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We recently ordered "Sum Swamp," an addition and subtraction game, from Amazon. It is helping with basic math facts, and also covers odd and even. It's a fun game, and very cute. It only has two 6-sided dice, however. I'm planning on buying two 10-sided dice to make it cover all the basic addition and subtraction facts.
There is an "endless loop" where you have to land on the exit to get out. For a shorter game, we don't make the endless loop endless. You could play with multiplication as well, and then either add the digits or for any answers 10 or over, divide by 10 and round to the nearest number.
We lost a bit of math knowledge this summer, this game will be a fun way to keep up basic math facts during holidays.
Now, if I could only find a fun DVD! Something along the lines of Leapfrog's "Talking Letter Factory" for letter names and sounds would be great. Unfortunately, leapfrog's math circus doesn't teach much, although it is cute.
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I remember those days!! If you'd like some other ideas...
War is a fun one too. It's easy to keep a card deck in your purse/jacket & play a few rounds during delays/waits where it's too loud for a child to read or hear a story. Aunts/uncles are usually willing to play a few rounds at family gatherings. No card holder needed for little hands (unlike rummy or cribbage).
Store and restaurant are also popular...everyone picks their store/rest. theme, gathers up the goods, puts the prices out, and buys/sells to each other using change and dollar bills.
>>I'm planning on buying two 10-sided dice to make it cover all the basic addition and subtraction facts
20 siders are very useful too, especially for 2nd grade mental math and kidmade board games. Amazon has a nice selection of dice sets..prices are better than our local gamers store.
A fun card game & stocking stuffer for little ones is Alien Hot Shots..it's war, but it adds an odd eater, and even eater and a black hole.
Can't help you on the DVD..my kids prefer playing games! I can recommend math blaster and cluefinder for PC though, once they are ready to practice mental math.
For multiplication, Multiplication Rock is great. My 6 year old loved it when he was 2, and had the 12 times tables memorized for a while, which was kind of amusing. He lost that when he moved on to a new interest, but started watching the DVD again a couple of months ago, and now he not only is learning the facts but also really listens to the explanations of the "tricks."
They Might Be Giants also has a DVD of their album Here Come the 123's, though that only has a few facts here and there, but it's very fun to listen to and watch.
Hi,
Parent teacher conference was yesterday for my kids. My fifth grader daughter is in a low skill, badly behaved class. She is a good kid, a smart kid (no really, she has never been in trouble, people tell us how polite she is, she is above grade level on both math and reading), but she is in a low skill level, very badly behaved class.
Her teacher told me there are only five kids out of 32 who can do the grade level math.
What can I do, what do I need to do to make sure she is learning what she needs to?
The teacher can't teach what she needs to, given the spread of skill levels in the class. For example, there is a spread of over 1000 points in lexile levels. The lowest kid reads at about the first grade level, the highest, somewhere in high school. Some kids haven't mastered subtraction.
But, no matter what class my daughter ended up in, she still needs to take algebra in seventh grade and calculus by the time she is a senior. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to get her there?
Thanks
Jane
Elizabeth...with war , the variations are listed at the let's play math web site.
Jane..this happened to my child too. I was not able to get the school to give a syllabus, so I just did Singapore Primary Mathematics (SM) with my kid during the year, and over the summer did the topics from the grade level text that weren't covered in SM -our text publisher has material available on line. Singapore New Elementary Mathematics has worked very well for the middle school pre-algebra topics for us. I also use the state guidelines per grade level as a check of what is expected before Alg.
Jane,
You described my now 14 year old daughter's 1st grade class. To make matters worse, it was a combined 1st and 2nd grade class. The range of abilities was enormous. Most of the kids were not reading at all, and had made no improvement from the beginning to the end of the year. The school scored in the 3rd percentile nationwide on ITBS.
I started by buying a reading and math curriculum. We used Singapore, which I was very happy with, although there are several great choices to pick from. I then read The Well Trained Mind by Susan Wise Bauer, and promptly bought her history curriculum. We afterschooled like this for a couple years, then when she was in 4th grade I just gave up on the school entirely and started homeschooling full time.
If you want to supplement math, I'd take a look at some of the curricula homeschoolers use. My first choice is Singapore, but it might be tricky to start it with a 5th grader. It's much easier to use from the beginning. Here are some sites with reviews: http://www.homeschoolmath.net/curriculum_reviews/ and http://homeschoolreviews.com/reviews/curriculum/default.aspx?id=93
We also use ALEKS, which is a good resource if you don't want to do a whole curriculum at home. I'ts best for review and practice; it doesn't teach new concepts well. There is a free one month trial available at http://www.aleks.com/webform/homeschooling_with_aleks
Elizabeth:
My kids love, love, LOVE Sonlight's "Mathtacular" dvds.
(Note: Sonlight is an evangelical company, but God/religion/etc is not mentioned even once on the dvds, as far as I can tell. The only thing I noticed as a telltale giveaway was when they covered months of the year and talked about the holidays associated with them, they used "Columbus Day" for October. Cuz, yeah, that's what everyone thinks of when they think of October. But I digress...)
They're not precisely teaching dvds, and they don't actually drill math facts, but they cover over a 100 math concepts per dvd level. We have the first two, I think there are four of them now. But I thought I'd mention them because they are really great, if not precisely what you're asking for.
"But, no matter what class my daughter ended up in, she still needs to take algebra in seventh grade and calculus by the time she is a senior."
Given the question, I assume that the school has offered no help.
A good target for algebra (a proper course, not something like CMP) is 8th grade. This is followed by Geometry in 9th, Algebra II in 10th, Pre-Calc (or trig) in 11th, and Calculus in 12th. Algebra by 8th grade is important because the best kids are in those classes. The other classes typically don't just get slower coverage, they get lower expectation (fuzzy) math. In theory, there is no huge need to get to calculus in high school, but if you don't get on that track, then you could be in a very bad track.
Math tracking usually happens in 7th grade for most schools. It's important to get to the track that leads to algebra in 8th grade. Our school gives a test near the end of 6th grade to make the placement. Most kids and parents don't know it's coming and don't understand the meaning; a track to proper math, or a track to nowhere.
Imagine. A sixth grade test, based on horrible K-6 math curricula, that decides your child's future. Most parents don't worry about tracking until high school. That's a big mistake. Even our high school's guidance web page says that it starts in 7th grade, something that our middle school never warns parents about. Score another advantage for high SES parents.
Most high schools offer a proper track of Geometry, Algebra II, Pre-Calc, and Calculus, but you better check. You just have to get to that track. Find out what the high school uses for an honors algebra textbook. This should be the same textbook that your middle school uses for 8th grade algebra. Don't laugh. Our school (affluent area) just got rid of CMP and started to do this just last year! Before that, kids had pretend algebra and were astounded when they had to jump to Geometry in 9th grade.
Check with your middle school to see what textbooks they use. For 7th and 8th grade, they should use real textbooks, and they should be called something like Pre-Algebra and Algebra. If you see subtitles, like "Tools for a Changing World", then it's a clue that it could be less rigorous. If the 7th-12th grade math curriculum looks fuzzy, then you will have to do something else, but at least you won't be surprised.
If your middle school has decent pre-algebra and algebra courses, your goal is to make sure your daughter gets on that track. Find out how your school tracks kids in math in 7th grade. If there is a test, get a sample copy. This is your first target. The material is not too difficult, but it does require practice. If they don't want to give you details about how they track, then yell and scream. If your daughter's teacher throws up her hands and offers you no help, then they darn well better help you to do the job.
You have to know what your goal is. Of course, using Singapore Math at home is a great idea, but if you can't quite get that to work, you need to know what will get your daughter on the "fast track". Since she is in fifth grade, you have about a year and a half to get her up to speed. Get a copy of the tracking test and work backwards.
FWIW, regarding reaching calculus by senior year in high school:
When I was in jr. high 20+ (ahem!) years ago, the math sequence that got me to calculus my senior year was:
8th grade - algebra
9th grade - geometry
10th grade - intermediate algebra (semester 1); trig (semester 2)
11th grade - college algebra (semester 1); analytic geometry (semester 2)
12th grade - calculus
Bottom line: to do well in calculus, a *thorough* grounding in algebra and trig is essential. This cannot be emphasized enough. Other things (such as analytic geometry, series, partial fractions) are nice, but can be picked up on the fly if need be.
TerriW-
We homeschool using a Classical Christian approach, so I wouldn't mind an evangelical approach!
The DVDs look fun, much better than Dora or something mind-numbing like that. We'll probably get some, thanks for the recommendation.
I would guess at least 80% of people couldn't tell you what month Columbus day was in if you asked them, I would have been one of them before reading that.
Thanks for all the great comments and advice. I hadn't thought about the tracking test, actually I hadn't even realized something like that might exist.
I'm in California, the governor recently signed an order requiring algebra for all kids in eighth grade. Since everyone has to take it, it will probably be pretty watered down. That's why I want my daughter in algebra in seventh grade. The "algebra" course will likely be prealgebra at best, and more likely remedial math.
I live in a rural, heavily minority part of the state. From what I can tell from the high school's website, the school doesn't offer honors math, nor does it offer the Algebra I, Geometry, Algebra II, Trig sequence I remember from when I was in high school.
I am fairly certain my kids will need to exhaust the high school offering by sophomore year, then I will have to drive them to the community college (70 miles round trip) to get the math courses they need.
And no, the school has offered no help.
"Given the question, I assume that the school has offered no help."
That would be correct. I had an item on my agenda for the parent teacher conference that stated "What needs to happen for (my daughter) to be ready for algebra in seventh grade"
The teacher just blew right past it.
I'm going to get Singapore for my kindergartener and second grader. I'm going to find out what I need my fifth grader to know. It would be good to get them all the same program.
Of course, it would also be good if they could learn what they needed to at school.
Jane
Jane as you are in a rural area, you may want to investigate the charter school options. In California there are several on-line charter school programs that offer a more fundamentally sound curriculum.
I don't have them right at hand but the specific programs have been discussed on this blog.
In regards to the state's algebra requirement...
Judge delays 8th-grade algebra in Calif schools
By JULIET WILLIAMS, Associated Press Writer
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
(10-28) 18:17 PDT Sacramento, CA (AP) --
A Sacramento County Superior Court judge on Tuesday ordered the state Board of Education to postpone its expensive and bold plan to force all California eighth-graders to be tested in algebra.
The board approved the first-in-the-nation mandate in July after a forceful last-minute recommendation from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. The move was opposed by California's schools superintendent.
Superintendent Jack O'Connell and education groups questioned whether the state had the money, staff and training to handle the requirement.
I think the California's education establishment will have to dragged kicking and screaming to make this happen. The state already has a high number of students who don't get a high school degree because they can't complete algebra in high school.
"the school doesn't offer honors math, nor does it offer the Algebra I, Geometry, Algebra II, Trig sequence I remember from when I was in high school"
They don't offer AP Calculus and a path to get there? Yikes!
If you can find out what they do use (e.g Core-Plus Mathematics), let us know and we can give you some feedback. The reason that this is important is that it may not be a good idea to try to do ANY of the high school math. It may not be a slow version of where you want to go. It might be going in the wrong direction!
"Of course, it would also be good if they could learn what they needed to at school."
Yup. That's our dream here at KTM.
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