from a bamboo cane.
Oh, never mind.
Posted on 12/19/2008 7:30:16 AM PST by bboop
Well, Knute, that’s how I think too. I want to just take this kid, homeschool him, and tell him — you are doing just FINE in math. Don’t let your teacher tell you otherwise. My challenge is to help him prove that to his teacher.
You are right. I used it too. It is the way math should be taught, it is the way any intelligent person should learn.
In fact,very quickly, they give you problems which are embedded with many lessons that set the stage for more advanced concepts. It is very well thought out. In fact, it can be called a multilayered concept. You are working on simple arithemetic problems, but they are slipping in bits of algebra and set theory at the same time. So, you are already getting the exposure to the notion without a whole lot of so called pressure to learn it.
Never understood the concept of “new” math, now Saxon & Singapore. Numbers are simple, 1 + 1 is always 2, not weird conditions like I before E, except after C. ;)
If more people learned simple math, the politicians would not be able to run half the scams they do.
In my experience, every kid will hit some concept that will trip him up and that will happen more than once. Sometimes I just have to explain it to them a different way, sometimes 20 different ways and sometimes it seemed like nothing would work.
Sometimes I’d have to completely stop all forward progress in a subject to help them get over their “brick wall”. Sometimes I found that a break from the subject for a week or two helped them get a fresh start and the concept that eluded them just a couple of weeks ago could easily be mastered after taking their minds off it for a bit.
I think the biggest breakthrough I had was with my son. I had to never explain something in words when I could find a way to *show* him. The more I talked, the more I confused him.
Amazing. The biggest chatter-box on the planet couldn’t *listen* to save his life! lol!
“Please bear in mind that “understanding in math often DOES NOT precede the ability to do problems. Math facts, for example, can easily be memorized like a game and the understanding can come later.”
Wisdom in a drum.
There are things in life that should be quickly dispensed with in order to develop the ability to use them:
Mathematical tables, multiplication, division, addition and subtraction.
Music: Learning to read musical scores for whatever instrument is most easily done with notecards of notes and intervals these should be written by hand and drilled until able to shout the answer at lightning speed. One technique I have used is to right out multiple cards for each question as the writing out of the q&a is part of the learning process.
Notecards are our friends and every family should have an inexhaustible supply of them on hand, with small cheap boxes in which to store them by subject. Wish I had known this when I was young.
from a bamboo cane.
Oh, never mind.
I totally agree. I love tutoring math, because it is so straight-forward and binary. Once the kids grasp that, at whatever level, look out liberals. You have a clear thinker! It is my ultimate goal, to teach them how to think.
I cannot say much for SM, other than it’s probably really good, given the results of that country.
Like others, I used Saxon with my kids. It worked out great, as they are many years ahead of their age groups and 2 of them started college prior to age 15. The two key words of advice for Saxon: Be sure to ONLY get the hardcover books...the new ones are softcover and I don’t know if they’ve been doctored, as the company was taken over by a big-publisher (get the hardcovers on E-Bay). Second, do EVERY problem in the Saxon books - the people that complain about the program try to short-cut it...doesn’t work.
I also love Saxon. We used Straight-Forward Math, tho, which is paperbacks and goes all the way to Calculus (2 workbooks). They explain it so well.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.