Report cards came yesterday and I noticed that my 7-year-old dropped from an A to a C in math. Her teacher wants us to use flash cards to work with her on the quick recall of simple addition and subtraction facts. My concern is that we initially learned addition and subtraction facts through 18 in first grade. Then, we went through a substantial review of all of these during the first few months of 2nd grade. She can recall the facts but not quickly. Some of them take her a good bit of time to remember. Does anyone know of another way I can help her to recall these facts more quickly? Flash cards don’t seem to help. Is there another way to teach this to a child who is having trouble with memorization?
Another tool for developing speed and automaticity with math
QuarterMile Math software (http://www.thequartermile.com). We had my 10yo daughter do this for 10 minutes a day — with me keyboarding to pack as much practice as possible into that 10 minutes. After 4 months of this she had developed normal speed and automaticity (with addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division facts).
You can call or email the company for a demo disc.
Mary
Re: Another tool for developing speed and automaticity with
My son did not have speed on his math facts, but did know the facts. I printed practice sheets and timed him on them at home. I got the generated worksheets from http://www.superkids.com/aweb/tools/math/ I did this again when my younger son was having trouble remember the facts, and know the two boys like to have races doing the math sheets.
Some practical techniques for learning basic math facts:
(1) verbal.
Try simply reciting them in rhythm. No, no special tune, no special silly rhymes, no nothing — just distractors, and he can make up more than enough of those on his own. Just recite problem AND answer together in a rhythmic chant:
One plus zero is one
One plus one is two
One plus two is three
One plus three is four
…
very important points: ** don’t just give him the questions and have him chime in the answer; he’ll recognize very soon that it’s a counting pattern and tune out of the major point, which is *what* you are counting. Have him chant the list of ten sums with you, then alone
This keeps some interest on the task, because he is talking and you are listening, and he is trying to get it perfect. I make a game-buzzer bzzzeep noise when kids miss, and then we start again. I make a chime noise when they get through correctly, and maybe give a token award such as a gold star.
** You only need the ten sums from plus zero to plus nine; after that, place value takes care of it. The idea of memorizing up to twelve or twenty comes from the same era as slate pencils, when it was hard to write things down.
** for kinesthetic help, he can move a hand or foot in time to the rhythm. Again, no fancy patterns as distractors, just beating a rhythm.
** if this seems to work at all, work on *overlearning* it. After he is getting all ten sums in a row, all ten rows, have him do two or three rows a day, until he can say the whole table. Then have him practice it at least a couple of times a week for another month or two.
(2) Visual: Again, one of the major points is to get rid of distractors. No bunnies, leprechauns, etc.
Get 100 sheets of nice solid paper or light cardboard in 8 1/2 by 11 size, plain white. Write in large marker a full inch or two high one math fact at the bottom of each one.
first card: 1 + 1 = 2
second card: 1 + 2 = 3
etc.
Then illustrate these clearly with nice round dots, red for the first number and blue for the second (or any two good clear colours that the child can distinguish)
Make the dots neat and as identical as possible by tracing something like a medicine-bottle cap. Colour the dots in solid. Resist temptations to decorate with happy faces or to arrange the dots in pretty patterns or whatever; the goal is to remove as many distractors as possible and pay attention to the far more profound and interesting patterns in the way numbers work together. The cards should be nearly identical except for the changes in number.
Then put the first nine cards — the one plus (number) set, omitting zero which comes later in visualization. — along one or two walls of your study area.
Give the child *orally* lots of one plus (number) problems, and have him go to the appropriate card and count up as he needs to. Then play for speed, to see how many he can do without going to the cards. When he can zip through this set, post the two plus (number) set, and so on.
(3) Combined: the above two games — can you tell me the (number) pluses in order fast , and can you get the (number) pluses in mixed order fast without looking or counting — work even better when used at the same time.
(4) Problems: Get on your computer and type up in 18-point lots of little problems that explore simple sums, first in sets of one plus (number), two plus (number), etc. and then mixed:
Nog has one hog. He buys one hog. How many hogs does he have now?
Matt has one cat. He finds two cats. How many cats does he have now?
Jan has one fan. Ann has three fans. How many fans do they have together?
and so on.
Have the child write out the problem as well as the answer each and every time, ie 1 + 1 = 2, never just 2. Writing just answers saves thirty seconds now and wastes years of your life later when you have to go back and learn to write a logical development.
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Trying for a happy medium here: YES, it is very important to learn basic number facts! The advanced concepts that you want and need to learn later are *based* on these number facts and a good number sense, and concepts without facts are like butter without the bread — too rich and no structure (on the other hand, facts without concepts are like bread without butter — dry and tasteless.) My tutoring students almost all got to need my services by being handicapped with their number facts. Several members of my own family have been handicapped by bad teaching of basic facts, and have had college and professional futures damaged.
** On the other hand, why is it important for your child to do numbers-only worksheets?** These are totally artificial, not real-world (I always ask my students: When did you last go into a business and hear someone say “Oh my God, we have to get these worksheets filled in by noon?” *Nobody* out of school does worksheets.) I sometimes assign repetitive practice for overlearning, a necessary goal for automatic skill, like doing piano scales; but this is a refinement and/or last resort. IF (two very big ifs) your child is doing OK on grade-level tests and can retrieve the number facts in whatever way works for him at a speed that is consistent with his grade cohort, why is the filling in of useless paper a required ritual? Particularly a problem-solving person with a creative flair, as you describe him, can have his abilities turned off by being forced through this kind of wasted effort. Ask yourself what your real goals are — forcing him to fill in this paper because that’s the way it’s done, or having him grow up knowing numbers and liking to solve puzzles with them?
Once more, I am *not* saying to ignore learning and automatizing facts, or to omit writing work on paper — just the opposite; but I am saying that filling in blanks is not a major life goal for most people, and this *method* of teaching can be reduced or totally omitted.