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6th grader struggling with math
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Hi everyone. I could use some thoughts for my 7th grade son in math. His older brother and younger sister take to math quite well, but he struggles.
First, a little background…. We’ve switched curriculums a few times with the kids over the years to find one that fits our family and/or child. My first son used MUS and did well with it until we disliked how long division was taught. We then tried Life of Fred, Kahn Academy, and Teaching Textbooks. They loved TT for awhile (and my daughter still likes it), but my sons dislike it now. So we switched back to Life of Fred for them. This seems to be working fine for my oldest in 8th grade. (I do not want to go back and forth from curriculum to curriculum. I just want to stick with one so that we don’t have to be behind or miss anything.)
However, my 6th grader has always struggled with memorization and learning math facts. I’ve tried numerous approaches: Times Tales, Times Tables the Fun Way, and iPad drill exercises and games. He knows them better now, but still not perfectly or as quickly as I’d like. This week in his LOF he’s been doing long division and has been needing help because he has trouble remembering the steps. So we’ve been working through his exercises and now he came to me with multiple digit multiplication and he’s getting so frustrated by the steps. Whenever he struggles with something or gets something wrong, he falls apart. (This is not because of me, because I always tell him that I don’t mind him getting problems wrong and we just work through them, but he has an internal struggle with this.)
I feel like he needs more practice with math, but he hates all the extra work. I’m not one to give-in to the whims of a child, but I do try to adjust schooling to help meet their needs and not overburden them or make them hate the learning process. I know this is a lot to take in, but does anyone have any thoughts for me?
Thanks! -Lisa
I highly recommend Lial’s Basic College Math, 8th edition for a solid middle school math. It begins very simply and covers everything needed. The explanations are right in the text. They are some of the best and most straight forward I’ve ever seen! There are answers to odd problems at the back and some full solutions too. We typically only do odd problems.
This is a remedial text at college level but solid for middle school. My 7th grader is using it and taking a class (BCM PRE-Algebra I) from http://myhomeschoolmathclass.com/index.html but it is so well done you could teach it at home with only the student book. This is recommended for 6th/7th grades. DS12 is a math kid, but this book would work equally well, imho, for those who struggle. I wish I’d known of it for dd16.
My dd12 struggles with math. We have switched curriculum too many times, but landed on Christian Light. She started with grade 4 last year, when she was in 6th grade. I sat with her and watched and helped as needed for every problem at first. Eventually she didn’t need me anymore. She is working independently and catching up because we skip some of the review problems, and she continues during breaks, including summer. I added CTC’s Mathematical Reasoning because she needs more conceptual math, but doesn’t do well in a conceptual program. She only uses a few pages here and there.
We will switch back to MUS for pre algebra, etc.
I plan to use Shiller math for my younger children, but dd12 likes her CLE.
I want to add that one of the benefits, imho, of BCM is that if a student is a bit behind somewhere, they should be able to catch up pretty easily using just this text. My oldest struggled in math, with a variety of curricula, the result was she entered 8th grade a couple years back 2.5 years or so behind. I hate that terminology because they are where they are, but to have any hope of covering algebra and high school science, we had a lot of ground to cover. We hired a tutor and she worked really hard and covered 2.5 years of MUS through pre algebra in 8th to get on track. It would have been so much better to switch her to Lial’s and cover it all, but a bit more concisely. She’s in 10th now and still does math u see with a tutor, geometry this year. She’s doing ok, but this book would have made that year so much more bearable.
Currently, all four of my kids use different math, but I have a plan…
-dd16 (10th) will continue with MUS algebra 2 next year to finish her official math; she may do a personal finance type class in 12th
-ds12 (7th) will continue with BCM and move to Lial’s Pre-Algebra and onward from there with the above referenced class
– dd9 (4th) currently in teaching textbooks 4 My plan is to have her do TT5 and maybe TT6 and then switch to BCM
– ds6 (1st) currently using math mammoth 1a/1b. My plan is to continue with MM until he’s ready for BCM
Lots of options available, but for a struggling child or one who is behind, a concise way to catch up seems beneficial to me. And for the math kid, the straight forward approach is great, too.
Another idea to consider – if they are a child who you think the facts just aren’t going to stick better than they already are – is to hand them a multiplication chart so they can slide their fingers to the answer. Adding in another sense doesn’t hurt. Some people hand over a calculator, but we avoid that until Algebra, so the chart could be a middle ground help. It’s not going to do the entire work for them, they have too follow 7 and 5 to see where they meet at 35, but it will cut some of the time down for them. One key is to remind them to only use the chart on facts they don’t know well, instead of using it for all facts and slowing them down on the facts they already knew the answer to. 😉
And this is all theoretical, as we’ve not used charts at all. It is one strategy we’ve learned in preparation for one of our children who is likely to have learning disabilities because of medical issues.
We actually keep a multiplication chart in view of my kids. Growing up I struggled with memorizing and a multiplication chart was so helpful! What I found was that by looking at the correct answers over and over, I started memorizing facts all on my own with out the stress of memorizing through other methods.
My kids do TimzAttack and know a lot of their facts, but instead of getting bogged down, or getting the problem wrong when they know how to do the math, they know that if they are “stuck” they can look at the chart to find the answer. Over time I find them looking at it less often.
Missceegee, I had to jump on here and tell you a big “Thank you!” We were in the middle of reevaluating my 7th grade son’s math when you posted about Lial’s book. We had been using Teaching Textbooks and I kept trying to steer him toward more computer/online options–“let’s try CTC!”–because I didn’t want myself responsible for the actual teaching part of it. He finally flat-out told me, “Can’t I just do math with YOU? It’s so much simpler.” Well, okay then….
We’re a few lessons in and this is just what he needed. I’m grateful for the review, both just for the review AND for the fact that he’s remembering that he’s really not bad at math. He’s suddenly maintaining a straight-A average (and since he just knocked out the long-division lesson, I definitely take that as a good sign).
Thank you so much for your (well-timed!) recommendation!
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