What if my 3rd-grader hasn't learned basic Math facts yet?

When my very bright second grade daughter’s first quarter report card came home, the teacher had a comment that she had to learn her math facts. I put a math sheet in front of her and to my horror discovered she was using her fingers for any problem where you had to add more than two to the number. Needless to say, that makes for very slow going. That weekend I made up flashcards and put her through them and started her on a regime of three timed math sheets every morning and flash cards at night. If your daughter can’t add one to numbers without fingers, I’d start the 1+ flashcards and give her math sheets with just 1+ facts (up to 9). The sheets should have 25 problems and should be timed for a minute. Mark how many she’s finished by then and let her continue to the end. That way she can see progress in the number she’s finished over time. When she can go through the 1+ pretty quickly and correctly, you can go on in the same fashion to the 2+, but my preference is to do the doubles through 9 or 10 as soon as possible to ingrain them early on in the process. That way as you go up through the numbers you can point out that 4+5 is simply the double of 4 plus one and makes facts like 6+7 and 7+8 easier to learn. Under this regime, my daughter had all the addition facts down in two weeks and we moved on to subtraction, which took another two or three weeks. She resisted at first, but she couldn’t have any play dates unless she had done her math so I had a lot of leverage as she is an inveterate social butterfly. After a while, she actually saw all the benefits and willingly learned all her multiplication and division within another month. She now does a subtraction, multiplication, and division sheet every morning to gain further speed. I generate these sheets from the math on-line section of www.saxonpub.com. Hope this helps.

These days I would put her on the computer and go to www.funbrain.com. There are some other sites as well that allow a child to practice math facts in a fun way. Funbrain has a racing car that pulls ahead on the track when the child does the addition right.

I’d also go to your nearest big toy store and buy some math board games. There used to be one called M’Smart. It reinforces math facts in a fun way.

There used to be computer programs that you could buy and install as well to allow kids to practice math facts.

Memorization works best when it’s done in a hands-on way. With practice, those math facts will “embed” and become more automatic.

Since your daughter is a strong reader, you may want to look into Addition Facts the Fun Way and Multiplication Facts the Fun Way. These books use mnemonics (funny pictures and stories) to help embed the math facts and improve recall.

If you do a search on this bb, you ought to be able to find the link. These books are perennial favorites. :-). Sorry the links aren’t at the tips of my fingers at the moment. I am dealing with the aftereffects of a basement flood, so am not on my regular computer.

Jenny

You might want to invest in Quarter Mile Math. This is a math software program in which the student races against himself. There is a wide variety of topics to choose for practice.

Another approach popular with homeschoolers is CalcuLadders. This is a workbook that costs about $13 for each grade. A book consists of something like 17 levels of problems of increasing difficulty. Each level has 16 timed worksheets (same problems). The student does one timed sheet per day until he/she completes it accurately within the recommended time, at which point she moves to the next level.

QMM has worked better for us than CL, but I imagine CL would work better for some children.

QMM website is http://www.thequartermile.com. Both programs are available from http://www.rainbowresource.com (rainbow’s written catalog, which you can request, is full of wonderful stuff!).

Alternatively, there are a number of websites that allow you to generate worksheets for free. http://www.aplusmath.com comes to mind.

Mary

My 9 year ol has a Non verbal learning disability and his math skills are very similar to that of your daughter. Despite 3 years is a resource room , he can add and do simple subtraction . I have no problem with finger counting because its what they need to do since the concept is terribly difficult. Ask his t4eacher if she is aware of “semple” math, a dot system used to add and subtract. Very basic, but it works. There are great software programs out there, Math Blaster is one. You can adjust the level and as you get basic math facts you fuel your spaceship for battle. I also hired a tutor for him 1 X week since its a battle fo me.

The following is a repost of a long one I sent previously, about a very very effective technique/program for learning math facts, based on the essentials, with only basic materials to buy.

“Unless he is enjoying what he is doing, he has the attention span of a housefly” —love the description; hmmm, sounds like most of my family.

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.

**********************************************

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.

Good luck, and I would be happy to hear progress reports from you.

Thanks Victoria

I would like to concur with the reader who recommended Math Facts the Fun Way. My 9-year old son was having trouble memorizing math facts, both addition and multiplication. He was good at concepts and applications, but simply could not memorize the facts. With this method he mastered both addition and multiplication in one month. The web site is www.citycreek.com and I highly recommend it. I learned about it from this bulletin board!

Thanl you for turning us on the aplusmath. My son loves it. He actually enjoys this math site. He has a severe LD and math as well as writing is painful for him,.Your suggestion makes it fum for him. If you have any other web sites for math let me know at

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