Name: Thrive! NCHE Homeschool Conference
Start: 2025-05-22T00:00:00-05:00
End: 2025-05-24T23:59:59-05:00
Location: Winston-Salem, NC

Tagged: Math struggles

This topic has 39 replies, 10 voices, and was last updated 9 years, 3 months ago by 2Corin57.

Viewing 10 posts - 31 through 40 (of 40 total)

← 1 2 3

Author
Posts
January 26, 2016 at 11:21 am
2Corin57
Participant
I agree with the woman who said to just stop doing math! I suggest you do some reading at Trivium Pursuit, as well as some other articles on delaying math. There is a lot of research showing that formal math (NO workbooks at all) is best delayed until the age of 10, when children develop their abstract reasoning skills better. Instead, until then, focus on living math. Read about it and do it in the context of daily life, play games, but that’s it. Studies have shown that most children who learn math this way, are able to jump into a 6th grade math program such as Saxon, without any difficulty.
I’ve been reading a lot about this, due to issues with my own 8 year old son, and we are now officially on a math break. We baked a cake yesterday – and guess what? He was adding fractions. If we’d tried to do that in a math program/workbook, it would have been a math meltdown.
January 26, 2016 at 12:25 pm
amama5
Participant
I respectfully disagree:) I hear what you are saying about the principle, but in a house full of 5 other children it wouldn’t go over well, as well as for her with other friends at church, co-op, etc. She wouldn’t like it either (well, she would love not doing math) but she wouldn’t like not being able to play games with friends/siblings that require some math skills best learned for her on paper. She also doesn’t want to feel behind or different (even though we always talk about how we’ve all been made different and learn at different levels). Not doing math would just magnify that for her.
And the last thing, is that real life concepts are almost just as hard for her, if not harder, as the paper math. She gets really frustrated during family games even just understanding simple directions with left and right or other game instructions, or following some words/concepts in books. She bakes really well and follows a recipe fine once she learns it, but doesn’t understand the fractions even seeing them poured out by cups, so adding them makes her more frustrated.
I think kids are all different and until you’ve had one with very specific struggles, we can’t necessarily understand or say one way of doing something is right for each child/family (although suggestions and thoughts are just fine!) I’ve learned that the hard way with a couple of my OCD/borderline autistic children.
Again, not to limit my child, but I don’t ever see her being able to do Saxon math, no matter how long we would wait, and that’s just fine.
January 26, 2016 at 1:03 pm
2Corin57
Participant
I think kids are all different and until you’ve had one with very specific struggles, we can’t necessarily understand or say one way of doing something is right for each child/family (although suggestions and thoughts are just fine!)
^^Which, quite frankly is all I did, give you a suggestion. I didn’t say that it HAD to be that way. You’ve been asking for ideas and suggestions, I gave one. You’re also missing the point a bit – she wouldn’t have to go into Saxon. The point is, is that it’s been proven that in many cases (and even more so in cases where there are special learning needs in fact), that informal math does sufficiently prepare children so that they could enter Saxon (not that they have to).
Have you considered asking her what she wants to do? What you could do to make it easier for her? What she finds works the best? Or helps her the best? Perhaps present the idea and she what she thinks, instead of what you think she will think? Often times parents think their child will respond one way, and it’s actually not the case at all. I’ve learned that the hard way. And I don’t mean that just with regards to what I suggested, but with everything. Obviously math is not working for her, so you need to find a way that will. That may very likely mean thinking outside of the box you would like to be in unfortunately. It may mean she has to learn and do math in a very different way than her siblings, and that’s just something that all of you will have to find a way to deal with. The whole point of homeschooling is to teach each individual child in the way they learn best, even if that’s polar opposite to their siblings (even though it’d be so much easier if we could do them all the same way!).
If nothing else – take a break from math for awhile. A couple weeks, a month even. The brain learns best when it is given a chance to rest. That includes academics. Take a break from it, take the pressure of her and yourself, talk about it, take time to really peruse samples together, print off sample practice pages, have her input on what she likes the best and what she thinks will work the best. And if you really think there’s a learning problem, then take that time during the break to have proper evaluations done, which will aid you even further in finding the right program/direction to go.
January 26, 2016 at 1:09 pm
my3boys
Participant
Ditto to what amama5 said.
Living math is just as frustrating for him. Math stories do not bring it to life for him. IMHO, my son has a disability that holding off is not going to cure. He wants to understand what his friends understand. He wants to pay his way into the theater with his friends, but would not know if he was short changed. That’s embarrassing to him. He would rather use a gift card so he doesn’t look foolish in front of his friends. But going over money and getting back change would be impossible as each purchase is so random.
This is definitely different that the experience I have with my other two children. I can almost “see” the understanding in their eyes. Very different for my son who struggles. Hard to explain.
January 26, 2016 at 1:57 pm
psreitmom
Participant
If I asked my daughter what would work best for her, she’d say, “Don’t do any math!:)” It can become so frustrating for her that she just shuts down. Formal curriculum does not work for my daughter. I know some can handle it, even with some learning disabilities, but there are too many concepts that she just cannot understand. So, working in areas that are needed most makes more sense for her.
I checked out the Ronit Bird website, and while she does say some interesting things, it is very similar to the method we used for a while, recommended by our ed. consultant. It is by Christopher Woodin and can be accessed through Landmark Outreach here in the US. I have another thread where I am selling his book that teaches mult/div using icons/dots. While this worked for my daughter to develop number sense, and even for some add/sub, I believe trying to learn mult/div this way would totally frustrate her. But, there are some who could learn this way. Using real life/tangible objects works best for her. I will give you an example. Yesterday I made some dots on a piece of paper and asked her to group them. There were 14 and I had her group them into 2’s and 7’s and showed her that both ways of grouping gives the same answer, 2×7 and 7×2. She can group them, but it just seemed like something wasn’t registering. My husband was nearby. He said, you need to use something she interested in……babies! So, he began, if seven ladies at church (and he started naming them) were all expecting twins……..! You should have seen her. She thought that was the best thing. She got up and went over and hugged her dad and said he could be her teacher!:) So, I need to be creative and make it interesting for her, or it will be futile.
Yes, each child progresses differently, and you have to find what works for that child, especially with a child as mine and others who posted on this thread. I understand amama5’s frustrations. I can’t tell you how many math programs we tried until finally when my daughter was 11, almost two years ago, I was introduced to Math On the Level, and decided this is what my daughter needed. I really feel I have no where else I can go when it comes to math. That is my story. I hope amama5 and my3boys and any others here in the same situation find something that works sooner than I did. I shared my story to hopefully help someone. It may not be what works for you, but if it does, great!
January 26, 2016 at 2:25 pm
amama5
Participant
Yes, 2Corin57 I realized right after I posted that you had just given a thought, I think it was the exclamation point after “just stop doing math!” that made it feel like more than a suggestion/thought. That’s the problem with email/forums, we sometimes sound like we don’t mean, and I didn’t mean to sound like I was criticizing your opinions and do appreciate your time.
I do think I get the point; and didn’t mean just Saxon, or MUS, or all the other curriculum abbreviations, my point was that in her situation, I think that could be the worst thing for her, to put off math until she’s 10. She is so drastically different than all her siblings and we’ve been dealing with this for the almost 4 years she’s been formally schooled.
I also have grown quite a bit from who I used to be, I was pretty strict on using only one math curriculum (MUS) for all of them (which I still think would be fine with tweaking), but have branched out and now have 3 different curriculums going and it’s working well for me and for all the children. We ended up with CLE Math for her (after all the others) because that’s what she chose; we looked at samples together, did some sheets like you said, and she really enjoyed their workbook pictures, format, style, etc. We’ve done things her way as much as possible; like prseitmom mentioned, I always ask her what tangible item she wants to use in the word problems (it’s almost always babies:) Sometimes we use legos, or birds, etc. but that does help. I let her use her methods (which make no sense to anyone else, and take 3 times as long) to solve a problem like 7+5 because that’s what works for her.
Thankfully she does get breaks, we take a couple of 2-3 week breaks between the trimesters and a long “summer” break in April/May. I enjoy them as much as the kids, but we pay for it for sure, it’s like starting over with her every single time, but I do agree she needs breaks.
I’ll look into the Ronit Bird and Christopher Woodin websites as well, thanks
January 26, 2016 at 2:32 pm
2Corin57
Participant
Have you considered just contiuniing with CLE and just maybe adding in things here and there as needed when she struggles with a topic? Or, when they introduce something new, just putting off CLE for a few days while you dive into that topic more? It does sound as though CLE is working the best for you.
As I said in my original post, you sound very much in the same positin we’re in. I think we may both need to realize that there is not going to be a “perfect” math program out there for them, they’re all going to need tweaking 🙁
January 26, 2016 at 2:48 pm
amama5
Participant
Yes, those are good ideas. We actually went back to MUS at her choice, she saw how short the lessons were compared to CLE:) She has loved how short they are, and feeling like she accomplished something if she finished the lesson before her timer goes off. I think we’ll probably end up with MUS and supplement as needed with CLE (they do a better job of adding more clocks/guages, real world things, at least compared to the older versions of MUS that we own).
Yes, I think most curriculum needs tweaked which is why I love SCM, I can tweak all the time without spending a lot of money on a more boxed curriculum where I would feel obligated to use it exactly as is to get my money’s worth!
January 26, 2016 at 4:06 pm
2Corin57
Participant
Yes, that’s the downside of CLE – it’s so long. By the time we do speed drills, flashcards, and the lesson, we’re taking typically an hour just for math, one subject.
Our son prefers something that he can see and read for himself,that’s why we left Math on the Level. I’m considering Life of Fred since he can read it himself, shorter lessons and we can just supplement with living math.

@
January 27, 2016 at 7:08 am
2Corin57
Participant
If you do consider Math on the Level, I have a friend on FB that is selling her set for a VERY good price. It’s listed on homeschoolclassifieds.com