Homeschool moms, help?

[breakingbrie]

I was wondering if I could get some help, I was thinking maybe the homeschooling moms might be able to point me in the right direction... My girls in Ohio were doing perfectly fine in school, with a little help in reading. However, the schools seemed a bit behind to me, but they were learning, so I just went with it But now that we've moved to WA, it's completely different. We left Ohio in November, and at that point in 2nd grade my girls were still memorizing 2+2 and 7+9, the basics. Never had seen subtraction except for a small intro at the end of 1st grade. When we got here, their very first math homework sheet has subtraction to the tune of 82-37... They hadn't even subtracted at all let alone 'borrowed'. And the carrying over in adding more than 1 number... Ugh. So, needless to say, they're still pretty behind. The teacher has been good about getting them extra help in class, and we've been struggling through it, but with 3rd grade coming up, I don't want them to continue to struggle. Their teacher says next year, they're moving on to harder stuff, and the 2nd grade stuff should be easily understood by then. So, I've been considering holding them back so they can start it over at the beginning of the year, and learn the 'whys' of it - like i said, now they know they have to borrow when subtracting that problem up there ^ but they honestly don't get that they're adding 10 to the 2 to make it 12, or why they actually do it. So going through the learning it would be helpful... But I really don't want them to redo 2nd grade for a few reasons. And story problems are another area we need to work on... They only get them if the whole sheet is add or the whole sheet is subtract, and they can't figure it out if they don't already know which they're going to do.

So, to the help part, I was wondering if there are any resources that might be available to me (besides a tutor we can't afford) that I could go through this summer with them to help teach this stuff to get them ready for 3rd grade. I'm worried I wouldn't be able to do the teaching without following some sort of guide for this. lol, I should probably start with the basic subtraction facts for one!!! They didn't learn them individually, so when they see 7-2 they're still using fingers instead of knowing it's 5

I'm going to have to make a final decision soon whether or not we're keeping them back, so the sooner I can look into this, the better!

[MamaBee]

hmm... I hope this posts okay, I'm having a lot of internet problems today so hopefully I don't repeat anything someone else says...

If your girls like worksheets, I would go to bookstore or I think walmart would have workbooks by grade. Then you could look to see what would be a good place to start and just start going through them. If you fear that your girls would be hurt to be in a grade 1 book, education.com has a lot of worksheets that you can print out.

For the learning the "why"... I would find a collection of small items... legos, Popsicle sticks... anything small would work... and start working on showing two sticks plus two sticks equal 4... and then work with tallies... grouping in 5's... and then go into talking about tens. My son's math (we have been using Right Start Math) talks about saying 2 tens and 3 ones instead of 23. I wish I could link to my pinterest account... I have a math section of things that might help you... but I seem to be able to do one thing at time with this darn internet...

I would also look into some math games... math bingo (using equations), math match (equations on one card and the answer on the other), if the girls like hopscotch - have then jump based on answer on equations...

Many of my homeschooling friends rave about teaching textbooks. They start in "3rd grade", however my soon to be 1st grader did test into it - he is like his daddy, a math nerd, so he is working at an advanced 1st grade level... haha. It is a CD based program where the kids work on the computer and workbook to learn. My friends call it an alternative to tutoring... you should be able to find it cheaper used on ebay.

[xboxmom]

I am not a home schooling Mom and I know you said you can afford a tutor but we did at one point put my 2nd son Aaron into Kumon and it was $95 a month for him to have extra help with Math. It seemed to really help him. I am sure there are a ton of Math books you could get them from Amazon for them to work on this summer to. Just keep them doing a few pages a day and helping them with the subtraction. Hopefully that will help them be caught up with the other kids for the start of next year.

[Darcy Baldwin]

You can also try this for free!

https://www.khanacademy.org/

It's a great self-paced math site from the most basic to the more advanced.

http://www.makeworksheets.com/mathma...FU8V7AodJGsA5g
A math sheet generator that you can make on your own.

Online games:
https://www.jumpstart.com/free-gamem...FSVp7AodUQoA3g
http://www.mathblaster.com/Default.aspx (my boys always liked this one)

Check out this stuff for living math ideas - its the theory we used early on in our family:
http://livingmath.net/

If your girls aren't having trouble in any other subject, I would suggest you not hold them back unless your state does no-pass 3rd grade testing early in the year. With some extra help during the day, they can catch up long before the school year is up. Does the school offer summer school for them?

And you can spend the entire summer playing math games - talking about math, doing math in the kitchen, creating your own story problems and solving them, and making it part of your structure all summer to have them practicing. Get math workbooks if you don't want to do your own worksheets so that they can work on them everyday.

[breakingbrie]

Yes, Darcy- it is just the math they're having trouble with. I hate that they were just thrown into it without any introduction I did just ask their teacher about summer school and waiting for her to get back to me - it's for 3rd grade and up, and she was unsure if that included kids going into 3rd. Thanks for the links to check out!

Thanks for all the ideas Rebecca! I know my girls would't at all mind working out of a lower grade workbook - they understand that kids here learned this stuff before they moved here, so they know we're working to catch up. I'll look into the teaching textbooks, I'm all for tutoring alternatives

Kim, we might even be able to try something like that this summer (they are still withholding some of dh's pay when they shouldn't be, so when it's straightened out, it will be nice to get all they owe him )

Thanks for the replies girls. I've been feeling overwhelmed on where to start!

[scrap2day]

I'm not a homeschool mom but I was a math tutor at the college level for students who weren't up to level.

I agree with Darcy and was going to suggest games or apps.

Also, if your children like board games you might want to look for Sum Swamp Addition and Subtraction Game.

As far as word problems, I would suggest showing them how to look for clues like if the question states How many are left? The word left would suggest it is a subtraction problem. You could also suggest they read it through and then make a simple drawing about what the problem is asking.

Many people find word problems difficult. I would personally suggest waiting on tackling the word problems until they have more confidence with their subtraction skills.

This is just my opinion but I would not be concerned that they are counting on their fingers to work out problems. To me this suggests that they understand the concept of basic subtraction, it just sounds like they need a lot of practice so that they eventually memorize that 7 - 2 = 5.

[glumirk]

I'm a math tutor for some home school kids, middle school and SAT prep mostly.

You have a ton of good ideas linked above. With practice every weekday during the summer (maybe an hour) they should be able to catch up. Just make sure that they will be on board with you.

[webseitler]

Originally Posted by glumirk

You have a ton of good ideas linked above. With practice every weekday during the summer (maybe an hour) they should be able to catch up. Just make sure that they will be on board with you.

Agreed! You don't have to pay more than $15-20 for some workbooks and you'll be good to go! I would do this: start every weekday with a little introduction game! Like... "Let's count these colored beads! Now you share three with your sister... how many do you have?" etc. Then hand them the worksheet to finish off their "summer school." You can look ahead to what's coming each day and think of a little game to illustrate it. Shouldn't take you more than 5 mins. And the payoff will be HUGE.

I have a little "Toddler Time" basket I keep with all sorts of treasures in it--colored gemstone beads, glass beads, popsicle sticks, plastic frogs, painted rainbow stars, nerdy dice... it holds their attention as they mess around with the playthings, but it also gives me a ton of math manipulatives for demonstrations. I keep them old plastic baby food containers. Love that basket...

Okay, maybe that's a little off-topic. LOL! I think my point was that you can find all sorts of things in your house. It doesn't have to be expensive to be effective!

[breakingbrie]

Love all the ideas!! They love school, so I think they'll be fine working on it this summer It's such a relief to have some ideas to put together some sort of plan for this - it doesn't feel like it'll be so overwhelming to take on now!!!

[disneyaddict]

When I homeschooled my son, he loved the sum swamp game, and we bought several math card games. I can't remember their names. I agree with everyone else, just incorporate math in everything. We counted and subtracted matchbox cars, etc. We even had the counting bears.