Beyond Math Question

[amarie]

Hi,

My son is doing Beyond...I was wondering about math. When you find that your child is struggling with a new concept, do you just keep plugging away, assuming they'll get it, or do you spend more time on it until they understand it well? Also, at times the amount of bookwork seems to overwhelm him. I am not sure if he is not understanding the concepts, if it is too much for him to complete three pages in one sitting, or if it could possibly be a visual thing. I hesitate to slow down, fearing that we will fall behind, but I don't want him to miss something. Does anyone have any thoughts?

Thanks so much,
Amy

[krismoose]

My son is in 1B and we do one workbook page a day, regardless of what the day's assignment "should" be. This helps him to know what the math routine is, and helps stretch out the book, as he just turned 6 and I don't want him going too far too fast. I was wondering if it would backfire, not giving him enough "practice" each day, but on the contrary, it seems to help him to mentally chew on the concepts a bit longer. If he's struggling with a concept, we just repeat the given activity in the Beyond guide the next day, and even the next if need be. He loves math, and he's understanding it really well considering we only spend 10 minutes, maybe 15, on it each day. Anyhow, it's working for us, if that helps you

[countrymom]

I usually do extra review at some point for every new concept. I redo Carrie's exercises and make up my own. I would just take math at the pace you and your son are comfortable with. It doesn't do much good to finish "on time" and not know the principles. One thing to keep in mind also is the fact that Singapore math actually is ahead of the school system, especially as you get farther out. So in reality you are probably not "behind" even if you go at a slower pace.

[Tree House Academy]

We keep moving, but we have also never totally "not gotten it" with a concept. My son struggled a bit more with subtracting from 20, but we found one of Carrie's activities to be AMAZING in helping him. It is the one where you take some kind of counter (blocks, candy pieces, rice, noodles, WHATEVER) and tell him the total number. Then, you put the counters into two bowls with covers (I ended up using counters that were so small, I did this with my hands). You seperate the counters and he picks a hand. You show him how many you have in that hand and ask how many he needs to get to the total. My son did AMAZING with this! He loved it and now we play it all the time...in the car, at dinner, during lunch. And, I am noticing that it is really helping him learn adding and subtracting better than anything else we have ever done!

[Tree House Academy]

Also, at times the amount of bookwork seems to overwhelm him. I am not sure if he is not understanding the concepts, if it is too much for him to complete three pages in one sitting, or if it could possibly be a visual thing.

Just a thought on this part: Could you maybe work with him to get the pages completed? When we do a review, I will go through and explain one page at a time to my ds, then he does the work, then we go to the next page, etc. I wouldn't even mind writing the answer for a child as long as they told me the correct answer for the problem using their skills to do so. If the writing is overwhelming him, you could write for him. If the number of pages is overwhelming him, you could break math up into two sessions on those days - for instance, have him do two pages in the morning, then do other subjects and finish the last two pages of math just before storytime reading. Be creative - I firmly believe that math is not something you have to drill into kids...it is something you have to light the spark on. Once they catch fire with math skills, you will see them flourish so well. Some just take a bit longer than others. My older ds is a math whiz - my younger struggles more. With HOD and Singapore, though, my ds is learning so very much more in such a gentle and hands on way.

[Happy2bMommyof3]

Admittedly, I have never followed the HOD hands on math activities. We plug along with one lesson a day and if dd gets stuck on a concept, or if I feel like she needs some more work in order to grasp something completely, I'll go online and look up math games/activities for that concept. We are doing that now with time in 2B. I'll just take a day or 2 off of Singapore and have some fun practice until she feels more comfortable.

Hope this helps!