math misery

[deltagal]

Hi all,

Let me be frank - my 11 yos is very challenged when it comes to math. He has addition and subtraction down and understands those functions. He appears to have a decent grasp of multiplication, but division.... Oh my. I don't think he's made any progress all year. I have to literally walk him through every problem and I've been doing that for months and months and months and months and months. we are using singapore. We review and review and practice, but here we still stand or should I say, sit or should I say, grovel. I'm just wondering what to do. we're division weary. And honestly when I look at the math that's ahead of us...I tremble. I do have other children I need to work with. Any thoughts?

I will add on a side note that neither of us gets upset about this, we just keep laboring away, but as some point you do start to wonder....

[Himfirst01]

My best advice after 10 years of struggling with my son and his math issues, I would say seek help NOW! Don't wait. We have tried every curriculum under the sun. Due to financial restraints I never got professional help for him. I will say he is a very bright young man (18 now). Yet, still functions at an elementary level in math. I have been beating my head on the wall since he was about 8 or 9. not literally

Anyway, just TODAY, I was told about Diane Craft and her extensive studies on the brain. You should check out her website. It may just be the help you need.

http://www.diannecraft.com/


Wish we had discovered it sooner. My son's lack of math ability is holding him back from joining th military, passing exams, etc. I really encourage you to seek out how your son's brain proccesses the info it is receiving. By the way, division is when I REALLY starting seeing the problem. Though he struggled with subtraction in ps. That was part of the reason we started hs (His 3rd grade year).

My prayers are with you

[water2wine]

Can I just say I have been there! I can so empathize with your post. Sometimes you just have to walk away from doing any curriculum with math and just go over the points step by step and or take a break. Beyond that I just want to say that something that worked very well for us was to use colored chalk for each step. Division is Ms. B Multiply, subtract, Bring down. So do the problem in white the multiplication with an arrow in green (or whatever), subtract in red, then show the arrow under the number to bring it down and rewrite it below in the same color say yellow. Then repeat until done. Other than that it is memorizing the facts so make sure they know those first very well. Other than that my condolences. It is hard to teach sometimes and it is sometimes just a matter of waiting until a light bulb comes on for them. Just went through ti myself and that is some of the stuff that helped us. Hope that helps! Hang in there!

[Tansy]

My biggest regret is that I did not get help for my dc sooner.
I would second Himfirst01 get him some help.

We love little giant steps nuerodevlopmental approach. Yes it cost us a lot of money but God sold a cow and helped us out! If he's struggling with steps in math it could be a processing issue that can be resolved. I won't post the link for LGS since it is also a curriculum. But it has done wonders for My eldest. She is currently using a rapid recall division program from them and it is getting them to stick.