I'm looking for new insight. 4th grade math is now running 6 weeks over. We've always gotten math done early, and spent the rest of the year on review, story problems and games, but Sonny isn't clearing the bar this year. It is a problem of remembering. As we go over something again he finally says, "Oh, I remember". I think it is related to the complexity of the material, and perhaps he just isn't intellectually ready for it. I think there is a bit of disinterest, as he's never had to really work at math before. He remembers other subjects okay. Faced with this do you keep on repeating? Continue on with the parts he understands and spend some time each day repeating the slippery material? Start a new supplement? Eat ice cream and hide in your bedroom? Give me your ideas. Thank you.
Are you schooling year-round, or did you just start back after a summer break, or what? If you're just getting back into it, you'll need to take a step back to review. If you're working continuously, try taking a break. Perhaps he needs time. Work on the rote stuff (multiplication facts, etc.), and take a few weeks off the new conceptual stuff. You could also try approaching the material in a different way. Maybe it's the teaching method that doesn't line up with his learning style?
I'd go with the ice cream and hiding. :lol: Why are you 'behind'? Behind who or what? It's homeschool-don't let the 'behind' mentality stress you out, if you're stressed, your child will be stressed and stressed kids don't learn and retain new material. Like 2LitteBoys when we hit a wall we try: Take a break-maybe for a day, week or month. Sometimes it's burnout, sometimes it's maturity, any number of problems can be solved with a little mental vacation Sometimes all it takes for my oldest is to back track a bit-go back to simpler math where he gets everything right to build his confidence then we can move forward. He's easily frustrated and very sensitive and a people pleaser so this little trick works wonders for him-it's like a mental regrouping for him. Changing approach-there are many ways to teach a concept. If the textbook/workbook doesn't work, try a video, if that isn't working try manipulative, if that isn't working try online math games, if that isn't working try....
We school year round, and I've now gone back and retaught the topic (fractions) 3 times. I'm now doing it a fourth time. First time Singapore math (which is what we have been using without problem from the beginning). After we moved onto the next topic, I went back for the review test and it was as if it was all "brand new". So we took a 6 week side road through Key to Fractions (books one and four). Again, it seemed like mastery, but a review chapter later, blank. This time I did a detour through Mammoth Math, and step by step went well. A month later he was again lost on the first review question. The third time I did a white board step by step without a book for him to write in to see if doing it more visually and verbally would help. I had him do a lot more drawing of the figures, too. This fourth time through I've pulled out Singapore fractions again and am starting page by page through it. Just so I don't sicken him of it, I have spent half our lessons moving on, and he isn't having any problems with level 5A (we haven't reached fractions in the level 5 yet). It seems as if unless I turn math into constant review of fractions, the concepts slip away. He immediately grasped decimal place, for example, and anything geometrical comes very easily to him. No other topic in our schooling has presented such a problem. Since he is an only, I've never gone through this situation, and am also wondering at what point in math are we going to be hamstrung on going any further forward without him being comfortable with fractions? Thanks!
This sounds very similar to what I experienced with my daughter and I used to tutor math, but she really threw me some wild curves. Then I reminded myself that I am a sequential teaching a random learner. Math to me should be done sequentially. It is logical to do it just that way...unless you are teaching a random, whose logic is anything but sequential. The child taught herself multiplication after learning basic addition while I was trying to teach her subtraction. I thought she was getting ahead of herself so I did not go with it and I realize now that I should have. This was the first and only time (so far) that I felt regret for structuring her lessons my way instead of taking cues from her. Around the same age as your child, my daughter was probably at grade level in math, maybe a bit behind and slowing down to a crawl. I bought the full Math Mammoth program, which can be done by grade level or by subject. Then I threw out the standards and even my own ideas of what should be done and how at each grade level by encouraging her to pick the subject. When she picked geometry, we went as deep into as she could go, which was two grades above her grade level age-wise. When we got to a new concept within geometry and could not continue until it was covered, I would teach it--and sometimes this was only a time explanation and then she was again off and running, sometimes this was branching off to master that concept--or we would stop and pick another subject and go as deep into it as she could go. Although she will say she hates math, she learned two grades plus blended together in one year, so now she is a year ahead, if I was one to worry about grade levels, which I am not. I knew she is very good at math, but I had to learn that she did not need so much repetition. It bored her so much that she would not remember, as contradictory as that sounds. She needed new stimulation to keep her attention. Some things only took a one-time explanation, which saved her from doing two to three weeks worth of paperwork just to learn that concept so she could use it with the higher one she was studying and working on already. At this time she is nearly prepared to start pre-algebra. She just needs a bit more familiarity with decimals then multiplying/dividing factions. I am not sure this is helpful to you, but I wished I had someone suggested it to me when my daughter was at the first through third grade levels. I may still have tried it my way, but at least I would have known that it was not only possible to make math work randomly, but also could be advantageous, and I might have tried it sooner. Perhaps my daughter would not have thought she hates math so much when she is so good at it.
I was writing my last post when you posted this. Oddly, my daughter did well with fractions but I would often say one of four instead of one-fourth or a quarter, two of four instead of two-fourths. What helped my daughter get fractions was money, oddly. She made the connection early on that four quarters made one whole dollar so a quarter was one of four or one-fourth. We were using Miquon and Singapore together at the time. I also used factions manipulatives as well as drawings but the manipulatives worked better. Lastly, I would not be too concerned about fractions if he is getting everything else. I was very good with math and loved math...but I hated fractions and really did not get them until I was into pre-algebra, so my advice would be to let it go for now and move on to other things. Not many children master all math concepts evenly. He will be exposed to fractions again and then it may just click for him or he will have to work at it all over again, but either way he does not have to master them right now.
This is helpful. My concern about "being behind" is that I know a car accident or cancer or whatever might derail my plans on homeschooling the whole way through (plus I will allow my son to have input on this as we approach high school), and I know that the added upset of being behind would not make a transition to brick and mortar school a happy one. Sonny himself periodically asks if he is where "other kids his age are". I didn't train him with that. He doesn't have to be a superstar, but he himself likes to know he is at least with the pack or a wee bit ahead. I've been tracking this with What Your X Grader Needs to Know. Okay. I will relax on fractions and perhaps do just a little basic reminder twice a week (like common factors or equivalent fractions). I'm seeing big growths in understand of complex topics like biology, so perhaps we just need to let this fraction thing percolate awhile longer. Looking through Singapore 5, I a LOT of review of 4A and B, with small expansions here and there in the topic. Thanks again!
I agree if it's just fractions I'd move on and come back to fractions later. Fractions can be a hard concept for a young developing mind to grasp fully.
We are in a similar boat, except in the case of our 4th grader, the bane of our existence (and cause of me eating many Dove chocolates, lol) are his math facts and inconsistency with remembering long multiplication and division. We switched curriculum last year, our 1st year of homeschooling, but at this age, there are some things you cannot get around, and his areas of weakness are unfortunately those things! I began to decrease our regular math curriculum and add in Life of Fred (both of my kids LOVE Fred!) a couple of days a week, finding the areas of strength in my son. Then I use the Core Knowledge for 4th grade book as you do to come up with additional lessons, along with lesson plans online. Basically I am trying to continue in smaller doses with his areas of weakness, but focus more on the other concepts to give him success. Thanks to some great suggestions here, I am going to continue with a couple of problems each day for practice, but just go on with the other material. I am also adding some other supplemental material and see how it goes!
Phillip is struggling with percents, using Teaching Textbooks. My math teacher husband was suppose to work with him on percents over the summer. NOPE! Didn't happen! So I decided this past week to shut down TT temporarily, and go to Life of Fred Decimals/Percents. He's open to doing Fred, so hopefully we'll get through that and then continue with TT.
You could also find some games like Pizza Fraction Fun to play. There are lots of different Math games you can buy that really reinforce the concepts in a fun way.
What about some "living math" books such as the list on livingmath.net? Many of the books are fiction with math intertwined in story line. They work well with my 4th grader who has suddenly developed an "allergy" to textbooks (his words)! My son is a very hands-on learner, so I've pulled out the old cuisenaire rods to help him learn fractions, and we use videos on education unboxed: http://educationunboxed.com/fractions.html Also, good ole cooking is great for fractions. All the measuring and figuring out equivalencies (because in our house the 1 cup measuring cup always mysteriously disappears) is great practice.
Do you know of any that are more complex than the Pizza Fraction? I'm looking for games for this, esp. card games. (I forgot to mention we've done Khan on this as well. He "gets" it, but a week later it is like starting all over again.)
I would explain to your son that there lots of other kids out there, homeschool and public, that have a hard time with getting different concepts. It's normal. There are very few people who understand and remember everything the first time. My daughter has had a hard time remembering the math rules. I made my kids a helpful hints book. They are allowed to refer to it when doing their work. My dd is stubborn and doesn't use it much. She'd rather gripe about not remembering things. lol But, it's there if she wants it.
When I was in school the teacher tried endlessly to correct my spelling block. Finally he gave up and I got it! Sometimes we need to pull back and forget that there is a problem, until it comes up again in which case I would review briefly. thats one option; another is to do one fraction problem each day make it fun, use food or toys as a visual and plug it in each day until fractions click. maybe give a reward for each day she remembers what to do with it?
