Post
by countrymom » Fri Dec 23, 2011 4:40 am
We did the first couple of pages using a paper with 3 columns. We used money or markers and placed the correct amount in the 100's, ten's, and one's columns for each number. Then we tried to subtract and found we didn't have enough pennies, so we "borrowed" a dime from the 10's column and put 10 pennies in the ones column. We then solved the problem (you can do the same with addition). That really helped my son understand it. He was able to transfer to just using the book and noting his borrowing and carrying after that. I think that was one of Carrie's exercises. I used it for several pages in the book. I find I need to occasionally keep reminding my son what the digits represent, hundreds, tens, etc. I am sorry your little sweetie is struggling. Hopefully that will help.
Countrymom
Wife to J
Big J - LHFHG, Beyond, Bigger, Preparing, CTC, R2R, Rev to Rev, Modern Missions, beginning parts of World Geography
Little J - LHTH, LHFHG, Beyond, Bigger, Preparing, working in CTC
My just turned 8yo DS in 2nd grade is a math whiz...BUT, this concept is confusing him. He gets much more abstract concepts and multi-step problems easily so I'm shocked to see this being an issue. He's in 2A. He already knows his lower facts very well and his upper ones a little (better than my 5th grader 
) , though we haven't worked on them at all. He even knows some multiplication facts and gets those concepts. I've done hands on with him multiple times, used the dry erase board and brought in the place value chips and also the base ten blocks. He can do better if I'm there with him, but he will take half an hour to do one problem if I'm not RIGHT THERE. He's loved math in the past but he's losing it now...makes me sad. He's tired of this concept and ready to move on, but I'm worried about it b/c I've looked ahead to 2B and he needs to know how to do it well already. What would you do?
I know we used the base ten blocks like you did, but I knew there was more and when I read Countrymom's post, I remembered that we did the same thing. I think it is some of the hands on exercises that are scheduled, and we used it time and time again. I actually had a board that had a ones column, tens column, and hundreds column. We used pennies, dimes, and dollars and worked problems using the money and board. We would follow through with writing the problem on the white board. We did this for quite a while. I also read some books on regrouping to them. Mr. Base 10 Invents Mathematics and the mathstart readers were favorites. Most of the concepts that we have done in Singapore have been easily understood by my dc and we've usually gone full-speed but 2A is when we had to slow down. The concept of regrouping can be challenging to get ones mind around, and it is an important one. I wouldn't want your ds to get bored with math or dislike it at all, but it is an important concept for him to get. So I would try to mix it up a bit and allow him to do lots of hands on activities. If it is frustrating him for a length of time, I would probably move onto to something else and then revisit it later maybe adding in a hands on activity and one or two problems a couple of times a week. You could do that while you move ahead in the book. Then hopefully over time, it would sink in and he will feel comfortable with it by the time you get to 2B. 
