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MUS Delta Question re: upside down multiplication & multi-digit division
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Ds10 started lesson 18 in MUS Delta today, and he is so confused by the way Mr. Demme teaches multi-digit division and checking with reverse multiplication. I get that it’s all about place value, but even I get confused by the expanded notation (ie. 200+40+8). I mean, I get what that says. It’s 248, but it feels like it’s the hard way to go about it. DS is getting the division part just fine, but he’s frustrated when he goes to check it. Any tips on how to help him out of his confusion and frustration? Or is the checking w/ reverse multiplication even necessary?
Thanks,
Lindsey
Our experience was similar to missceegee. And to what you mention above, Lindsey – I agree. It’s 248. Going around it other ways (though I’m sure it’s helpful for some) truly confused things for us, and to be honest, it shook the confidence in my previously math super-star boy more than I cared for. I do think even Mr. Demme would agree that we have to lean mostly on the strategies and math techniques that work best for each child.
We didn’t like it either for Makayla. However I will show it to each child because what makes sense with one may not with the other and vice versa. Joseph and Emma both will be in Delta this fall. In Gamma I found that Joseph grasped odd multiplication ways while Emma did not (nor had Makayla). So I expect he may like this in Delta. To each their own! My husband and I think math differently than one another too.
Angelina–“math super-star boy”! That would describe my ds. He really gets math and is good at it. I was the opposite. I’m an English grammar/literature person. I don’t want to shake his confidence and have him second-guessing himself. If he can do the division and get the right answer, I don’t see that the expanded notation and reverse multiplication is necessary.
Tristan–He did 2 worksheets today, gave it his full attention and best effort, and it still took him over 45 minutes and him unconfidently asking me lots of questions through it all. If it’s not making sense to him, I don’t think we should continue.
For those who have blazed this Delta and MUS trail before me, I just didn’t know if this was a foundational concept that he would have to know for later lessons or books. If this is the one time he’s going to have to know it and then it only comes up in review later, I’m probably going to scrap it. So, does it come up later as a foundational concept or is it only in review?
Thanks for all the help! I sure feel better about it!
It is not foundational, so don’t make him do it, esp if he already grasps division. And why 2 worksheets in a day? We never do more than one. We also do not do all the pages in a chapter unless a child needs to for understanding. 45 minutes is a bit long to slog through for elementary ages I think.
Tristan, we normally do one per day. I helped him so much through the first one that I wanted to see if he could do a little more on his own. But I ended up helping him with most of the reverse multiplication anyway. 45 minutes is too long, I agree. But we are going on vacation tomorrow and I wanted him to grasp the concept before we left town and put school work down for 5 days. He usually spends a max of 25 minutes on math daily. With me not requiring the reverse multiplication anymore, he should be able to get through them with no problems.
Skip it:) We have loved some things/ways MUS has taught and others make no sense to us or to my children so when that happens I ask my husband to double check then skip. I also didn’t make him do full worksheets of long division. Once he got it most of the time I only had him do what took him about 30 minutes.
We struggled with this part too-I called Math U See several times for help and they were very nice about walking us through it until we got it. That was a few years back, and I’ll probably have to make those calls again when my youngers get to it! 🙂
We tried it a bit and then dropped it…it was so confusing and I didn’t see how it would help down the road. We’ve completed almost through Algebra and it’s never come up again:)
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