I need a little math help, pretty please;)

[PJsmomma]

My son didn't quite finish Math U See Gamma last year.

I love Math U See and up until the end of Gamma he did too.

I'm not sure what happened, but right at the end of the book he got flustered and began making a lot of mistakes.

His only problem is multiplying 3 numbers x 3 numbers.

For example 234 x 12 he can do just fine.

But 234x123 messes him up.


I bought Times Tales and we've been going through that. The thing is he knows his facts.

I don't want to move into Delta (division) until he has this down but I don't know what to do differently.

Any ideas? I don't really want to repeat the whole book because it was only the last 2 or 3 lessons that were problematic.

[kittie313]

Could he just need more practice with you on it maybe? (pardon if I'm totally off base here, I am still working on 2 digit addition and subtraction with my kids) Maybe just back it up and do the last 5 lessons or so to solidify the information? I'm not too familiar with MUS myself and how it works, but I'm going to just *assume* that you could back up just a few lessons. I'm sure that he'd be willing to just for review right? Or maybe he'd be more open to working with someone else on that particular skill, sometimes working with another person can give a fresh light to it even if it is explained the exact same way (I know this is true usually with my oldest, with me she'll shut down when it gets difficult but my hubby can tell her the exact same thing I do in a math lesson and she'll slowly work it out)

[MamaMonica]

A lot of the problems with multiplying by 3 numbers for my dd was keeping the numbers in the right columns which is hard for kids. You could try writing the problem big on a chalkboard or whiteboard and drawing lines so the numbers can line up in the columns. That got my dd through it the end of Gamma. As long as it was on a small paper, there were too many numbers and she couldn't keep the columns lined up.

We copied problems onto the board one by one and she worked them that way until she got comfortable working on paper again. Also that way she could erase easily.

We did the same thing when it came to long division...

[PJsmomma]

Thank you for your input! I will try your suggestions and see what happens.

[kittie313]

Originally Posted by MamaMonica

A lot of the problems with multiplying by 3 numbers for my dd was keeping the numbers in the right columns which is hard for kids. You could try writing the problem big on a chalkboard or whiteboard and drawing lines so the numbers can line up in the columns. That got my dd through it the end of Gamma. As long as it was on a small paper, there were too many numbers and she couldn't keep the columns lined up.

We copied problems onto the board one by one and she worked them that way until she got comfortable working on paper again. Also that way she could erase easily.

We did the same thing when it came to long division...

See now when I was taught to multiply 3+ digit numbers we did it on graph paper to help keep track of place values better. I don't know if that made much difference but it really helped me to have a visual in ps that I could follow because I had all those neat tindy rows and columns with my numbers to keep track of it all. I can't believe I forgot about that!

[MamaMonica]

Graph paper is a great idea! Thanks

[jlpumkin]

I'm not sure if it was this board or somewhere else but I was given the suggestion of turning the ruled paper sideways for math. Problems are written between the lines with the lines separating place values.

[OkiMom]

Oh multiplying 3 numbers by 3 numbers was my nemesis when I was younger! I had the worst time with it. I think the only way I learned how to was 1) my mom started having me use graph paper to do my work and 2) instead of leaving the spot blank like they had taught me in school my mom started having me put a zero there that way I remembered. For the first few worksheets she actually took the time to write out the zeros at then end (so I wouldn't forget) and then I caught on and started doing them myself. Good luck! After I caught on with that math was so simple for me so hopefully its just a short stumbling block.