Daegan is using Math-U-See for the formal part of his math education, and it has proven to a be very good fit for him. I know he learns very well off DVDs and videos (dinosaurs, anyone? or bugs? <g>), so the way this program is laid out—watch a short lesson on DVD, then do the exercises in your workbook—is an excellent fit for him. He quite surprised me in how he approached the first level, Primer, back in September. Daegan chose to watch all 30 math lessons in a row (over 2 days), and only then go back and watch one lesson at a time and do the workbook. Seems he likes to see the big picture before getting into the details. I have many positive things to say about Math-U-See, as does Jim. Both of us have done math at the university level, and think the program is very strong. Perhaps in another post…
Daegan finished Primer before Christmas, and at present is working on level Alpha, lesson 9 (which, coincidently, is learning the +9 facts). The previous unit, solving for an unknown—yes, ALGEBRA!—was more challenging for him. Here’s a typical page:
Having taught math, I know the difficulties many students have with word problems in junior high and high school, so I asked Daegan to slow down with the word problems. I was starting to drive him crazy, each time asking him to stop and think: In this word problem, what are you needing to figure out? What information (clues) do you have? I know that many people (kids and adults) follow the ‘slap it down’ method when it comes to word problems: they slap down (write down)each number into the equation as you come to it in the word problem. The ‘slap it down’ method works just fine for some word problems, like the first part of (18) below:
But it doesn’t work for all word problems. For many, you need to understand what is being asked, so you know where to place the various numbers in your equation. That’s why I was really impressed when I saw this (bottom question, number 12):
The bottom question (12), Daegan did correctly, placing the 9 after the equals sign. Many, many kids (and adults!) would have automatically written a 9 in the first blank (where the 2 is), simply because it was the first number mentioned in the word problem—the ‘slap it down’ method. And even better, there are no eraser marks (unlike the question above, where he wrote the 3 backwards the first time and fixed it), which tells me he stopped and thought about the question before starting to write and solve it. It’s a small victory, but one that shows me Daegan is learning to use math well, and understands it. He is not just blindly following rote rules and hoping to get the right answer, which, sadly, is how many of my friends describe their experiences with math as children.