Math anxiety-help needed

[Xantippe]

**If you passed 4th grade, you know how to do fourth grade math. **

[snip]

Also, before spending any money on tutoring, I’d request in writing that the public school district evaluate her for a math learning disorder. If this is a learning disorder, a more specific type or style of tutoring could be more effective than others.

HA HA HA HA! If only that were true!

Having gotten that out of my system, I like your ideas of exhausting the school resources first: teacher help and a public school evaluation.

 

[Xantippe]

More seriously, I did 4th grade back in the early/mid 80s, and the arithmetic was very basic. I forget exactly what we were doing, but it definitely wasn’t decimals, fractions and algebra. In 5th grade we were memorizing times tables up to 12 X 12 and that was a very big deal for us.

One thing that’s going on that’s also different is that kids get a little geometry in elementary school, whereas I saw my first geometry in school in 10th grade.

An issue that does come to mind is that this is putting a lot more pressure on the elementary teacher to know stuff that they didn’t used to have to know. One way of dealing with that is introducing math specialists in earlier grades (for instance starting in 4th grade), but that’s not always feasible.

 

[styrgwillidar]

Yes this is part of it. The other night I taught her how to add fractions, she understood. She got these right on her test. Then there was a word problem:

Joe and Meg each had a slice of different pizza’s at lunch which was at 12 noon. Joe had a slice that was 1/6 of his whole pie and Meg had a slice that was 1/4 of her pie. Who’s pie had more pizza left?

Dd said they were equal as they both had a slice and-- lunch time pizza is usually the same size.

Do you have a teacher’s supply store nearby? I had a neat little aid-- plastic discs of different colors- all the same size, but cut into different numbers of slices which was helpful in visualizing fractions. You could easily create the same thing by cutting construction paper circles of the same size into different numbers of slices.

ETA: in your example, it would then be easy to visualize taking away 1/6th of something would leave 5/6ths remaining which would be larger than the 3/4ths left after taking away 1/4th.

 

[Graceful_Lamb]

Is this Common Core Math, by any chance?

 

[EasterJoy]

Math and I haven’t been good friends over the years. I didn’t know that there was such a thing as Math anxiety. Anyway, a good website for kids’ math is this site: coolmath4kids.com/

Important distinction: Math anxiety and a lack of aptitude in math are NOT the same thing. They can go together, but having one does not always mean having the other.

 

[EasterJoy]

Thank you again everyone–

After last night’s math homework-seems I am having math anxiety too. We started at 4:30 and had a break for dinner. We ended at 8:30.
By the end-I could not add 2 and 2 together.

It was way too much to cover -and I missed the annoucement from school that theschool May Crowning time was switched from 10:00 to 9:00 this morning. So I showed up at 10:00, drove the 10 miles to it, and then the principal told me the 8th grade confirmation parent meeting is at 12:00. Umm-I have no 8th grader, told him that-- and am at school volunteering several times a week-and he had no clue who I was. I asked about the may crowning and he said I missed it–I should have checked the website last night and thought it was amusing that I was helping with homework.

Amusing? I think I’d have had a Queen Victoria “We are Not Amused” reaction to that.

My sons’ math teacher was fine with having me help them, but asked that I make notes on their homework to indicate what kind of help was needed. She said she wanted feedback about what teaching strategies worked and which ones didn’t, and if the parents were constantly making up for her misses without telling her she’d never know that she wasn’t hitting it right! You might want to ask your child’s math teacher what his or her opinion is on that.

Then kumon is 160 dollars a month with a 12 month commitment with 1/2 tutoring on site and the rest are worksheets.

I am feeling very put upon by this school right now, and am having s very negative attitude today- I hope dd does not have homework.

I would not sign on a tutor, a therapist or a spiritual director that I couldn’t dismiss if the fit was poor.

 

[Graceful_Lamb]

Important distinction: Math anxiety and a lack of aptitude in math are NOT the same thing. They can go together, but having one does not always mean having the other.

I see. I suppose I just lack the aptitude.

 

[mommy_k]

Just an update—I went to kumon in person and they agreed to take dd on a monthly basis without a contract. They also tested her and said her abilities are a zig zag pattern on the math level chart. She can do some complex functions, however some basic foundations in math are lacking.

I asked about math anxiety and they said it is related to grades and acheivement-that dd will be taught there without grades-they stay on the concept until it is mastered,-- no grades at all… I thought timed tests were causing her stress-and they said no-- to keep her on a timer. Homework should take about 20 minutes per assignment sheet, for this grade-anything longer needs to be retaught by the school.

They told me to just circle what she gets wrong on homework and have dd self correct her own homework independently. If dd gets it wrong again after correcting to write-“please review concept with dd, she does not understand this”. So the teacher will teach it again to her. This is the method how they do it on their worksheets too. Their worksheets are to master concepts- and build on these not mirror school work-

As you can see, I have taken advice and tips from many posts when I talked to thm and pointed out these concerns-Thank you all so much.

 

[Xantippe]

Just an update—I went to kumon in person and** they agreed to take dd on a monthly basis without a contract. **They also tested her and said her abilities are a zig zag pattern on the math level chart. She can do some complex functions, however some basic foundations in math are lacking.

I asked about math anxiety and they said it is related to grades and acheivement-that **dd will be taught there without grades-**they stay on the concept until it is mastered,-- no grades at all… I thought timed tests were causing her stress-and they said no-- to keep her on a timer. Homework should take about 20 minutes per assignment sheet, for this grade-anything longer needs to be retaught by the school.

They told me to just circle what she gets wrong on homework and have dd self correct her own homework independently. If dd gets it wrong again after correcting to write-“please review concept with dd, she does not understand this”. So the teacher will teach it again to her. This is the method how they do it on their worksheets too. Their worksheets are to master concepts- and build on these not mirror school work-

As you can see, I have taken advice and tips from many posts when I talked to thm and pointed out these concerns-Thank you all so much.

That sounds really good!

I also wonder if it wouldn’t be reasonable to inform school that DD will be spending no more than one hour on math homework every night. Who could argue with that? And then just turn in whatever she can get done in an hour.

Multi-hour math marathons aren’t doing anybody any good.

But keep working through the summer (on the Kumon or whatever you decide).

Best wishes!