I have recently switched over most of our curricula to try and be more CM friendly. We are about to take a few weeks off this month for a break and I have been trying to evaluate our math program. I would like to have come to a good conclusion before we resume, but don’t know if it is possible……
I am not a mathy person, so teaching math is not something I do easily without relying heavily on the curriculum. I started out with Math U See for my daughter when she was 5. She also used the Abeka K workbook for fun that year. Then we moved to Abeka 1st & 2nd grade math (mostly because she did not like watching Steve on TV , and she was doing the Abeka workbooks on her own with no problems)She is the type that can look at a list of numbers one time and repeat them very easily. She does not like math, but does not have a lot of trouble with it.
Then enters, my son….. He did okay with Abeka K and terrible with Abeka 1st grade math. I ended up doing half of last year (1st grade) with a used Saxon workbook , counting bears and file folder games for him. He needs lots of practice and something to see and touch for things to stick with him.
I have been using Saxon 2 & 3 with them both, and am beginning to wonder if they really understand things or if they are just memorizing answers. I had never heard before that they should understand the “whys” of math until I started reading about the CM method.
If I am thinking about this correctly, this would be an example of them not knowing the “why”…..
My son has had practice problems the last week where he must tell how much money 4 dimes and 3 pennies would be. Then the very next problem says something like, “how much is 5 tens and 4 ones”. He has to have the dimes and pennies to count for the first problem, and the second one blows his mind….He has no idea, and we have been doing this for a week. He also has trouble understanding the way Saxon teaches the addition facts (like doubles, doubles plus 1, doubles plus 2, the plus nines). He can do 4+5=9 as a double (4+4 and adding on 1 more), but if there are different types of problems all mixed up on a page he has no idea which ones are doubles +1 or plus nines, etc. He can only do them when I say “Remember, that is a double plus one”.
My daughter is able to memorize answers without really knowing how she is suppose to get the answer. She pretty much memorized all her addition facts with Abeka and did not use the Saxon ways like doubles plus one. Now she is beginning multiplication and is skip counting by 10’s and 7’s to do those problems. Saxon introduced multiplication by using dimes and days of the week (10’s and 7’s).It will say something like: how many days are in 3 weeks / 7x 3 =? However, she does not relate at all, and just memorizes the answers.
Should I consider using something else? Should I add to our curriculum? Also, do I completely stop when they show that they are having a problem and address it before continuing even though we will return to that the next day for a review? I realize that there is a difference between a mastery program and a spiral/incremental program. I thought the spiral would work best since we would review more, but if they don’t get it the first time what good is the review, right?
Help please 🙂
Amanda