Learning 0-20 addition and subtraction
Hello wise folks, my daughter will be heading into second grade and her teacher recommended (and it is expected for second grade) that we work on memorizing addition and subtraction for 0-20. My daughter likes math but they said she is slower to process the information and they think this will help if she becomes quicker with these facts. We have the math dice and work on incorporating this into our daily routine but I'm thinking she would benefit from something like flash cards but found there are so many options. Are there any that have worked well for your family? She also loves the computer or ipad, any favorite apps or websites that you have used and would recommend? I want to make it fun but am also ok with some cold and hard facts such as flash cards, etc.
Thank you!!
Parent Replies
Our children really love the Dragonbox math apps. The first couple (Numbers and Big Numbers) start off with math facts and number fluency, and others get into much more advanced topics like algebra and geometry. Our school also uses Monster Math and our child liked it enough that we downloaded that for home too. It's a lot more based around math facts (and was either free or relatively inexpensive) so might be a good one to try.
Hopefully the apps and cards help but I definitely would watch her over the next school year. Our daughter has a math learning disability that teachers and the District did not want to acknowledge based on a visual processing disorder. It put a huge amount of stress on her. If she is still having issues by mid year 2nd Grade I would submit a request for an evaluation and if they deny services request an Independent Evaluation (IEE) that the District pays for. Getting specialized support early is really important. Also you can contact DREDF for all kinds of information on the process.
While memorizing addition facts are super helpful in solving a math problem quickly, I’ve also found that sometimes there is no correlation between how good a person is at math, and how quickly they can solve an addition problem. I had a second grader last year who consistently scored in the 90th percentile on all his math tests, computerized AND paper/pencil. However, he was never able to get past 10 simple addition problems on his addition sprints (out of 50) in 4 minutes. There was another student several years ago who had the same problem, but ended up doing 8th grade math in 5th grade. What I’m saying is that if your daughter’s math grades are stellar, but this is the only problem, I wouldn’t worry too much about the memorization.
Our daughter has enjoyed several math apps, including park math, moose math, and bugs and numbers. I've liked these too. Also, bedtime math (which calls on a parent to read out a math problem rather than asking a kid to play on her own), is apparently proven to improve math tests significantly. Also a hit with our daughter, but requires parental involvement.
Our math specialist has changed our lives and her name is Deborah Brunelle. Her website is http://roomtolearn.net/ My daughter was really struggling with number sense in Kindergarten and it was suggested we find some outside help before math starts to increase in complexity. Possibly facing a dyscalulia diagnosis (dyslexia for math) our family was stressed and worried about what this meant so I started researching what direction we should go in since there are so many different types of tutors. After completing a huge worksheet of contacts and reading articles we met Deb and the deal was set. After about 1.5 years of seeing her weekly, I am thrilled to share that my daughter has progressed in such an ideal and kind environment I really can't imaging life without her support. Deb is comfortable with a well known learning program called Making Math Real. From this basis, Deb shines with creativity and sensitivity. She is intuitive, super smart and has an easy and loving smile. She creates weekly sessions for my daughter keeping in mind our smaller goals as well as larger goals that we have outlined with her school teacher. In session, she mixes math games with white board work and manipulatives. If any other parent out there is searching for help, we hope you meet our math angel Deb!