Blogging About Math…

Thanks, Melissa. Your chart of Beechick’s methods is very informative. My dd is in kindergarten, but I am trying to decide if she’ll be ready for addition and subtraction in grade 1. My son is a third grader; according to Beechick, I may be trying to rush him. Hm. Food for thought, anyway.

I enjoyed all the above posts! 

We are about half way through MUS Alpha with dd6 and my biggest frustration (?) has been trying to figure out when she has ‘mastered’ a set of facts or a concept well enough to move on.  I don’t want to hold her back because her rote memorization skills are slower even though she has mastered the concept.  She also tends to rush through all work in general so it seems like she hasn’t mastered a concept when in reality she struggles with the habit of attention.  Math can certainly be a tricky one to figure out.

I’ve enjoyed your math mania posts. Years ago, we invited the Bluedorns for a classical Ed seminar. They suggested no formal math prior to age 10. Most in attendance heard “no math”. That wasn’t the case at all. They meant no sit down, textbook is required before 10yo. It’s a nice way to learn, unless you have a little girl that wants a math book like her friends at school. ;0). 

Your charts are very helpful!

We actually like Rod and Staff math. A possible rabbit trail for you?  Heh. 🙂

I saw that someone uses Richelle’s book for math. I haven’t had a chance to look at it, or purchase it.  Have any of you experience with it?

Becca<><

We are still using Math on the Level, about 1 year.  I like it better than anthing else I’ve seen so far, for me with my mathphobia.  I had to find something that I could understand, and that I could get excited about teaching, because that makes the biggest difference is if the teacher gets into it or not:) 

Pros: it is not time intensive I don’t think.  It offers teaching ideas for all types of learners.  Student is not artificially held back by a grade level, similarly student who is struggling is not hindered but helped.  Mastery of skills, no rush to complete lessons.  Draws from many  real life situations and experiences – one can see you Do use math in real life:) not just piles of workbooks/texts or busywork.  Lessons are kept short and to the point. Very cost efficient, since it is non-consumable and can be used for mutliple children from pre-k thru pre-algebra, although seems pricey at first. (I got mine used, but is hard to find that way.  A sign of something good, I think!)

Cons:  I for some reason couldn’t use the record system, so I just copied off the suggested sequence and check off when mastered with initial for student or marked “intro” so I can go back and do more on that topic.  I struggled at first with the freedom that the curriculum has, even though I change up most things to fit us anyway. 

Where are we at with it now?

As I have relaxed into it I am really enjoying math alongside them and it’s fun to be able to “strike while the irons hot” in an ah-ha moment and show them something else. I have had to just make it a habit to do something math each day with 5-a-day review for the 8 yr old and not get stuck on thinking I didn’t know what to do next, but moving forward on the sequence as we can (sometimes they do it orally or on whiteboard since they are only 6 and 8, incorporate doing games with them a couple times a week to work on a skill, reading books from livingmath.net at least once a week and some days we do it together with the younger tagging along with lots of manipulatives and sometimes just one-on-one) And then I just write down what we did that day, what was reviewed and covered.