<p>My son’s 4th grade teacher on Everyday Math: “I don’t think the
person who wrote this was ever a teacher; in fact, I don’t think
the person who wrote this was ever a CHILD!”</p>
<p>My son on “hands on algebra”: “Why do we have move this stuff around
with our hands? I mean, isn’t that why math was invented - so we
wouldn’t have do this stuff?”</p>
<p>WAPTI, I am currently homeschooling my 9-year old. He spent K-2 in a small private school. I could tell by the fall of second grade that he was having problems with math. Last summer, after he completed second grade, I started working with him using Singapore Math. We went back to review first and second grade math using the Singapore Math books, before we plunged into third grade math. He absolutely loves Singapore Math. There is no language barrier because the books we use are in English and customized for the US market (for example, money problems use quarters, nickels, dimes, etc). It does use the metric system quite a bit, in addition to English units. Lots of story problems. Third grade math involves a lot of addition and subtraction with compound units. One example: 7 lb 1 oz - 3 lb 14 oz = ___ . I am not sure how this compares with other third grade math books. Hope this helps.</p>
<p>“However, my D is very mathmatically inclined and to be successful in EDM we had to teach her the old way (for instance, Long division) before she could dabble with all the creative stuff. You have to understand what you are doing before you “get it” with the funky math.”</p>
<p>My son is mathematically inclined, also, and learning to estimate as a step back from looking at it and knowing the answer is driving him nuts. WHat’s happened with us is that a power struggle has been created, which we really don’t need.</p>
<p>I’m sorry to say I am not very familiar with Singapore Math. If I had young kids and was homeschooling again, I would be looking into it. We used Saxon Math, which is very straightforward, clear, and simple to use. It covers all the bases, explains creative ways to look at problems, explains what is behind the algorithms, but then relies on using standard algorithms to do the assignments. It was not, however, an exciting curriculum for my daughter. I wish I had supplemented it with some more entertaining activities. </p>
<p>We still struggle with getting her to <em>like</em> math (she is in Algebra II now). Occasionally she will begrudgingly admit something is interesting, but I feel like I missed an opportunity to instill some fondness, as well competency.</p>
<p>My kid had problem with estimation too. She just did the adding/subtracting instead of estimating. I have one real reason why you need to do ballpark estimate, when you don’t have a calculator handy( like in a supermarket) and you want to check quickly to see if the clerk makes mistake. I have used ballpark estimate when closing out loans and caught mistakes left and right, I had a rough calculator in my head . That is why it’s useful to do estimation, especially when the mistake is not in your favor.</p>
<p>For fun and learning at home, we used Peggy Kaye’s “Games for Math.” She has several different games books for math, writing, etc. My boys enjoyed the activities.</p>
<p>I’ll edit to add it was interesting to read your FAQs, tokenadult. It is nice to see AoPS mentioned here. I’ve bought some of their books for my youngest, and have been so impressed by them.</p>
<p>I use ballpark estimates all the time - how many gallons of paint to get, how much fertilizer does my yard need… I also use it on the job - if I’ve calculate the square feet of something irregular I’ll look to see if my answer makes sense. That said, I think that elementary school really misuse estimating making kids do it when it is totally unnecessary. </p>
<p>The thing that really drove my oldest batty was the spiral curriculum. If it’s Sept you do graphs, if it’s April you do probability. In second grade you learn regrouping with 2 digit numbers, in 3rd grade with 3 digit numbers in 4th grade with 4 different numbers - as if ultimately it wasn’t all exactly the same problem.</p>
<p>Despite my complaints my oldest managed to be a math whiz anyway. (Admittedly we gave him EPGY math when he complained that school math was too slow.) My youngest was not a math kid, but is much better at mental math than I am. They did a lot of work with number lines and “friendly numbers” that took, and seemed to be quite effective. i.e. if you need to add 98+36 in your head, he automatically turns it into the “friendlier” problem of 100+34.</p>
<p>I just wanted to say that it sounds like your son’s difficulties right now go way beyond math class. I’m not sure what your options are, but I know that having my kids stuck in a school that is not doing them much good ranks as one of my top-5 nightmares (I realize there are worse things, but this always seemed like more of a potential actual thing that might happen to me).</p>
<p>OP, you said you couldn’t possibly afford private school tuition. Are you sure? Maybe the school offers a sliding-scale tuition, or financial aid. Parochial school tuition is often 1/4 or less independant-private school tuition - maybe that’s an option? Maybe there are inter-district magnet programs in your public system? </p>
<p>Anyway, if it were my kid and he was that discouraged, disengaged and just underwater in a poor-performing school district, I would make it a priority to move him. I think it’s very hard to turn that kind of situation around through stuff you do at home. Good luck.</p>
<p>mathmom, speaking of mental math, my youngest arrived in kindergarten able to do 2 digit addition and subtraction, but her teacher soon discovered she did not recognise written numbers. We had done all our math games in the car driving to & from older kids sporting events, so she knew & understood ONLY mental math. She was able to pick up on the concepts very quickly, but we had a good laugh in realising how that had happened!</p>
<p>I’ve got a PhD in math and I have complained about this way of teaching math for years. Not to depress you, but my daughter who is now in BC calculus still can’t do arithmetic well (that’s what she loses points for, not the calculus part!). Further, her teacher can’t understand why all these bright kids are so poorly prepared. Trust me, those of us that teach kids after the “new math” curriculum gets done with them are NOT happy.</p>
<p>I finally gave up on enlightening the school and took over tutoring my kids and their friends myself. I would teach them the way to add, subtract and so on (and eventually how to do algebra, probability and so on) nd then show them how to do what the Connected Math program wanted. It is a total shame that our country has taken this route. But, as my kids would say, don’t get me started on this.</p>
<p>Tokenadult, I am looking over your very thorough post on that other forum. You seem to feel that the Saxon Math would not be a good suggested alternative to the Everyday Math. I get the feeling from other posters that the Saxon is different from Everyday Math in that it is more “rote learning”. Am I wrong, or are the Asian methods of math learning (Singapore and the method that you said is the best, but needs English translation) not based more on rote?</p>
<p>I had a talk with my son today (as good as that can go with an 8 year-old boy throwing a ball while talking) about math and school in general. He said that he does not understand how to differentiate what operation to use in word problems (my daughter and I both had trouble with word math problems as well). He did go on to say that multiplication is like addition and division is like subtraction, but that he gets confused. He said that he does no group work. He said that he wishes the teacher would tell him the easiest possible way to solve a problem.</p>
<p>I also asked him about what he does when he puts things together, to see if he is actually reading directions. I asked him about whether he ever has to read the directions to complete things, and he said only when he “works on inside parts”, but he said he basically just looks at the picture (even on these 3D puzzles, which at 900 pieces, would drive me nuts). One of the first things he put together was a scooter on his 7th birthday, because he was sick of waiting for us, but he told us that he put that together without the directions.</p>
<p>He said that he does not like “boring reading”. I actually don’t think he has a real reading problem though, because he read Freckle Juice outloud to me in 1/2 hour with no error because he had to get through that before he could swim with his friend. I was shocked, it seems that his struggles can be “selective”.</p>
<p>The Singapore math books have the strength compared to Saxon that they encourage multiple ways of looking at a problem and THINKING about what you are doing. They have the strength compared to Everyday Mathematics of teaching all the standard algorithms well and wasting a lot of time on methods that are impractical in daily life. They have the strength compared to both of those programs of expecting kids to get it after they’ve had reasonable amounts of review and then going on to new topics.</p>
<p>We had a bad experience with Everyday Math also in 1st/2nd grade (private school). The teacher was excellent, specially trained and very enthusiastic - can’t blame her. Fortunately, she was also very cooperative. When it became apparent that D simply was not going to be able to manage even rudimentary skills such as two column addition, I intervened. I was able to convince the teacher that D could master addition and get correct answers (!) with me teaching her my old fashioned method. Teacher had no difficulty with me “homeschooling” that skill (and others). She did indicate that she would continue working with D the EDM way - I think she eventually gave up! D moved to a different school after 3rd grade. They didn’t use EDM and she was a solid B - B+ math student through high school. Math concepts don’t seem to come intuitively, but explanation, demonstration and practice in a more traditional format served her well. </p>
<p>A friend of mine, a math LD specialist told me that she has seen many kids who can’t make it through the EDM curriculum, but can learn the same skills if taught in a more “traditional” manner. </p>
<p>I remember a lot of controversy and media coverage when we were first encountering EDM in the early 1990’s. I’m surprised the curriculum is still around - maybe it’s changed somewhat? I have great sympathy for anyone dealing with this mismatch of kid vs. curriculum!</p>
<p>I just remembered our “summer math games”! D was weak on story problems - as are many. I bought several workbooks from the local teacher store and cut out individual problems. We would do several a day, reach into the bowl and pull out a problem. Somehow, that made it more fun than just doing the workbook.</p>
<p>To learn to recognize the words that would indicate the function (addition, subtraction , mutipication, division ) needed, I told D she was a detective that had to find the clue word that would tell her to what to do. She had a “special pencil” to circle the clue word. I began with all addition problems, then went to subtraction, then mixed them. That way, she seemed to avoid confusion. Similarly, with multiplaction and division and gradually mixed everything. She actually got very good at this kind of problem for standarized tests - I think it was because she had taught herself to “think through” the written problem in an unstressful manner. </p>
<p>I was lucky to have a very cooperative kid who was willing to take on the challenge of confronting a subject she disliked and perceived as “too hard” for her. Best of luck - frankly, I would not want to do it again!</p>
<p>2 of my kids survived everyday math. I have an undergrad degree in Math, so basically I taught them real math at home. Try taking a state standardized timed test in Math - doing lattice method and Everday math division instead of traditional multiplication & long division !! It became very apparent that the children who achieved high math scores were not doing the lattice method or division by parts.</p>
<p>Chedva, after all the times you’ve bailed me out with accurate info, I can finally return the favor: Cuisinaire Rods.</p>
<p>They look like chopsticks minus the pointy part. They have color-coded segments and a base ten system, so that two of one color equals the length of another color. One orange equals two blues or four greens, and so on.</p>
<p>Kids can make many discoveries with them, or use them as measuring devices (my comb is two oranges long). From this they learn that all measuring units are arbitrary, so it makes introducing an inch or a centimeter easier as a second step, after they realize that all things can be measured.</p>