds like she has several of the behaviors I observed in my visual-spatial learner. When I tested his short-term memory he did fine so I went another direction with him.

I might start by doing a little home assessment of her auditory and visual memory skills to see if this is a major, minor, or non-issue. This link describes how to do it. http://nacd.org/journal/learninghow.php

 

Take it slower. Some kids just take a little longer at this age to have the concepts cement in their heads. It really is a developmental stage and she just might not be ready for too much yet. I think if you just really work slowly, maybe two -three days for an assignment that eventually as she gets a little older thinks will start clicking and she will remember things better and you can move faster.

I would also suggest getting a bunch of math games to do instead of official lessons. This site has a bunch of really good ones http://www.enasco.com/c/math/Math+Games/Board+Games/

 

I just quickly did the auditory and she did great with any 4 number string, but once we hit 5 she would get them out of order or just completely forget them. So it seems according to that site she isn't too far off on auditory (says anyone 7 and above 7 is normal).

I have lots of audio resources I can put on an mp3 player for her to listen to It says that will help.

I will do the visual tomorrow