Math does not come easy to my oldest child. She is amazing at music and art and loves to write and make up stories, but when it comes to being exact and focusing, it is really hard for her. We have been using Singapore Math and I let her fall behind a bit because I didn't want to push her too hard, but I had an awakening when she turned 10, that she needed to be farther along in all our subjects. As a 10 year old I felt that she was old enough to learn to focus and really train that brain, so it was time to play catch up. Not that she is behind her peers, just that she was behind where I want her to be and if we're going to homeschool, we'd better be at least a year ahead.
So instead of doing 2 pages of Singapore Math a day, the requirement was 5 pages a day which turned into 10 pages a day. I would explain the new concepts and she would go to work, but when she finished the book and I went to correct it, I found that she had been mostly guessing and really didn't understand much of what she had done. So we had to go back through the book with me watching over her train of thought and teaching her to be exact. That took forever, but we did finish 3B. Then we pretty much took the summer off and started 4A the first part of September.
This time however, I kept up on checking as she went along and caught the mistakes early, but it took FOREVER. The first 2 weeks of school Math was pretty much all we did. I hoped that she would eventually be able to focus without me right there over her shoulder, but since she is not math minded, it never happened. After 2 weeks of spending pretty much 2-3hrs. with just her on math a day, I decided that I couldn't neglect the other kids or subjects any longer so we worked on math at the end of the day if we had time, and her dad could help her when he got home. We thought that once we got through fractions and onto measurements, it would be easier-- no such luck. However, she really worked and tried her best and finally finished 4A -- we finished the corrections on Thurs. It took about 5 hours. While I was frustrated at times during the correcting phase, at the end of the day, I felt fulfilled and like we had actually accomplished something. She realizes that she has to do math even though it's not her favorite. She understands that it is important and that it will leave so many doors open for her in her future. She feels good about sticking with something she doesn't really like and that is hard for her, but overcoming it and making it a strength. I don't think she is ready for the test, so this week we will be doing review problems out of the textbook until she is solid on the concepts and does everything in the proper order and writes everything down and can check it and find her little errors on her own. Then hopefully she can take the test on Thurs. and move on to 4B.
The goal is for her to start Algebra next September-- she'll be in 6th grade and on that track she can take Calculus as a sophomore and be done with Math forever if she wants. It is hard playing catch-up and being the guinea pig, but I think she will be able to do it although it does take a lot of time and concentration. I am becoming extremely patient.
The difference between her and her sister just younger in math is amazing. The younger one loves math and is a year ahead, just finished 3B and passed the test and started 4A. I only have to explain things once and she gets it right. It is such a breath of fresh air for me teaching it to her. The boys so far seem pretty math minded too and after that first daughter I am just happy they can make jumps in their heads so easily without having to go through every little step. Math always came fairly easy to me and I loved it especially though high school, but now I understand those who don't like math after going through it with my daughter, because if it doesn't come easy, then it can be torture!!!!
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