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Hello!

I have a 7 year old daughter (May B.D.) who is going into "2nd" grade and she is just not getting her math facts down at all. I try playing games, flash cards, you name it. She knows her 0's and 1's and a few random facts in addition and hardly any subtraction facts. She is easily distracted and can't seem to focus on one thing for too long. We are having the same trouble with piano and remembering what note is what on the staff.

Is this something I should be concerned about or is she going to "snap" out of it with time? I am getting concerned and frustrated.

Any help or insight would be appreciated. Thanks!

We have had trouble getting our one daughter to learn her math facts. She also is easily distractable and has some minor learning delays (memory issues). We've tried Flashmaster, Math U See skip counting songs, Math stories (can't remember the name which is recommended for kids having trouble) and then the calculator. The skip counting songs have worked best (for multiplication) but honestly, I'm not sure this kid will ever have them down. It's also a matter of desire and she doesn't see the relevance for it. I would just keep plugging away. Mad Minute sheets have helped too, where they are timed and see their improvement day to day.

Hope that helps,
Shannon

My kids really enjoy Math Rider. Its a great, downloadable computer program that weaves a story around learning the math facts as kids take journeys on their horse. It makes drilling facts lots of fun & gives me a really good picture of where they are at.

I would stop pushing it. She's only 7, if she was 12, then I would wonder. Let her just keeping working on her math and using manipulatives and let her brain really latch on to what everything means. There is no hurry.

Timed tests might be a fun way for her to work on them. Just do like 30 seconds or a minute to do as many as she can. Then let her graph her results for a month. I bet she will see them increase. And just start with adding. Once she has adding down better, work on the subtracting. When I taught math for elementary school teachers years ago, I had my students do this (college aged people). It was funny to see many of them using their fingers at the beginning of the semester. But most could do them in their head by the end of the term!

We have used a free computer program called xtra math. It does one set of math facts at a time ( addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division) and asks questions until they learn them. It keeps track of what they have mastered and what they need to learn. My seven year old only has the zero and one facts down as well. I am hoping to get a computer soon so we can work on the others. I think most seven year olds don't have their facts down though.

Some kids just aren't good memorizers. And if they know facts, but don't know how to do the problems, to me that is a bigger problem than if they know how to do the problems but don't know the facts. Repetition, or some of the tricks taught further on down the road in Singapore, will get facts in the head eventually.

My DD who is going into 3rd grade doesn't know facts. We've followed Carrie's math plans as written, and there is exposure to facts but not a lot of drilling. I am okay with the fact that she doesn't know them.

I have a daughter, almost 9 years old, who will begin 3rd grade with bigger on Monday. She still struggles with her math facts, and really dislikes math (to the point of tears most days). She made a lot of progress in 2nd grade with the fact families and flash cards/1 minute drills, but she is still "behind" in my opinion. We are in GA, and standardized testing is required at the end of 3rd. I am really hoping this year will be better for us as far as math is concerned. We had bailed on Singapore 2A last year, and I was planning on using Teaching Textbooks 3. Once I got the Bigger manual, and saw the way that Carrie does the Singapore math, I started rethinking things. I think I will plan on using it as written, with Singapore. I really like the way it is taught, and how the students learn how they reach an answer instead of just rote memorization. I can always fall back on plan b if it is a fail, but I am hoping things work out. I think this is the age that a lot of math, spelling, reading and writing skills step up a notch!

Hi. Here are a couple of posts from Carrie about math facts.

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=10785&p=78681&hilit ... cts#p78681
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=13151&p=94770&hilit ... cts#p94770

From what I understand, the main goal with Singapore math (at your daughter's age) is just making sure she understands how to do addition and subtraction. Memorizing the facts doesn't have to come for another year or two--and by then she may have picked up some of the facts on her own.

Have you tried "Quartermile Math" CD-ROM? It's a great program that uses horses (or cars) that race each other based on how fast your child enters the correct answers.
Christian Book Distributors has it.