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February 07, 2012, 03:49:32 PM
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Author Topic: Need help teaching addition facts  (Read 2165 times)
Homeschool_Newbie
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The best of summer...
« on: November 19, 2009, 05:35:34 PM »
I'm trying so hard not to be frustrated with my 6.5 year old... I know he's on God's timetable and not mine... I just really need help teaching him his addition facts. Huh Any ideas? Does anyone have an encouraging story about a child who struggled with this?
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SC lady
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« Reply #1 on: November 19, 2009, 05:59:08 PM »
Anything that makes mathematics concrete works well for my students. I had to focus on activity based math as a foundation before we moved on to worksheets. Hooda Math has a really nice web site full of fun math-facts based games here: http://hoodamath.com/games/arithmetic.php

Shepherd Software is another fun games-based math site: http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/math.htm

HTH
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~esposita~
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« Reply #2 on: November 19, 2009, 06:08:31 PM »
Couple questions:

Are you trying to get him to memorize the addition facts, or are you trying to figure how to teach him the concept of addition?  Two totally different things.  

And are you working on the "easy" ones (single digit + single digit) or the more complex ones (double digits + single or higher)

What kind of number foundation does he have?  

Or is it just that he can't/doesn't want to sit and do them?



Without knowing the answer to the above questions, the one thing that comes to mind is that flash cards are great!  They can be done standing up (or running laps - one after each lap), they can be timed (how many can you do in 2 min.), and they are a break from the routine.  My dd CAN do addition very well, but if I have her sit with a page of facts to figure she will sit F-O-R-E-V-E-R.  When I use flash cards, set the timer for 1 1/2 minutes, and she tries to beat her high score, she can do a LOT.  (more than 20 on a good day; usually about 15).

HTH  Undecided
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Jesus never gave an opinion.

My attempt at blogging:  The Carpenter's Wife
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The best of summer...
« Reply #3 on: November 19, 2009, 07:33:04 PM »
SC and Esposita, thank you for your thoughts Smiley I will check those game links, SC... That might be the way to go if I can find the right game.

The flashcard thing is not working. I have tried to teach him to count on his fingers, count on an abacus... It's not working well... It is just so sloooooooow going... and he does not like it very much.

We completely stopped the math book to work on these facts.... and I am trying not to stress about " getting behind"... I still think Dr. Raymond Moore had a point about not starting kids in school until the age of 8 or 9 Roll Eyes
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~esposita~
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« Reply #4 on: November 20, 2009, 05:10:13 AM »
Sounds like your doing well to take a break from all formal math lessons!  I do hope you find something soon!

Another thought:  I have a friend who has a son who is very adept at math... but HATED it!  That is, until she switched to "Math - u -See"  (I think I spelled it right.)  I looked over the Math-u-see program once, when i was visiting her, and it seems VERY good.  I would recommend it to anyone that (1) has trouble teaching math or (2) has children that have a hard time grasping the practicality of math or (3) has children that are hands on, visual learners.

Good luck!
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Jesus never gave an opinion.

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In Christ
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« Reply #5 on: November 20, 2009, 09:16:57 AM »
You have a 6.5 year old, I have a grade 6.5  Smiley

My child is dyslexic and this is a huge part of dyslexia apparently, so although your child probably isn't, the technique might still help:

ONLY use flashcards with the answers for a while....have him hold the card up and off to the side, I can't remember which side it is right now....but I'm sure if you google dyslexia and flashcards it will be there and may explain WHY too Smiley

HTH...
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smfmommy
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« Reply #6 on: November 20, 2009, 11:15:35 AM »
My eldest took forever to learn her addition facts.  We stopped everything to focus on them with flashcards, speed drills, and other things.  Which pretty much just destroyed any interest in math that she had.  If I could go back I would just go on and work on other things like subtraction or higher addition.

Although my daughter freaked out with anything timed.  Even if she knew the facts well she would stress out and freeze up if there was a timer involved.  She still probably doesn't have her addition facts memorized as well as I would like but she has her multiplication table down pat (thanks to Timez Attack) and can do simple Algebra.  There are many mathematical geniuses who were poor at basic arithmetic so there is still hope!

So my advice is to play games that involve addition and go on to math that uses those facts in different ways if he is ready.

 Grin
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ladyhen
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« Reply #7 on: November 20, 2009, 11:33:10 AM »
Quote from: Homeschool_Newbie on November 19, 2009, 05:35:34 PM
I'm trying so hard not to be frustrated with my 6.5 year old... I know he's on God's timetable and not mine... I just really need help teaching him his addition facts. Huh Any ideas? Does anyone have an encouraging story about a child who struggled with this?

How about this for encouragement;
Our oldest child just wouldn't sit down and do schoolwork.  We were blessed to hear Dr. and Mrs. Raymond Moore speak on a couple of occasions and wanted/tried   to believe that they were right about starting academics late.  This child didn't start reading until a few months after his 8th birthday.  He began reading at high school level.  He was doing appropriate age/ grade level schoolwork within 2 years.    He scored in the top 5% on national standardized tests and graduated college with the highest GPA achieved at that school.  He has only spent 3 years in traditional classrooms while attending college and is now working on his Masters degree by correspondence (home schooling, again!). 
For this child, we did lots and lots of active, hands on learning.  He loved playing a math game with Dad in the evenings they called 'Walk The Plank'.  They took turns solving math problems and a wrong answer meant a step toward the end of their 'plank', a long narrow rug.   Cheesy  The loser fell into the 'ocean'!   I think he must have measured every single surface inside and outside the house with different measuring tapes, rulers, etc..  He also loved tools and woodworking. 

It really does work to wait.  It really is frustrating, I know.  It is difficult for you to keep from comparing your child to others.  Family and friends will raise eyebrows to hear that your li'l precious can't read at the age of 7 (or 8, or 9!) but I have seen this work over and over again.  Once the interest and ability is there, you just can't hold the learning back any more than you could hold back  a child who is ready to walk.   Concentrate on learning to LOVE learning.  All the rest will come along the way. 

And we didn't encourage or force any of ours to wait any more than we pushed early academics.  Of our five children, I think we have two who read at the age of 5, two who read at age 6, and our first who never would have learned to read if I hadn't refused to keep reading the stats on his baseball cards to him.    Grin
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Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;    Titus 2:13
Homeschool_Newbie
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The best of summer...
« Reply #8 on: November 21, 2009, 12:11:21 PM »
Ladyhen, I appreciated your story Smiley

Esposita, I will definately keep math-u-see in mind... I keep hearing good things about their program Smiley

My dh says that we are going to play a math game called " sum swamp" during Christmas break Smiley

One other thing: I am not totally convinced that he's not dyslexic... he shows signs occasionally. How do I find out?
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cjanderin
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« Reply #9 on: November 23, 2009, 03:36:47 AM »
You said that you've tried using flashcards, fingers and an abacus.  Can he count concrete objects?  Like objects in front of him?  And what about real-life situations?  Can he work out the number of plates to put on the table or toys that he has etc?
There are different stages of maths learning.  Counting on fingers comes after counting concrete objects.  Abstract maths (ie flashcards/adding in your head) comes after that again. 

Try breaking things down to the very simplest step at a time.  Eg.  Adding one.  JUST focus on adding one. And then subtracting one.  Once he's got that sorted then focus on adding two.  And so on ...
Playing games and 'incidental' learning is the best way at this age though.  Junior Monopoly and other games can be really helpful too.

This site might be useful ... it's used by teachers in NZ.  If you read the first PDF book (Number Framework) then it outlines the different stages.  There are activities for each stage etc. 
If it's too teacherish though I apologise!

http://nzmaths.co.nz/numeracy-development-projects-books
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Erin Smiley  Wifey to Chris and mummy to Marcail (Cool, Alexandra (6), Joel (4.5) and Timothy (3) and Zipporah (16months).
Proud to be a Kiwi.
BJ_BOBBI_JO
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« Reply #10 on: November 29, 2009, 07:27:09 AM »
With my 9 year old 4th grader flash cards work. But with my 6 year old 1st grader they dont and either does me trying to get her to memorize the addition facts.

I use dry beans as math beans and allow her to count on fingers or make dots on paper or use a number line. She uses any or all of those to help her do her math. Im finding by me having her do math problems she is unknownly memorizing some math facts.

She is only age 6 and can do triple diget addition with carrying and triple diget subtraction with borrowing but she does not have many facts memorized yet but she is getting there. My main thing is getting her to know how to figure out the answer to the math problem not trying to memorize them.
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joyful_mommy03
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« Reply #11 on: December 01, 2009, 03:45:54 PM »
One thing that worked really well for the ones that I am currently teaching addition is a number line drawn in chalk on the sidewalk - depending on where you live, that may or may not work right now!  Smiley  We live in Florida so it's always an option for us!

We pretended to be froggies and leapt from number to number - if I said add one, they would leap one number, if I said add 5 they would leap five.  Then, for subtract, I made them go backwards!  They had a blast!

There is also a Math Meme on the web somewhere - I'll find it for you as they probably have 100's of addition ideas over the months of the meme.

hope that helps a bit!!
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Homeschool_Newbie
Master

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The best of summer...
« Reply #12 on: December 04, 2009, 01:39:53 PM »
Quote
One thing that worked really well for the ones that I am currently teaching addition is a number line drawn in chalk on the sidewalk - depending on where you live, that may or may not work right now!    We live in Florida so it's always an option for us!

Joyfulmommy- This is AWESOME!!! Smiley Thank you! I would also add that this option would be available in a garage... or maybe on a tile floor that can be mopped??
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cjanderin
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« Reply #13 on: December 06, 2009, 03:11:58 AM »
That reminds me of something we used to do ... I should start it again with the younger ones.
I would play the same game with our steps.  We have seven steps on our deck so addition, subtraction and days of the week are handy to learn using the steps Smiley  The highest step is the highest number etc.
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Erin Smiley  Wifey to Chris and mummy to Marcail (Cool, Alexandra (6), Joel (4.5) and Timothy (3) and Zipporah (16months).
Proud to be a Kiwi.
khurtsmom
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« Reply #14 on: June 12, 2010, 11:24:49 AM »
Playing with pennies (or rocks for that matter) can work wonders.  Say we are going to do dishes together and we get 1 penny (rock) for every dish washed, then we want Nintendo privileges which will cost 5 pennies (rocks) for 20 minutes, or say they want a banana that is 2 pennies (rocks). 

this way you can say OK you have 3 pennies from yesterday, you want to play Nintendo so you need 5 pennies, so lets figure out how many dishes you need to wash to play Nintendo. 

or say they have 8 pennies and they want both the Nintendo and the banana. I like visual aids so I would take the game in question and the banana lay them both out on the table and say we have 8 pennies, the video game costs 5 pennies (lay 5 on the table next to the game) and the banana costs 2 pennies (lay 2 pennies next to the bananas) then ask if we have enough pennies for both. do we have any pennies left.

Now in the case of just a banana we can say (while moving pennies) 8 pennies take away 2 pennies (move 2 to the banana) is (count pennies left 1,2,3 etc) 6 pennies left.

Consistently playing with things this way encourages both work and addition. This is how my big boy learned addition.

We just had the earning pennies thing for any work accept his chores so he didn't think he needed to be paid for his chores, penny work was extra work. I get to start again next fall when DS #2 turns 4.

Good luck, I hope this helps.
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