Update on my 4 year olds math progress

[linzy]

We've really been focusing on math recently, and I wanted to share a video of my 4 year old doing addition. Here he is doing 50 addition problems (answers up to 20) in 4 minutes and 30 seconds. Were currently using a loose version of Jones genius, combined with 2+2 is not 5 until we are ready to start math 3.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/KXQ3KfWiv6Y&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/KXQ3KfWiv6Y&rel=1</a>

[TeachingMyToddlers]

Awesome! Thank you for sharing!

[linzy]

He loves to be recorded, sometimes it is all the motivation he needs to speed things up a bit.

[TracyR4]

Awesome!  You gave me the motivation to get back into working with math with my daughter too. I like how he counted on. We are using Touch Math and its the same concept. Seeing your son count on from a number lets me know that my daughter can do it too then at age 4.

Where did you print off the drill sheet? Most that I've seen online don't give much room to write numbers.

[Krista G]

Thanks for the post.  I am trying to decide which math program to use for my 4 year old.  Anybody have any recommendations?  What a little ham he is.  So cute.  Good job!

[TracyR4]

Boy, it depends on what your looking for in a math program.
Homeschooling I've used many math curriculums. Colorful, not so colorful. Christian, secular.
My favorite Christian math programs are:

Christian Light ( not so colorful but VERY effective and advanced math program, and also is becoming VERY popular too)
and Horizons ( colorful and advanced)

If you have a not so advanced student, Saxon.  Saxon K is great for younger students. Its hands on , has optional worksheets but are not mandatory to use with a young child. Saxon is a black and white math program but is a good secular program for math.


If your looking at conceptual math,
Singapore (secular) or Bob Jones math (Christian) are excellent
I've seen some mention Right Start. I've never used it beacuse of its price tag.

I'll admit there are soooooo many math programs out there its not funny. 
Right now I'm using Touch Math PreK with Maggie to get her going with Math but for this coming school year I'll be giving either Horizons Math or Christian Light Math a try. I have used Christian Light math with my oldest and really like it. Ugh, decisions , decisions. LOL

[Krista G]

Thanks for the options, Tracy.  I will do some research based on your suggestions. I have used A Beka Math for all of my kids except for one year when we switched and used Bob Jones.  I guess I am looking for something to make math come alive and make it easy to understand.  I have to be honest, I get tired of the math drills just getting my kids to learn their facts.  I was thinking that if we used more manipulatives, perhaps this would make it easier.  If you have any other comments, please share.

My 6 year old, who learned to read as a baby, understands math very well even though we didn't focus on math.  He seems to get it better than his 4 sisters that are older than he is.  My 4 year old, who has learned to read, but on her own time , is just starting math.  She knows about numbers, patterns and some basic adding but we need to move on from here.  I also heard great things about Right Start but it is expensive.  I would love to see it first and be able to decide if it is the right program for us.  Based on the many choices, I have done nothing yet.

[linzy]

The worksheet comes from :

Addition:  http://www.worksheetgenius.com/html/addition__design_.php

Subtraction:  http://www.worksheetgenius.com/html/subtraction__design_.php

I like this site b/c you can specify what numbers are used for the addeneds as well as the answer ( I use addeneds up to 20 and answers up to 20). You can also specify the number of problems, font, whether or not you want to carry. then you just hit the genius button and it fills it with all new problems. I print about a week at a time. You can even name the workshet anything you like.

We do like jones genius. We had been doing kumon, but it seemed so slow for my son. Jones genius is not flashy, but my focus is on making sure he has absolute mastery of his math facts. Also Dr. Jones has been very responsive to any questions I have, including sending me math matrix materials for free to help my son transition to math 3 and sending me PDFs of the matrix worksheets (previously they weren't well centered and now this has been fixed) so that I can copy them quickly, calling/e-mailing me to answer questions and inviting me to check out the online classes.

My previous plan had been to have him master all his facts with kumon and flashcards and then go right into saxon 5/4, we had also previously tried right start, but for various reasons it didn't work well for us.

What we are doing now is very easy. We start by counting backwards from 20 (just to warm that part of his mind up for subtractions). He has previously mastered couting to 100 by 1's, 2's, 5's and 10's and to 30 by 3's (that used to be part of our warm up). Then before he memorized the placements of the dots we were doing a dot placement worksheet. He follows his warms up with a 2+2 is not 5 worksheet (these have tricks to remember addition facts with immediate recall). Then he does one subtraction timed and one addition. The whole thing takes 30-45 minutes.

Oh yes one other thing that we did that he really enjoyed was reading the book "Addition the fun way" which gives stories to memorize the facts.

[Krista G]

Thanks for all the tips, Linzy.

[TracyR4]

Krista, that's a tough one. LOL Making math fun. I've been searching for that type of program for quite some time now.
Especially one that doesn't break the bank either. You could possibly look into some Montessori type math programs. I'm sure there are. Just have to get going now. Going on a field trip to a Jewish Sader tonight.

[linzy]

The right start math games are pretty fun and you can just buy the games.

http://activitiesforlearning.com/mathcardgames.aspx

They also have individual game sets for certain skills if you don't want the whole kit.

http://activitiesforlearning.com/elementarygames.aspx

[Ayesha Nicole]

Linzy -

That is fantastic!  Well done! 

I wish for the girls to be proficient in math, as their father is. 

I did Doman dots/math via LM with them, and they both love the Montessori Hundred Board and the Pythagorus board at pre-school.  According to the head Pre-K/KG Montessori teacher, she says that the Pythagorus board is multiplication and advanced for their age (they just began preschool last fall at the age of 3 years and a few months).  I just hope they like math and find it easy and not intimidating as I did. 

And I also plan to use Kumon workbooks at home as additional training for them.  And I will also check out all of the great resources you listed - I need as much as I can get, because math is not one of my best subjects.   

Congratulations again!  It is inspiring to me!

- Ayesha

[2010BEBES]

Linzy,
Congratulations for the work you are teaching your son. can we know when did you start with addition?
Those warm ups really are great help.

I went to the games you mention in the link and found them very good but maybe for a little older kids.
Do you know some similar games for 4 year old or kids that not so advance as your son?

That video is an excellent demonstration of what can be reach when you work on it.

[TracyR4]

That really is a good plan. I have the Saxon math program here at my home. My girls' school also uses Saxon math.
My oldest can't wrap her brain around the math program. She understands math at a more conceptual level and the jumping around really seems to throw her off something fierce. She understands math really well , sometimes better than me. Yet she struggles with Saxon.

My 2nd daughter has always had difficulty with math but she's improving with Saxon

My 3rd daughter does really well with it
and Maggie does well with it. But I used Touch Math with the  3rd and 4th ( didn't know about Touch Math with my older two but am starting to do some remedial stuff with them with the upper level Touch Math).

Your plan sounds like one I'd like to follow with my 4th. The Saxon 1,2,3 are very time consuming to use( well if you have multiple children at home, not that time consuming if you have one or two children).

[linzy]

Hmm....other math games. Maybe card games like War or different versions of memory where instead of finding a pair you find an equation and its answer.

We started with Kumon number books and then addition a little over a year ago, but were really only up to the adding ones and twos until almost 2 months ago when we started doing the daily fact sheets using the Math matrix method. By doing it daily and combining it with the 2+2 is not 5 he is starting to memorize them really well. He's reached the goals for starting the Math 3 program, but as those recommend the 100 problems of each type a day I think we will stick with what we are doing maybe a few more weeks before moving on so that the transition is easier.

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