I don't know if this will be a long post or not, but I just wanted to quickly comment on teaching math at our house.
I always wanted to be a math teacher....I thought it was my true calling...that is, until I had a job teaching 5 remedial classes at a high school--six weeks of my life I will never get back.
Right now we are using Singapore math to teach both Simon and Gwen. Gwen is on level 2 and Simon is on level 5. For the most part, it is just a book with worksheets that are about 1-3 pages per lesson. I used to always think "practice makes perfect" and the more problems you did, the better you were at math....but my opinion has changed. It turns out, I can usually tell by 4-5 problems whether or not my kids understand the math. I know Simon hates long division (as do I) and if I see him doing everything right, I usually cut the assignment in half. Most of the pages seem to have about 10-14 problems, but again, half of the problems is plenty, especially since I know they'll be repeating the skills again in another lesson.
I guess I find it interesting (to me) how much my opinion of how kids learn has changed since we started homeschooling. It is obvious when they are frustrated, and definitely clear when they are enjoying the lesson....but I guess that is easy when you have a classroom of 2 kids plus teacher...
So, I am enjoying this new school year. I really look forward to coming home after work and doing math and science lessons with the kids...
That's all...now back to my lazy Sunday...
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3 comments:
Hi Barb,
It does seem like there's a moment when a kid "gets" a certain math concept, and once they get it, you don't have to repeat it 1,000 times. They get it, already!
That said, we did reach a point where Anya was really hating math, and I eventually figured out that I hadn't been giving her enough practice, so that she never felt a sense of total mastery. She wouldn't ever fly through a worksheet thinking "This is too easy," because we weren't doing all that much math... just the concepts and not a whole lot of practice worksheets. Now we seem to have found a balance... we do a little every day, and every third or fourth day I give her review sheets of simple stuff... even just adding and subtracting large numbers, or a sheet that covers the whole multiplication table, etc. We had headed into middle school math but we had to backtrack and pick up long division (which we'd skipped) just recently. I took that slow and let her get good and bored with the simple problems before moving into the more complex sort. But it's not that she needs the repetition in order to grasp the concept. She just needs it so that she can feel confident about her math skills.
But there's no way my kids would need to do the amount of math busywork that some of my friends' kids are doing in school. In fact, if you give them too many problems they start making silly errors (3 x 4 = 7 or 8 + 5 = 3), a clear sign that their brains have turned off and they're now on autopilot, not learning anything.
Would love to read a post on how you're doing science, if you ever feel like it. Glad your school year is starting out well!
Hi Freelearner!
I think it all depends on what you are doing, too. Simon's worksheets lately have been long division followed by another day of long division, followed by another day of long division, so it seems like he practices the same concept for 2-3 days and then moves on, then goes back and builds on something he learned before, etc. then a review. So, I find myself not wanting to force 15 long division problems on him a day.
Gwen seems to be right about where Simon was at her age. Her stuff is REALLY repetitive right now.
Science discussion will be for another day, I am sure. We are using books with some loose lesson plans already created this year as opposed to my crappy trying to just find books to read to them about science...and using the excuse that Simon was taking a science class on Fridays to not do as much. It is all a balance. If Simon had his way, we would only study planets and Astronomy every day...and sometimes that is all I want to do, too :)
Barbnocity
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