Hello all! It’s been a long time since I’ve posted. The kids are fine. My older daughter is now in 5th grade and is having a slight struggle shifting gears from learning computation facts to applying them in problem solving situations. She got a 70 on her geometry test and I am looking for resources to help her internalize problem-solving steps. She had particular difficulty with finding the values of adjacent angles on a line…I think I got her up to speed on that one now, but I am on the lookout for a GOOD workbook so that she can get in lots of practice. Any thoughts?
I am also on the lookout for tried and tested materials on fractions, decimals and percents.
She has a really rigid teacher this year (like in 2nd grade), which is not a good match for her. She is feeling stressed out and symptoms of math anxiety, which we put at bay for the last two years, are resurfacing. For example, Sabine was penalized on a test question for answering that the intersection of a lampost and the ground creates both right angles and two adjacent angles! The teacher marked it wrong because she was only looking for one answer—the one printed in the book. Never mind that the concept of adjacent angles is more advanced than a 5th grade concept! (sigh!) Here we go again…..!
Anyway, any suggestions are welcome…including how to deal with an intransigent teacher.
Jenny
Re: geometry and auld lang syne
Intransigent teachers are best dealt with by giving them everything they want - or at least looking like you’re doing that. I shared with my children when I felt their teachers were too rigid but also shared there wasn’t much to do about that. Fighting with them or trying to get round them only seemed to make them more intransigent.
Re: geometry --happy progress
Thanks Sara for the 2 cents. I worked things out with the teacher to my satisfaction. Once I focussed on Sabine’s need for further support given that her performance in math has declined as evidenced by her the math tests she’s had this year, the teacher realized I am primarily interested in helping Sabine move forward from here by working harder on skills mastery. She is working out a plan and has already sent home additional materials for us to practice on (Houghton Mifflin textbook….last year’s text: the school is now using University of Chicago Math) . Mary, I looked at Rainbow’s Key to series. I’ll give it a whirl and see if it is useful.
What also really helped me was that the headmistress of our private school backed me up on getting this teacher to back off. The teacher really displayed a positive turnaround in attitude once the headmistress put her foot down. She’s been bending over backwards to help and has been truly interested in making sure that we move forward smoothly. This is the first time I’ve truly appreciated the difference between a great school that is responsive to concerns and our old one which existed to stonewall parents. Vivre la difference!
Jenny
I can highly recommend Marilyn Burns’ book on Teaching Fractions to 4th and 5th graders. This is a *wonderful* book, and I only wish she had the sequel to it out that is supposed to get into more advanced fractions. Her approach is not only thorough, it’s a lot of fun. I got my book from http://www.etacuisenaire.com but have since found it cheaper at Amazon and Barnes & Noble online.
I also ordered fraction, decimal, and percent towers from cuisenaire. We haven’t used them yet, but I think they are going to be very useful for showing the relationships. They are color-coded. I would not particularly recommend the 6-booklet set you can get for using them. I have only paged through them, but they do not look that great for older kids.
We are using the “Key to Fractions” series for supplemental work with fractions, and also have the percents and decimals series. These are great workbooks that will take a child from ground zero through high school level in the topic. There is a “Key to Geometry” series that is probably also very good, but I haven’t actually seen it. All of the “Key to” subjects come in a packet of thin workbooks that are not intimidating and very incremental. You can get them from Rainbow Resource (http://www.rainbowresource.com). Be sure to request their printed catalog, which is a goldmine of resources for homeschoolers.
The teacher I can’t help with……
Mary