Best way to teach Maths

[DharmaDisciple]

My son aged 5 and my daughter nearly 10 have just been brought out of school.

Now Maths for my 5 yr old seems easy enough, I have loads of game based ideas for him to do. But I don't know what to do for my 10 yr old.

For a start I don't know where she is at and what she does know and what she struggles on. So I don't know where or what to start teaching her. She gets sums wrong but if I go through it with her and explain the question she gets them right.

I was thinking with going with a mastery program like Mammoth Math but feel that sometimes she may not be ready to master a topic as it may be too hard, instead it would be worth introducing a topic to her, letting it sink in then re-visiting it at a later date, so think a spiralling approach would suit her better. Jasmine seems to struggle with mental maths and answering story problems.

If I were to get her a curriculum where would I start and with what level? My friend who teaches maths says the best thing you can do for your children is to give them a confidence in their ability to do maths and it is better to go through the maths with them than have them sat on their own and getting answers wrong. So I plan to do that, I just need some idea on where on earth to start.

[pigpokey]

I am very opposed to "new math" before formal operations stage. I also think spiraling is a necessary evil of the group instruction environment. Feel free to introduce ideas for fun before or after actual work. However do not keep it from working though systematic mastery. You should plan to spend a long time on basics. By "long time" we don't mean a long time the way they spend a long time in a group environment. I mean she may work for 30 minutes a day on math and she may stay on one topic for a few weeks to mastery. Even if it's longer, it will take less time and result in less frustration not to move ahead. You can move sideways -- you can move back -- don't move ahead if there's mastery issues. Then be sure to keep short drills on the topic for some time thereafter. For example let's say she spends 2 weeks mastering division of fractions and that takes up 20 minutes of her math time. When you decide she's gotten mastery (she's getting her problem set all right) do NOT drop them completely from her work but add 1 or 2 fraction division problems to her daily work for the next some months.

I would, to be honest, start from the ground up and figure out what steps she did not get mastery of in schools.

I need to install Adobe reader on this computer, but I believe the California standards have been "de-new-mathed" and are a reasonable scope and sequence. But I can't see them right now so I'm not sure. Have a look and see what you think.

[DharmaDisciple]

I had a look at the California Math standards and it looks a lot like Rupp's Homeschool book where she splits the math concepts up by each grade.

So do I take each section in her appropriate grade eg Number Sense, Algebra and Function and master each one of these each year or do I take the scope of Number Sense for all of the elementary years and combine it to make one big mastery topic... I worry to do this will make it too advanced.

[AAK]

I prefer the textbook to be mastery based. But, if we need a break from a topic, I don't feel "bound" to stay in sequence. For example, dd was getting frustrated converting improper fractions to mixed numbers, etc. But, she was great at adding/subtracting/mult/dividing fractions. She would find the common denominator if needed. She just froze if she needed to convert between forms. So, we took a break and started on decimals. We are now revisiting this and she is doing it fine. I think it needed time to sink in. Also, now that she does all operations with decimals with ease, she is making the connection between decimals/fractions, etc. So, it worked for us.

But, I hate spiral curriculums! I am only working with one child at a time. If she needs a break or review or whatever, I will implement it. But, I hate searching for the subject I want. And, I hate that the spiral math curriculums make me feel dizzy and as if I am not accomplishing anything.

Amy

[pigpokey]

Well, it doesn't really matter. For rehabilitation I might find one topic that she is not up to speed on -- let's say she's second grade on one issue -- and stay on that topic until you've caught up or even go further than her age-grade with it if she's enjoying it. Just don't leave it until you know it is going to be stone cold there for her in 6 months or a year if you put it down now. It should continue to be practiced a bit, like musical scales, even when it's mastered. Your opportunity here to chose whether to stay with one subject through several grade levels, or move on within a grade level, will allow you to custom tailor it to your daughter. Excellent!