workbooks for 3rd grade?

For time, I highly recommend the book “One Hand at a Time.” You can see my praises for this book on a thread on this board started on January 31. For word and money problems you could look at using the Saxon math second grade workbook (www.saxonpub.com). It is for second grade math in general, but I like its incremental step-by-step approach to these topics. (My son did not get the time thing down with Saxon, however.) Someone else may have a suggestion for good workbooks devoted exclusively to these subjects.

Marie,
Thank-you. I am going to check out the book you suggested right away.

My son struggled with time, too. I did away with the workbooks for awhile. I gave him a real clock and worked only about 5 minutes a day. He learns best by doing and seeing. He could watch the hands tick and he could move them. We had to practice skip counting by 5s almost every day. We didn’t use any fancy song or chant but just a natural rhythm and moved our body to it. Again nothing fancy. I also helped him to develop a concept of time. For instance, I told him to do jumping jacks for 1 minute. I used a sand timer and/or a water clock to time it. How far do you think you can run in 5 seconds? We made water clocks, sand clocks, and sundials. I had him brush his teeth for 1 minute using a sand timer. You may have to help him develop a better sense of time before moving onto the worksheets. There is a nice science/math set from Wild Goose company that I used to build the sand and water clocks. It’s called Right on Time: Timely Science in a Box. I make up my own worksheets with a stamp. He writes in the current time and then draws the hands. Then I ask him what time will it be 5 minutes from now, 1 hour from now, etc. Also, there is a website that has a Judy Clock that is interactive and free. My son uses this as well with a blank worksheet. I’ll find it and post the address. We are moving on to telling time to the minute and word problems. With word problems, my best advice is to have him circle or highlight important numbers, have him draw it out—make pictures and graphs—and even act it out. I make up my own word problems that are on my son’s reading level, his interest, and in the math area that we are working on at the time.

When we work with money, I take an old white pill bottle and put some coins in it. My son gets to shake it and then dump out the money. He counts it and writes it down. I build the number with base ten blocks next to him. I ask him questions such as can you build that same amount with just two coins, etc. We work on counting on and skip counting. It’s only about 10 minutes a day. Sometimes I’ll give him a work sheet. Again, I make my own. You can make pockets out of fabric or construction paper and lable them with prices. He has to place the correct amount in the pockets. We also read through sale adds and clip coupons together. This is a student lead activity and my son loves it. We then go to the store to shop and compare.

Saxon Math is a great program from what I can tell. I will be using it with my son next year. However, it is a whole program. It may be too much for the summer program you want to do with your son. It’s close to $100.00 new. I bought Saxon Math over ebay for next year. I have never have used it before, but I got it because it closely resembles what I am currently doing with my son. You can get a used set on www.ebay.com. Some people just sell the worksheets. Perhaps that will be all you need since it’s just for the summer.

Good Luck! Val

Here’s the web address for the free interactive Judy Clock: http://www.troll.com/kids/games/pchallenge.html#

One more thing I thought I should mention, I use my son’s strength in understanding fractions to teach him time, money, measurement, etc. The clock can be color coded into fractions. With the money, I will lay out a fraction bar of one and he matches it up with a 1 dollar bill, then I lay out the 1/2 bars and he matches it up with two 50 cent pieces, then the 1/4 bars with quarters, etc. I do this with all kinds of demoninations.

Also, my son loves to make his own worksheets with stamps. He is a real hands on kind of kiddo. Val

Hi,

I am a third grade LD teacher. My suggestion would be to try to find a teacher store and big some books that teachers use to copy. I would get both 2nd and 3rd grade books. Some things in the 2nd grade books will apply. Allow there are some great math products and hands on games in the Lakeshore Catalog. Like Time and Money Bingo. The web site is www.grades123.com

Let me know if you need any more help.

Alana

Ti-C publications has a summer skills sharpener for language arts and Math for all grades. I used it last year for my first grader and bought it again for second grade. It cost $17. www.summerskills.com
Their phone number is 1800 411 8186.

Good luck.

Valerie, You’re a natural born teacher! Montessorians would love you - you’ve basically set up a good chunk of the Montessori math program for your child. Excellent sugestions for parents!