OT---my child needs math help

[luvmyfam444]

she's going into 2nd grade & she is gonna be way behind if I don't get her caught up in her addition/subtraction skills. I'm looking for something fun...we have workbooks (BORING!) ...looked online...found 1 site but some of it's too hard....

Those of you that homeschool or have had to tutor your child what do you reccomend? IS it just best to use flashcards for rote memory or what???

 

[NCombs]

My kids always liked the Jumpstart computer games. They come in different grade levels and different skills (reading,math, etc).

 

[kparc]

My daughter struggles with her basic math skills also. WE have played the card game war and instead of turning over one card we turned over two and add them. Highest total wins the cards. You can also practice just by dealing your child two cards and adding them together. ( You could use two dice or the two sides of a domino for this also). Playing store is fun also. Make up some price tags and have you child add them, count out money, and figure out how much money they have left to spend.

 

[SleepingUgly]

Can you just incorporate math into your daily lives? For instance, if she's eating grapes, and you give her 10 grapes, ask her how many she would have left if she ate 3 grapes. Or if she's drawing with her crayons, and you take away some of them, ask how many she has left. I found that if you show kids math is all around them, they tend to easily accept it and pick it up faster, as they can then relate to the concepts better.

Good luck!

Linda

 

[mom22boys]

Before I was a mom, I was a second grade teacher. My advice is keep it fun and keep it hands on! Also, try to incorporate it into every day life. For example, if she has some grapes for lunch count the grapes. Let's say there are ten grapes. On her plate have her put the grapes into two piles. Then ask her what addition sentence she sees. If she has two groups of five, say "I see 5+5=10." Play around for awhile and see how many different addition sentences she can make.

Say you are giving her a snack of animal crackers. Show her that in one hand you have 4 and in the other you have 3, ask her how many animal crackers she is getting altogether. Kids especially like this one with Skittles or M&M's.

There are countless ways to explore addition and subtraction with food, but you can also involve math when playing. Say she likes Barbie dolls. Put two Barbie dolls in the house and three in the car, say I see "2 + 3 Barbie dolls, how many barbie dolls do we have altogether."

Another time to work in math is when she is doing chores. Let's say she is setting the table and you have three people in your family. Hand her three bowls and three plates, then say " I see 3 plates and 3 bowls, how many dishes altoghether, 3+3=" Or if she is helping to put away clean clothes, hand her 2 t-shirts and 2 pairs of shorts, "Say I see 2 shirts and 2 shorts, I see 2+2, what does that equal?"

The point is it is going to take more work and more creativity than handing her a workbook page, but if you get creative you could have your daughter doing math all day long in short little "mini-lessons," and she won't even know it! Let her experience the numbers and the addition and subtraction "hands-on", so she can touch and see the math. Another piece of advice focus on addition first!

Best of Luck!

 

[ZanneMarie]

My sons second grade teacher asked parents to do flashcards with their child fiftenn minutes every night throughout the school year. My son always enjoyed it and did not find it boring. As he became more proficient we would 'race' to see how many cards he could get done in a set time, say five minutes. Or how long it would take him to do all the cards. Although we did not do this every night we usually did it several times a week and he got very good and comfortable with math -he even won his class math bee!! This was extra nice because he struggles with reading.

 

[malibuconlee]

I can't find a picture of this, but I know I've seen them at Wal-Mart around Christmas time. It's red plastic, and has rows of buttons on it. Across and Down. I had one that did multiplication, but I've seen them in addition and subtraction as well.

The math problem is on the button (or just above it), you push and the answer shows up.

Hope I described it wall, and maybe someone else can find a pic for you.

 

[GoN2WDW]

There is a good software package called Math Blaster. There are several versions based on grade levels and you can usually get a few years use out of it. Another thing we did to increase our DD's confidence level in math was hire a tutor. Fortunately, the Basic Skills Math teacher in our district does private tutoring during the summer at our middle school. Many teachers do this during the summer and your school should know who they are. She always did fine in math, but working for the 1 hour every week keeps her brain working and the start-up in September is less stressful. It is the best money we spend during the summer! (Except of course for WDW! )

 

[KLL]

I agree with ZaneMarie. As a former elementary teacher and principal for 35 years my experience has shown that there needs to be some drill of the basic facts. Incorporating fun activities into the learning process is important. But there is no avoiding learning the basic math skills of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. The key is to do it in short spans of 10 -15 mins. and to do it on a regular basis.

My granddaughter had the same problem in second grade. We started with flash cards for addition using just the numbers 1,2, and 3. When she was confident using these we added the cards using the number 4, and so on. There is nothing like a child gaining confidence in what they are doing. Take it at the childs speed, but be sure to do it often - repetition breeds familiarity.
Knowing your number facts is nothing more than recoginizing them as soon as you seem. My granddayghter, now in fourth grade, loves math today. She is not afraid to tackle new situations in math. She has also learned that there are no short cuts. She now says "Math is fun". As we old timers say: "Some things you just have to memorize".

 

[Pigeon]

I agree with KLL. My dd is finishing second grade and we spend about 10-15 minutes every night on the flash cards. It really does help. There are some things that just need to be practiced the old fashioned way. There's nothing wrong with supplementing with more "fun" stuff, but don't hide from the drill.

My dd's school starting out with the kids memorizing the doubles, 5+5 etc., and then learning strategies like adding one to the doubles for 5+6 and so on. It helps the kids get a handle on the basic facts more quickly. They can also learn to count up one or two for all the 1+ or 2+ facts.

My dh (a teacher himself) will cover the walls to our tub surround with addition and subtraction problems with tub crayons before we run dd's bath. She likes to fill in the problems while she sits in her bath.

 

[dis-happy]

We homeschool and use Saxon Math. Saxon teaches addition in groups---doubles (2+2), doubles plus one (5+6), nines plus a number (9+6), and some other categories like that. Each group has its own set of color coded flashcards, and it's easy to tell which grouping your child is having problems with and practice those facts more. There are also fact sheets of 25 problems done each day, timed---the child stops when the time is up, draws a line, then finishes, the goal being to see how he gets faster over time (however, if you have a high-stress child, you can change it so he just gets the practice w/o the timer--one of mine was like this).

If you dd doesn't seem to be getting concepts AT ALL, I would consider spending the $100. and doing the homeschool version of Saxon 2 with her this summer, 2 lessons a day to get through it. It's scripted so you don't have to be a math teacher to teach it. I love the way it lays out concepts and makes them relevant, plus there is a lot of re-inforcement for what has already been learned. There are also mental math problems for them to do each day.

Don't underestimate the power (and fun) of money. Get a big cup of real coins and do problems with them--let her buy stuff from an imaginary store with price tags and have her give you the amt. to buy it or make change for it.

Another re-inforcement with flashcards is to say the entire problem out loud, along with the answer. That way she is hearing it (herself) and well as saying it, and hopefully this will help the facts get ingrained.

Once she has addition down, fact families are an integral part of subtraction, so have her practice these families together as well.

You can also buy some funny looking triangle flashcards--I liked those too. You cover up one corner and either add or subtract the remaining numbers.

Good luck!

 

[Amy&Dan]

As someone who has had two kids that struggled as first graders with reading, I can tell you all of the advice above is great. When I did rote memorization of word flashcards, coupled with fun activites I saw results. I also hired a tutor for my son, it was actually his first grade teacher. By the end of the year he was right where he needed to be, best money I ever spent! Then two years later my daughter was also having some problems as a first grader but we had moved so the teacher who had tutored my son was not an option. So I did Sylvan. Not nearly as good of results and it was almost $5000. Worst money I ever spent. I then had my son's teacher at the time tutor my daughter. Three months later she was up to speed. I really believe in that one on one attention. At sylvan it was generally 5 on 1 at our center. They were all teachers but I would still never recommend that type of setting over just some private tutoring. I also found that my kids were more willing to work with someone that wasn't their mother. I think they knew how badly I was wanting them to succeed and it just put more pressure on them. They are both now good readers, no problem! Find yourself a teacher, with what those saints earn, there are many of them looking for extra money. Good luck!

 

[HaleyB]

First of all, has your child been tested to make sure there is no underlying problem? Testing is important, if your child goes to public school they have to test him/her if you request it. They may fight you, but if you fill out the right paper work they have to do the testing. Alternatly some insurance plans do cover educational testing.

We have used the touch math system with both of our children. The both have found it easy, fun, and both now have outstanding math skills.

https://www.touchmath.com/index.php?CAT_UID=5

 

[my3princes]

My kids love math. My 1st grader is learning his multiplication tables along with his 3rd grade brother. I utilize our car time for math games. I throw out problems and they race to see who can get it first. Sometimes only one will want to play, but they are always proud of themselves if they get it right. In the car they have no distractions. I found the website www.Funbrain.com which had a fun game to learn about money. They have a lot of other educational games. check it out.

Deb

 

[impsmom]

You got some good advice
My daughter will also be going into second grade. She loves math but anything to practice is good in my book. Leap Frog has 2 small hand held games that help teach math. One is addition and subtraction and the other is multiplication and division. It's called Electronic Flash Magic. It can be played 4 different ways. We have the addition/subtraction one. It does all the tables up to 12. I think it ran about $10 at Toys R Us

 

[eeyore81]

Hi,
We homeschool and use the computer for so many things. We use JumpStart, and School Zone. You can also find some more "fun" stuff like some Disney computer games that have some learning too. Let me know if you need anything, I'll be glad to help.

 

[slp87]

I teach 2nd grade and my kids love the games at Learningplanet.com. There is a game called Spacey Math that works on add/sub/mult/div facts. Hopefully this link will work.
Spacey Math
PBSkids.org has some great games as well, specifically under Cyberchase.