MathTriumph

I just have to share my child's excitement right now. She has struggled with carrying in addition problems all year and complicated subtraction problems have been quite a challenge for her as well. She has become so discouraged that the idea of working on math is a disappointment. Unfortunately, this is one subject that I cannot avoid and we have used a multitude of techniques to try to help her grasp these basic mathematical concepts.

Today, I walked into our homeschool room to shouts of delight from Sophie. She was working on her money unit in Time4Learning and finally got it! She went into great detail about the lesson and what was shown that made sense. We had used money to help her with math problems, and being such a little spendthrift, that was really making sense. However, the basic math applications were still causing her difficulty. The fact that a ten minute lesson helped her comprehend the process of carrying is amazing to me.

I have also been challenged to creatively come up with ways for her to drill simple math problems, such as basic addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Yesterday, I started printing off worksheets with five problems on each row. We timed her on how fast she could correctly complete each row and she had a blast. She was actually asking to do more and finished another 50 problems with Keith after he got home from work. This was much more successful than flashcards. Totally Tut Math Operations Game was another fun tool we used to help her memorize the basics.

I finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. My child is happy and learning the basic skills she requires. It's a good day!