written math help

Check out Marilyn Burns’ books about Math, especially if his strengths are understanding the concepts. Peggy Kaye has some other good books with games, etc. However, both authors tend to use a *lot* of language so you might have to modify the presentation a bit so it’s not overwhelming in that department. Our smart visual kiddos usually do well when the words come with pictures to help ‘em make the connection so you might want to make those up.

This won’t help with learning math, but it may help with the mechanics of getting it down on paper. We’ve used centimeter graph paper for math problems, because it is easier to keep the columns of numbers lined up. This was especially helpful when my son was first working with multidigit multiplication and long division- the columns kept those digits from sliding across the page.

Jean

For the 4000 + 154 problem, he needs to work on the *base ten system*. This is the fundamental system of numbers we use, and is behind all of our mechanical arithmetic algorithms, so it really needs to be understood well. Take some time and help him with it.

He should be able to split up 154 into 1 hundred plus 5 tens plus 4 ones and 4000 into 4 thousands plus 0 hundreds plus 0 tens plus 0 ones. It helps a LOT to visualize this; you can buy special blocks at educational supply stores, and they are good. Small cube is one, stick of ten cubes is ten, flat sheet of ten by ten is a hundred, and big block of ten by ten by ten is a thousand.
If that’s impossible, money is a good model; a penny is one, a dime is ten, a dollar is a hundres, and a ten-dollar bill is a thousand. (Do NOT use nickels and quarters and five-dollar bills for this, as they would just confuse the issue).

Take some time just splitting numbers up into their component parts and putting them back together again. Remember, it’s obvious to you, but you already know it; it’s not obvious to him at all. And in writing we do line everything up on the left, so it is really weird that we line numbers up by the right (Think about that one for a few minutes.)

cat
bird
horse

3546
+729

Once he recognizes that the *place value* changes with position in the number, with ones always on the far right of a whole number (he’s not really ready for decimal points yet, just stick to ones place for now) then have him add a few numbers like 123 + 64 (no carrying yet! That comes much later!) *using his models.* Clearly pennies add to pennies, dimes to dimes, etc. Show how lining up the place values on paper is the same as matching pennies to pennies and dimes to dimes. Spend a few days and do lots of examples.

After both models and paper are well mastered for splitting and combining parts of numbers and simple addition and subtraction — a couple of weeks would be good to solidify this — *then* you can start to talk about carrying by trading ten pennies for a dime and ten dimes for a dollar, etc. Slow but sure, and make sure the math is real.

As a child I had terrible difficulties with math while I was in [private school]. I could not even
multiply simple times tables such as 9xl = 9 x2 9x3 etc

so my mom made big pieces of paper and placed them around my room so when I woke up
I saw those big Xs tables every day

the other thing she did was switch me to another school because my teachers just kept passing me
so I could be with my class this is not right to do to a child who has l d so I went to another private
school were the teacher was extremely helpful I had 2 math classes remedial and regular class

Try Key to Decimals from Key Curriculum Press.
I use all the Key to… series for middle schoolers who have not grasped concepts and need more help. They are clear, lots of white space and they have answer keys for parents and teachers.
Good luck.
Marilyn