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No-Nonsense Math Kid? Some questions
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So my son, 9, is a very visual learner. He does best with a workbook/textbook approach where he can see the diagrams, read the information. He also needs things to be very no-nonsense (aka: “new” math is an unmitigated disaster). I find the more you try to show and explain things, the more you try to use manipulatives, the more it confuses him. Example: I was introducing borrowing in subtraction. I wanted him to understand “why” he was doing what he was doing, so I tried it the “new” way, you know, using those lovely base 10 blocks, using a place value chart on the board… and his eyes just glazed over and he did not get it at all. But as soon as I just cut it back to basics, and wrote the question on the board: 52-37 = and showed him how to do it with the numbers (we can’t subtract 7 from 2, so we borrow ten from the 5. We cross out the 5 and write 4 above it, and write the 1 next to 2, so we’re now subtracting from 12) and he had it, instantly.
So, am I the only one that has a no-nonsense math kid, who really NEEDS just the basics? The emphasis today seems to be all on explaining and expanding and understanding WHY they’re doing, and all against rote memorization of process etc… and yet through rote is exactly how my son learns best. I feel like I’m doing it wrong if I don’t teach him that, and yet… what good is the “new” way, if it just confuses my son?
My next question is, what are your favorite no-nonsense, old-school, traditional math programs?
The early math years were quite awhile ago for us, but I will say that while Math-U-See has worked fine for my daughter over the years (she’s 15 now), she rarely used the manipulatives but did very well with math concepts. She seemed to do best when she watched the lesson on dvd along with me, then just plunged into the worksheets. She also did not need to do every single worksheet to grasp a concept. If we did not watch the lesson on dvd, things went best when I just kept the lesson short and to the point.
I will warn you, though: if your son balks at “showing his work” when doing math problems, don’t make a big deal out of it unless he is arriving at a lot of incorrect answers. My daughter used to tell me, “But I see the work in my head, so I know I did it right.” Most of the time she was getting 90% or more of the answers right, so I didn’t always make her show the work. The deal was that if she got less than 85% correct (or too many of a particular type of problem), then she had to show her work on the next couple of worksheets so I could see where she went off track.
I think some visual learners just see things in their head and grasp certain concepts more quickly.
As far as other “old-fashioned” math programs, I think Ray’s Arithmetic is one I’ve heard mentioned here. I haven’t personally used it, but perhaps someone will chime in about it or with other recommendations.
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