What a stressfull school week!

[unicorn-tiff'smom]

This week has been so hard for Tiff. She is having a difficult time with math. They are learning 2 and 3 digit adding and subtracting with regrouping. Two weeks ago, so picked it up really quick. I even found an interactive web site and another site with pages to print out and do. She was doing well. This week they are continuing with this same chapter. Each night she has had dittoes with up to 25 problems. She has been only getting 1 or 2 right each time. She gets so upset and has meltdowns when I tell her they are wrong. Then she hasn't wanted to correct them and it is taking sooo much longer to correct the answers. I just can't figure out what happened from last week until this week.

[jj]

I don't know what to tell you Unicorn. My sister says each day she almost has to start all over again teaching the basics of whatever they are working on. The retention just isn't there.

[misty]

Ohh.... for Tiff!

Maybe its just going too fast for her or maybe shes getting burned out on it. Do you sit with her while she does her homework? Maybe instead of checking it after she does it, you could sit & watch her do it & correct her as she goes along. That way you can see where shes having problems & she won't end up with a paper full of wrong answers.

[Charlie Girl]

It could be she is overwhelmed when she sees all the questions on the paper. Try covering all the questions with a blank sheet of paper so that she only sees the one she needs to do at that moment.

If she still is getting so many wrong, it could be that she just has too many to do each night. Ask the teacher about having her do every other one as long as she will work on them until they are right.

Sometimes the busy work is good when its repetition that is helping it sink in but sometimes it backfires and the student gets stressed by the amount of work to do and can't focus on any of it.

[crazyhouse]

I have a suggestion and I hope you understand my reasoning. When I was in school math was my worst subject!! Blood sweat and tears came out for 1 sheet of paper every night. I for many years would do that homework which had some of the same problems on it from the lesson on the board, and I would still get it wrong! I went in to a special study hall my Junior year, the teacher was a big fan of useing the chalk board. I was told take one problem, put it on the board. He would say write big, you have plenty of room every problem I put on that board I did right!! ;D When I was in class taking a test or a quiz I would bomb again! the teachers decided it was better for me to do my tests and quizes in study hall on the board. That way no one cheated and I made better grades. Sometimes the color of the paper or the size of the font on the page are all problems that I would lose focus and wander off into never neverland. If you could get access to a reasonably sized chalk board that should work one problem at a time just like Charlie Girl said

[katiekat]

Oh Tiff I know how you feel. Math infuriates me. I can't even help my 10 year old with his math homework...and I'm 36.

[unicorn-tiff'smom]

Try to answer everyone here.

JJ - yes she does need lots and lots of repetition. That is why she did so well the first week, but last week stunk.

Misty - I help her start out, just so that as much for anyone that I know what she is working on. Then I leave her to work on them alone, but check back with her to see if she has questions. Then I look at her completed work and then go from there depending on if it is correct or not. And if she does it at after care or while she is at my mothers before I get home, then I can't help her get started.

This week, I wasn't home 2 nights until 9pm to double check her work and one night not until after 7. Definetly the 9pm nights, we corrected it in the morning and the 7pm night, she really had a fit.

And last night she was supposed to bring her review worksheets home for the test on Monday and left them at school. I am calling people today (Sat) from work trying to find someone who has it, so I can copy it for her. Just more frustration for her.

CG - never thought about covering the work. I don't think that it is too much on a page. She just has been looking at them this week like she was never taught the work before. And making basic math fact errors on facts that she knows.

Crazyhouse - she does have a lap size (tv table size) chalkboard that we could use. She uses that when she "teaches" her baby dolls school. I'll try it.

Katie - lol. I am 40 and haven't gotten to the point yet where I can't help her, but I know that day will come. I never took some of those advanced classes that they have now a days.

Thanks for all of your suggestions!

[lostmyshoe]

Hi Uni,

Sorry to hear poor Tiff had such a hard week. I can so much empathize with you. I had such a hard time with math myself. It is also Becca's weakest area. I have gone through the same thing with her. She would do great one week, seem to pick it up well and then the next week be totally confused. With her it was a combination of too much being thrown at her at once and also a teacher that did not explain the Math very well. Sometimes, even if a teacher may be good at Math themselves, they may not necessarily know how to get through to the child when it gets more in depth. Becca has forgotten papers too and in her case it was on purpose because she was so frustrated. I've had to scramble around too, to get the work she forgot. It took time and patience, but my H would sit down with her and show her step by step at the pace she understood it. He had to start earlier in the day before she got too tired to focus and give her breaks as he was teaching her. Also, praising her for what she gets right seems to help give her more confidence. Thank goodness my H is good in Math, otherwise we may have considered some tutoring. I had plenty when I was Becca's age. Unfortunately, the Math is past the stage now where I can help Becca so it's her Dad now that has to help her. This year, so far, Becca's teacher seems to get through to her and she is doing well, but we've got the rest of the year to get through. I so know how you feel. I probably haven't given you any real answers but everyone here has had great suggestions and I hope this coming week will be a better one for Tiff. I know well the struggle with numbers. Hugs to Tiff.

[crazyhouse]

It sounds like you are almost in control. If we could get another hour or so in the day it would be easy to sit down with her, hang in there

[bugsmom]

Uni...so sorry to hear that Tiff has had a rough week with math. I totally understand your frustration...Josh does the exact same thing that Tiff does. One day he knows it, the next day he acts like he never seen it before. I know with Josh, it's anxiety. He gets himself all worked up even before we start the math, he feels defeated and when I check it and its wrong, you'd think the world was about to end. Anyway, I love CG suggestions because I found that Josh was more frustrated over how many problems he had to do instead of the work itself. If he had 15 problems and 5 were wrong, he would get angry and frustrated over the # of problems he had to do over again. Josh's math teacher this year is great because she only has him do 1/2 of the problems because she doesn't grade the homework, she just wants them to get it right. With the # thing taken out of the equation and the stress of it not being graded, he's really responding well. I know you can't ask for the non-grading thing, but maybe you could request if Tiff can do half of the 25 problems. If she gets the process...it shouldn't matter how many she does. Just a thought. I hope things are better this week. ((((((((Hugs)))))))) to Tiff and you!

[unicorn-tiff'smom]

Bugsmom I may ask the teacher about doing half of the work. Tiff says they grade their own papers in class. The teacher gives the answer and you correct it if it is wrong. I personally like the old fashioned way of you have to turn it in and the teacher corrects it. That way she knows who is understanding the work and who isn't. Sometimes just what she sees from class isn't enough with 25 to a class. But just my opinion.

[lillian]

Have you tried doing this with manipulatives? You can use those little fuzzy balls you buy at a craft store, and line them up like numbers. Instead of actually adding the numbers, she counts the balls and moves them. So, let's say you have twenty-five + twenty-seven. You would line the balls up with 2 balls going down next to five balls going down, then below that, you put two balls going down next to seven balls going down. She would start on the right, count the balls going down, come up with twelve, put two balls in the one's place and one ball in the ten's place, then move the one ball in the ten's place to the top and count down again. Does that make sense? It sounds to me like she needs to see the problem to grasp what she is doing.

[unicorn-tiff'smom]

I haven't used manipulatives for these problems. She uses them or her fingers or sticks drawn on paper for basic math facts. I think that is a great idea Lillian.

Thanks! I'll try it this afternoon and let you know how it goes.

[lillian]

Try getting her to master the addition, before you move to subtraction. You have a very supportive school, so I don't think the teachers would mind this. Have her do addition for a couple weeks, then move to subtraction.