Math Musings

So what do you think about the importance of math in a student's life?  My younger daughter has struggled with math for her entire school career.  (She's now in 3rd grade, so admittedly her school career so far has been short.)  This is the same child who almost independently taught herself to read and now reads on a level much higher than she "should" be reading for an 8-year-old, so I know it's not a question of academic ability.  She simply doesn't have a "math mind."  She excels in subjects that have to do with reading (like history, science, literature, etc.) but she simply cannot seem to grasp (at least not very easily) most concepts related to mathematics.

Lately, this has really started to bother her because she is realizing that math is a subject in which she really has to apply herself while other subjects come much more easily.  So what does that mean?  Well, it means she fusses and complains about doing math and tries in every way she can think of to avoid having to do it!

I've been using a math curriculum with her that seems to "work" pretty well for her--at least better than many others I've tried.  (We use Math Mammoth  just in case you're wondering.  This is not a review for Math Mammoth, though, so I won't go into details about the program.  Of course you can take a look at the website, though, if you're interested.)  It gives lots of review and explanation and doesn't move too terribly quickly.  It gives her more time to really understand what she's doing before it moves on to something else.  That really helps her. 

Another thing I did was not even do math with her until she was in 2nd grade.  I wasn't sure if that was a good idea or not, but when I tried it with her in kindergarten and 1st grade, she just got so terribly frustrated that I was afraid she would develop a hate relationship with all things mathematic.  I figured it would be better to wait a year or two to start a "formal" math curriculum with her than make both of us miserable and cause her to hate math forever.  Of course we still did the regular daily "count the forks as you set the table" and "if you have 3 M&Ms and I give you 4 more, how many do you have" kinds of things during our normal days, so she wasn't totally without math exposure. 

I figure that, either she will begin to "get it" one day and it will begin to come more easily to her, or she will simply have to learn to do basic math that she needs for daily life (whether she wants to or not) and will have to concentrate on some kind of job in which higher math skills are not required!  Hopefully she will homeschool her own children some day.  One advantage she will have though, is that there are so many online programs and DVD programs available that she will have the option of teaching her kids the language arts-related classes and letting them do an online or DVD program for math.  My son's 8th grade math is a little more than I like to try to handle, so he does Teaching Textbooks, which we've been very happy with. 

Do any of you have a child who just doesn't "click" well with math?  If so, would you share an idea or two about how you've tried to deal with it?  I'd love to hear from you!


Wendy