Math drill and Capitalization

[Benelli]

We are using BHFHG and as suggested, Singapore math. DS is using 2A. We love it, and he is doing very well with it. But, I think he needs more drill with addition/subtraction facts. He's still counting on his fingers even though he can get the more complicated word problems in concept with ease. We have flash cards, but that's not really his or my thing! I saw Quarter Mile Math, a software program for drill, mentioned favorably in a couple of homeschool magazines. Has anyone here used it as a supplement to Singapore for drill work?

Secondly, we just got back my son's IOWA testing for submitting to county as a state requirement. He did very well over all, but an area of weakness for him is capitalization! I just don't get that. :) When asked, he knows the "rules" - Use capitals for beginning sentences, proper nouns, etc. but not in the middle of words. But, in his writing, copy work, and dictation, I have to constantly have him correct it! And, in the testing, it was his weakest area - even given multiple choice answers... Anyone have any tips for getting the rules to stick in practical use? Will it just come with time and more copywork and dictation practice? We have only been using BHFHG for 3 months. In PS, he was allowed to use "creative spelling" and things like that up until this year (2nd grade) without correction.

Thanks!
Lisa

[Carrie]

Benelli,

I caught your post as I'm just heading off to write today, but I wanted to pop-in and answer it. There have been several really good, recent threads about math drill. You can use the search feature, or maybe some sweet moms will post the links for you to those threads.

Also, as far as the capitalization goes, this is an area where most kiddos struggle. Especially coming from a ps background where they are allowed to inventively spell, and they are also allowed to inventively capitalize and punctuate for far too long. I do realize that inventive spelling is a stage of writing, but there comes a time when that stage is over!

For all kiddos, whether coming from ps or not, it takes at least a year or two or even more of slow, steady copywork and dictation to instill the capitalization habit, (which is different from knowing the rules). It is about getting kiddos in the habit of writing words that are spelled correctly and writing sentences that are capitalized and puctuated correctly. It is also about visualizing the correct spelling and correct look of a sentence in the mind and holding it there while writing it.

So, just keep going with what is scheduled in our guides, language arts-wise. It will form better habits in those areas over time.

Blessings,
Carrie

[Carrie]

One more thing I forgot to mention, is that the child needs to catch his mistakes himself. So, when he is doing dication, make sure that he corrects his own passage (against the one in the key) and marks whatever was wrong on the key. Then, he needs to change his own dictation passage to look like the key. This is so important, as it is where the learning takes place. Otherwise, the kiddos are just correcting what you tell them and not really learning to check their writing carefully themselves.

It is also important that they correct their own copywork in a similar manner.

For the English portion, I do check my son's work in pencil and note any corrections he needs to make.

At this stage, it is actually better to require less written work done perfectly than volumes done incorrectly. So, you may need to back up with the amount of writing required until he is able to do less better.

Blessings,
Carrie

[Momto3wahines]

This may not help - but my daughter (officially entering second grade) loves Flashmaster. Its is not fancy or video game -ish...but she loves it and it is small enough to take in diaper bag and whip out as a great boredom buster. It is not a curriculum, just a device to help practice math facts - works great with any math curriculum (like Singapore.)

We also play games with flashcards - even letting my daughter "keep" the cards she answers correctly turns drill into a game. I like how Carrie suggests movement activities with memorizing. Sometimes my dd will start at the bottom of the stairs and gets to hop up one stair for each flashcard and see how fast she can go, or we put the flashcards on the ground in a large circle and have child hop/spin/step to each as they are answered. These are all silly, but the idea is that my girls love anything that is a game.

I hope that may help.

Thanks, Carrie, for the great dictation advice.

Angela

[inHistiming]

Benelli,

When I saw your post I just had to jump in! My children received their SAT scores back last week. They did well, but I noticed that my ds (4th grade) scored lower in capitalization than my dd (2nd grade)! He knows the rules too, and I have to wonder if it's just laziness on my ds's part, or if I've just stressed it more with my dd. I do think I am always reminding him to use proper capitalization...he tends to try to get away with doing as little as possible, KWIM? It's interesting that it showed up in his scores though. Anyway, I'm sure it's something that will eventually work itself out. I just thought it was funny that dd did 'better' than ds did in that area.