Excitement in a box of math manipulatives
Homeschool Space.
This box might not look like much to some.... it is a box of plastic blocks, like Lego, but more... These are the maths manipulatives that I hope will teach the boys to love maths again. Math, you see, has been a bit of a challenge for us in our homeschool journey, in this post I'll try to explain.
We left the NSW school system officially in July last year (in reality we checked out a while before then really). When we did leave the school we bought with us a whole load of 'stuff'. In those 2 plastic bags though, the kids both had their math workbooks - they happened to be Targeting Maths, a bit of a staple in primary school classrooms. I also had with me from my prac resources a comprehensive (day-by-day, week-by-week, term-by-term) plan of how to capture the entire maths syllabus for k-6 organised into one lengthy but helpful document... I printed it and stuck it in the yellow maths folder, neatly organised with tabs. That sounds great - we'll do that I think.
No. It took me about 3 weeks to realise that the kids actually hated Targeting Maths. Something about the high colour, doodles in the margins, boring and simplistic activities, or activities that need a whole class to achieve. For us, it was really hard work, and worse still it had them hating maths time. So, it got bumped.... ok, no biggy I think, I'll just follow the yellow folder. Hummm, that lasted about 2 weeks as well before I realised that I just didn't have the energy to look and think about the activities prior to the lesson, so we were starting maths time, with no idea what we were doing and in a flap.... you can see how that worked.
So on to the third idea.... I'll find some fun activities online, we'll do some games and I will print some worksheets and we'll do investigations.... well that didn't last long either, because just because Morgan should be doing year 2, there is a HUGE range of what year 2 maths looks like.... and finding the right thing, not too "baby" and not too hard was a challenge. Also, I realised that while school had taught him some maths, it wasn't in depth and some of the basics were missing. But I'd always been told he was "Excellent at maths" or "heaps ahead of his year"... so I was confused..
Ok, this is radical, but maths went off the agenda while I had a bit of a look around at what maths programs there are, and how they are taught. I investigated the Singapore maths curriculum - I even bought some of their workbooks - and Mathletics and online maths games. at the end of 2018 I had decided that we would go back to a workbook style and just had to work out which one. In the end I went with Mathletics workbooks (another thing from my wonderful teaching resources hard drive).
2019 come and we start - but it just wasn't sitting right with us. We seemed to be flitting from book 1 - 2 for Austin and through books 2-6 for Morgan looking for the 'level' that seemed right - at their current understanding.... As we're doing this, the Australian Homeschooling Summit begins and I am reminded of a product I had considered called Math U See. I listened eagerly to Esther's talk, and I spoke with others who use the system. I thought about the pedagogy (how it is taught) and took the kids through the placement tests. No surprises, Austin is at the beginning... but Morgan did surprise me. A kid, always ahead or so I'm told, is struggling with the first placement test. Not because he can't get the answers, he can, but he doesn't know why, or how to explain it. He can follow the process he'd be taught - count on, add with a jump strategy or whatever, but he didn't just know simple number facts, beyond friends of 10 - but what about 20, or 50, don't they have any friends...
So I looked for more information and a few more calls and I am now convinced that we need the systematic structure of a maths program which you start at the beginning and finish when you get to the end.... that is not broken in arbitrary weeks/terms or days and allows speeding though when it's easy and taking slow simple steps when it's not. We also need hands on manipulatives - something that represents the maths that we can see, touch and play with.... multisensory maths. We also need workbooks that are plain and simple. The questions, not the graphics and cute cartoons. We need the no nonsense workbook.
And for us Math U See is ticking those boxes.
The difference in Maths learning at school is that it goes in a spiral. You learn a little bit of everything this year, then a little bit more next year, and a bit more the year after etc etc. But what happens in the meantime is you forget, I can't remember the maths from last week let alone last year when we did a week about area. And just because I sat in the class and 'was taught it' does that mean I actually learned it.... Hummm interesting..... Math U See is mastery based. You do lots of each lesson til you get it, then you move on. It will be easy to start - and that will be ok, because a 'quick win' is so important for motivation and continuing. We'll start back at the beginning with Austin... and at the beginning of primary school for Morgan. we'll go through as fast or slow as we need to and we will understand maths, not just be able to follow the process.... hopefully.
We will see.
Love and Blessings
Jen xox
This box might not look like much to some.... it is a box of plastic blocks, like Lego, but more... These are the maths manipulatives that I hope will teach the boys to love maths again. Math, you see, has been a bit of a challenge for us in our homeschool journey, in this post I'll try to explain.
We left the NSW school system officially in July last year (in reality we checked out a while before then really). When we did leave the school we bought with us a whole load of 'stuff'. In those 2 plastic bags though, the kids both had their math workbooks - they happened to be Targeting Maths, a bit of a staple in primary school classrooms. I also had with me from my prac resources a comprehensive (day-by-day, week-by-week, term-by-term) plan of how to capture the entire maths syllabus for k-6 organised into one lengthy but helpful document... I printed it and stuck it in the yellow maths folder, neatly organised with tabs. That sounds great - we'll do that I think.
No. It took me about 3 weeks to realise that the kids actually hated Targeting Maths. Something about the high colour, doodles in the margins, boring and simplistic activities, or activities that need a whole class to achieve. For us, it was really hard work, and worse still it had them hating maths time. So, it got bumped.... ok, no biggy I think, I'll just follow the yellow folder. Hummm, that lasted about 2 weeks as well before I realised that I just didn't have the energy to look and think about the activities prior to the lesson, so we were starting maths time, with no idea what we were doing and in a flap.... you can see how that worked.
So on to the third idea.... I'll find some fun activities online, we'll do some games and I will print some worksheets and we'll do investigations.... well that didn't last long either, because just because Morgan should be doing year 2, there is a HUGE range of what year 2 maths looks like.... and finding the right thing, not too "baby" and not too hard was a challenge. Also, I realised that while school had taught him some maths, it wasn't in depth and some of the basics were missing. But I'd always been told he was "Excellent at maths" or "heaps ahead of his year"... so I was confused..
Ok, this is radical, but maths went off the agenda while I had a bit of a look around at what maths programs there are, and how they are taught. I investigated the Singapore maths curriculum - I even bought some of their workbooks - and Mathletics and online maths games. at the end of 2018 I had decided that we would go back to a workbook style and just had to work out which one. In the end I went with Mathletics workbooks (another thing from my wonderful teaching resources hard drive).
2019 come and we start - but it just wasn't sitting right with us. We seemed to be flitting from book 1 - 2 for Austin and through books 2-6 for Morgan looking for the 'level' that seemed right - at their current understanding.... As we're doing this, the Australian Homeschooling Summit begins and I am reminded of a product I had considered called Math U See. I listened eagerly to Esther's talk, and I spoke with others who use the system. I thought about the pedagogy (how it is taught) and took the kids through the placement tests. No surprises, Austin is at the beginning... but Morgan did surprise me. A kid, always ahead or so I'm told, is struggling with the first placement test. Not because he can't get the answers, he can, but he doesn't know why, or how to explain it. He can follow the process he'd be taught - count on, add with a jump strategy or whatever, but he didn't just know simple number facts, beyond friends of 10 - but what about 20, or 50, don't they have any friends...
So I looked for more information and a few more calls and I am now convinced that we need the systematic structure of a maths program which you start at the beginning and finish when you get to the end.... that is not broken in arbitrary weeks/terms or days and allows speeding though when it's easy and taking slow simple steps when it's not. We also need hands on manipulatives - something that represents the maths that we can see, touch and play with.... multisensory maths. We also need workbooks that are plain and simple. The questions, not the graphics and cute cartoons. We need the no nonsense workbook.
And for us Math U See is ticking those boxes.
The difference in Maths learning at school is that it goes in a spiral. You learn a little bit of everything this year, then a little bit more next year, and a bit more the year after etc etc. But what happens in the meantime is you forget, I can't remember the maths from last week let alone last year when we did a week about area. And just because I sat in the class and 'was taught it' does that mean I actually learned it.... Hummm interesting..... Math U See is mastery based. You do lots of each lesson til you get it, then you move on. It will be easy to start - and that will be ok, because a 'quick win' is so important for motivation and continuing. We'll start back at the beginning with Austin... and at the beginning of primary school for Morgan. we'll go through as fast or slow as we need to and we will understand maths, not just be able to follow the process.... hopefully.
We will see.
Love and Blessings
Jen xox
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