What to do with a 9 year old math hater?

I would drop fact drill and let her use a table with the facts for now…..   but I’m sure you will get a lot of varied answers!

Some of the RS games have a video showing them being played…. depending on when you bought your Math Games Kit, you might have gotten a DVD with them on…. but if not, they are also on YouTube  http://www.youtube.com/user/rightstartmath?feature=CBQQwRs%3D   For the math games book, the games go roughly in order of skills within a section.   The games give a reason for the child to do math.  

Personally, I love RS math, and my kids really love it.  It is a bit teacher intensive – but I use a timer to keep the lessons to 30 minutes or less (and most of the lessons take us less time than that…)  I do my almost 9yo and almost 7yo together (we changed to RS last year and they placed at the same level.)  and I many days do a lesson with my 4yo (and the 2yo generally sits and “does math” with us – which for her means playing with the tally sticks or tiles… lol)   I am trying to make most of our subjects independant, but math is worth me spending time on.   I let the kids use the abacus as much as they want – but they are not using it nearly as much anymore….  so I don’t worry about that being a problem. 

But keep in mind that switching a math curriculum can really change how math is done… I would be careful taking that type of step….  It was worth it for us.

Grr, just lost my post. Here it is in short:

Drop the table. Why would they make the effort to memorize facts if you’ll let them take the easy way out? It’s almost as bad as just handing them a calculator to do the work. If they are capable of memorizing then they need to work on it slow and steady.

Okay, what we do instead (we’re Math U See people) is as follows. If a child comes to a fact they can’t recall, such as 7×6, they have 2 ways to figure out the answer:

– Skip count by 6s or by 7s. This is a skill they learned earlier. It’s not as fast as just knowing the fact, but it’s something that works in a pinch.

– Grab the math blocks and build 6×7 (grab six of the 7s blocks) and start counting.

When my children come across a fact that they forget I encourage them to also do the following:

Say the whole problem with answer five times once they figured it out. So they would say “Seven times six equals fortytwo” five times.

Write the whole problem five times.

Make a flashcard of that problem to practice with for the week.

Do they have all their facts mastered? No, but we’re working on it. My oldest came to MUS late so had to backtrack and start over. My next two are in Beta, the fourth is doing Primer but did Alpha for fun alongside older siblings orally last year. The other 3 are younger.

This is a subject that I really am thinking about a lot because of my youngest son. Mason is only 8 months old but he was born with Spina Bifida, Clubfeet, Arnold Chiari II Brain Malformation, and Hydrocephalus. While he seems to be doing great mental development wise it is highly likely that his memorization ability has been compromised (short term memory issues) with the brain formation issues. Children with severe SB usually have trouble learning to read and memorizing math facts, among other things. So I’m trying to keep my eye out for solutions and helps for him when he gets there. Such as using music to help cement facts. We won’t really know how bad he’s affected until we’re there, but I love these discussions because I never know what I’m going to come across that while it doesn’t apply to my typical brain children may be just right for Mason. I look forward to hearing other ideas!

To answer your question – I was using MEP before we switched to RS.  I also love that program (fairly mom-intensive for the first few years – I understand that decreases…) – the problem was my son was having problems with the problems that “crossed tens” (ie carried or borrowed – anything with place value…) – and I didn’t know how to help him with it at all…  we might have been ok with just the math games – but I really have always liked how RS does math.  I like how it uses grouping in 5’s and 10’s, as well as visualizing numbers etc.   I do like how MEP has various puzzles, etc…   it is a solid program too.  I do miss a few things from it.   But my kids LOVE math time, and I like how it works.

My dd8 does much better with a math program where it is one-on-one with her and I. MEP has been awesome! It is definitely teacher intensive but she is learning so much, even retaining it over a several month break from it, and we both enjoy math class now.