Math, math, math

I have always been a bit mathphobic. I struggled to understand concepts in school and, even now, if someone says something that might even hint at being a word problem, I get all twitchy. I purchased k12's math program because it was all scripted, provided the math book, lessons online and all the manipulatives. But, wow. OK.. Trevor placed out of K-level math. But the grade one math moves so fast! And that crazy wording! In the last, oh, five or so lessons we have covered counting forwards and backwards on a number line, we have used counters to make groups of addition sentences from word problems, we have learned words like addend, sum, addition sentence, increasing by "x" number, vertical math sentences and horizontal math sentences. It's enough to make my head spin. Isn't this supposed to be elementary math adding single numbers?

Because of the curriculum's speed, Trevor wasn't getting it. He would get it enough to pass an assessment (and mainly because I provide help and discussion during assessments, else he would have a test at the end of every lesson), but the next day he couldn't remember what he had learned. I also was having issues with him understanding the key concept of the lesson- ie: seeing that if you add 1 to a number, the number jumps one up the number line like you're counting. So we would struggle through our math lessons, Trevor pouting and hating it, me feeling like an utter failure because I couldn't explain it, even with a script. Our lessons would take an hour- k12 assumes we will sit for an hour for every lesson (making my school day take 4 hours just in seat work!) but I generally spend much less time than that working. It's a big reason why I homeschool. So our hour of struggling over math would end with Trevor, head hanging, whole body drooping, slouching out of the room to sit by himself in the playroom, feeling like a failure. It was tough to watch and I spent much time hugging him and assuring him that he was fine, we just needed to find a better way to get it.

Today we started our "better way". One, I only spent roughly 15 minutes on math. Two, I made sure it was something he would succeed at so he wouldn't think math was really all that horrible. I found a site that would allow me to print my own math worksheets and printed him a sheet of vertical equations adding numbers less than 10 with numbers no more than 1. Then I drew him a number line from 0-10. We took one frog counter. I love counters and manipulatives, but I think he was being distracted by them while we worked problems. So we used one frog to make hopping up the number line easier. Then I talked about how the frog hopped ONE up the number line. I didn't talk about more than one, I didn't jump backwards on the line like the k12 lesson did. First we wrote our own addition sentences based on what number he put the frog on. I explained that when we jumped up the number line it was like say "plus". So when we moved one up the number line we were saying "plus one". So he understood that. After I was sure he could write his own equations, we did the quick and easy worksheet. He understands the concept of zero as not moving on the number line so he breezed through those.

Tomorrow we'll move on two jumping two places on the number line. I'll stop there until I'm sure he understands it. I'm also contemplating getting him a math computer game like Math Blasters or something to supplement. I have some math board games tagged on amazon, too. He's very analytical, so I know he could be much better at math than I am, but I need to give him that starting point so he gets it. Today was wonderful in that we ended our lesson on a positive note, with Trevor beaming and saying "That was EASY, mommy!"

Other than that, our day was very good, very busy. Trevor continued on his reading and, of his own accord, read me his entire level 3 phonics reader. Which was awesome! We've slowed phonics down a little, too, because we caught up with his curve. We still don't have to do the whole lesson, but he needs time to absorb the sight words before we can take assessments but he is picking up sight words very quickly. Today we did the lesson on the United States for history and tomorrow we will cover some of the native people. Then next week we'll explore this site and look at the first Thanksgiving before celebrating it ourselves!