Math help needed

[OnTheBrink]

I posted this in the accelerated board, too.

My dd has been doing math a grade level ahead. This year has been hard; actually this and last year have been hard because Miquon ended and I've had a hard time finding something similar. She does NOT do well with traditional textbooks. She can't handle visual clutter on the page and a page of equations pushes her over the edge, even though she can do them successfully. We've done Making Math Meaningful, Rod and Staff, Miquon and some Singapore. The only math that was successful with her was Miquon and to this day, she laments over it's loss! I just had her do the placement test for Developmental math and I found several mistakes on the placement test itself, which makes me nervous about buying the program.

Suggestions? She'll be doing 6th grade math in the fall.

[yslek]

What about the Key to... series? I think they are written by the husband of the Miquon series author.

Kelsy

[8FillTheHeart]

Does your dd have a disability that prevents her from dealing with the presentation of a normal textbook? I am asking b/c the older she gets, unless you go with a series like MUS (which I would definitely not recommend for someone who is advanced in math), more and more info is going to be on each page, especially high school.

Also, what is it about a page of problems that pushes over the edge?

[MIch elle]

Christian Light Math is 10 workbooks/grade. Join the CLE yahoo group (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/christianlightfamilies/) to see samples.

[OnTheBrink]

Does your dd have a disability that prevents her from dealing with the presentation of a normal textbook? I am asking b/c the older she gets, unless you go with a series like MUS (which I would definitely not recommend for someone who is advanced in math), more and more info is going to be on each page, especially high school.

Also, what is it about a page of problems that pushes over the edge?

It just overwhelms her. If I sit down and go over each equation verbally, she gets it right off. If I say, "Do this page" she flips if there are more than, say, 10 problems.

[8FillTheHeart]

Well, I really think part of what you should probably do is help her learn how to adapt to the book (unless their is some sort of learning disability which you didn't share)

Typical 6th grade math books are going to have about 30 varied problems of some sort. Is there a way that you could help her adapt in a non-threatening way? Perhaps starting off with something like very simple calculadder sheets (meant for kids to finish in approx 2 mins but are a full page of problems)

Or use a textbook for a while behind grade level so that she doesn't feel overwhelmed and threatened?

I guess my ultimate concern would be more about her inability to adapt later on than actual math progression at this point.

[OnTheBrink]

Well, I really think part of what you should probably do is help her learn how to adapt to the book (unless their is some sort of learning disability which you didn't share)

Typical 6th grade math books are going to have about 30 varied problems of some sort. Is there a way that you could help her adapt in a non-threatening way? Perhaps starting off with something like very simple calculadder sheets (meant for kids to finish in approx 2 mins but are a full page of problems)

Or use a textbook for a while behind grade level so that she doesn't feel overwhelmed and threatened?

I guess my ultimate concern would be more about her inability to adapt later on than actual math progression at this point.

You make a good point about textbooks in later years. I hadn't considered that. She doesn't have any learning disabilities that I know of. She's a grade level ahead in math and English, although I'm thinking that she's starting to catch up with herself on math. I looked at MUS but I'm not really swayed by it. I actually prefer (myself, anyway) a skill-upon-skill math over a traditional text, but that's for content and mastery reasons, not visual ones.

I'll keep working with her and see if we can overcome her aversion to these cluttered pages.