Hi all, so much to tell and so much learnt in a very short space of time. Again I have no commercial ties to IXL but it’s been a real help…see the very end of this post
It at least gave us some sort of a start point and surprisingly by going through it I now am beginning to get my head around ‘new maths’ and where they seem to be coming from and I do actually see what they are trying to achieve. What however I do have an issue with is a comment that somebody posted about the school asking them not to show their their child how to do things a different way….. sorry that ain’t gonna happen. I fully appreciate that schools need to teach all pupils but if my grand daughter is becoming bored and disinterested then I’ll show her anyway. Are we really supposed to just trust that everything is OK? Look up a documentary called ‘Waiting for Superman’.
Anyway old man rant over so the good news. DGD, (see I’m getting the acronym thingy), is nowhere near in such a pickle as it first appeared. In the space of 3 or 4 weeks we have managed to go over about 70% of all the basics she ‘should’ know and she’s OK with pretty much all of it. The 30% that’s left I reckon will be 10% also no problem and the other 20% just a little help. One thing that was clear is she has not been taught column method of addition and subtraction which now includes what they call regrouping but at least she can still get the right answer even if to me it still seems like a bit long winded. Again I can only use IXL as a frame of reference but because it’s structured into clear areas of competency then it has been pretty easy to tell what she is competent at and where she needs a little help. Again I must stress that it doesn’t have to be IXL just something that gives you an idea of what the core knowledge areas are.
So, the bottom line is it has been a real eye opener for me. I may have made some disparaging remarks in previous posts about how teachers are supposed to teach 30 or so kids of different abilities which I apologise for but seriously do we let our kids all go as fast as they can or just as fast as the slowest? (Again ‘Waiting for Superman’ – and it’s nothing to do with comics!).
Anyway the other upside has been that since DGD started doing this then DGS, (who is 3 and a bit), wants to have a go every time she gets her laptop out. Had to buy him one to stop any arguments, (40 quid off a well known website but it does the job). So last week DDIL (dear daughter in law), gets a pull from one of his ‘pre-school’ or ‘day care’ helpers or whatever who asked if they could have a word in private……what they actually asked her was ‘Are you or your husband particularly gifted at maths because James seems to be exceptionally good for his age?’ Now I have to be totally honest and admit that we have been focussing on DGD and have spent very little time with James but for someone to notice that difference in such a short space of time is amazing.
I know we are all busy but a few minutes each day seemingly can make all the difference……..keep it fun, reward them but not every time – once every so often out of the blue is better than just getting into a routine, know when enough is enough, know when like everybody else there are just some days when they just don’t feel like it, FINALLY to address some of the negatives about learning programmes ‘not teaching’ them of course they don’t – but please don’t tell me you cannot help your child do Maths or English homework…….there was a post on this thread about using pizzas to teach kids fractions…..I did this 30 years ago with mine but pizzas were a bit expensive so I used cheap round Victoria sponge cakes from the shop across the road.
All the best..