How do you help your dc memorize math facts?

[A home for their hearts]

My dd8 is still counting on her fingers for addition and subtraction. We've been doing addition drill for a few months now so I thought she would have them down by now but she doesn't. Any suggestions?

[Trivium Academy]

Math Fact Copywork at Currclick.com for $5, has addition, subtraction and multiplication. It has been a life-saver here! http://www.currclick.com/product_info.php?products_id=16694&it=1

I also keep a number chart on the wall, allow counting on fingers and provide items to count with. The copywork has changed our attitude about math

[Laurie in VA]

Have you seen Calculadders (http://www.calculadder.com/intro/view_calc.htm)? Although my oldest doesn't use it anymore (it was not a good fit for her), I fully intend to use it when DD#2 is ready!

[Quad Shot Academy]

We use Quarter Mile Math and it is great. If my son does not want to do it (it is not all that fun) he can chose to do a drill worksheet of about 40 problems. He has only chosen to do that once or twice. His big problem is that he does not like to loose the race and you have to get faster each time. I finally decided to not have him save his races, so he always wins at least the first few. He has to do 6 races a day on the same topic, but we change topics most days.

http://rainbowresource.com/search.php?sid=1205939473-99019

You can get a free sample CD from the company or Rainbow resource.

I have also heard that Math Blaster is good, but it was not available when I was shopping for a good drill program.

[AllSmiles]

When I first started homeschooling my Mom bought flashcards for math. They were the flashcards that had the problem on the front, and the answer in a corner on the back (and a totally different problem on the back). I found that these flashcards were not effective for drill. Instead, I bought the flashcards from Abeka. They have the full problem on the front and the full problem with the answer on the back. When my kids start memorizing a new fact family I have them use the answer side of the flashcards. I make them say the math fact out loud. This way they correctly see and say the math fact many times before they have to be able to recall it on their own.

[Crissy]

We prefer games over worksheets, and so play with cards and dice often.
Here are a few dice games you might want to try.
My son will play games like these All Day Long, whereas he'd sit still for a drill sheet only when he's forced.

Dice games (http://kidsactivities.suite101.com/article.cfm/math_skill_games_with_dice)

[hwfquilts]

What haven't we done? I used to say that my son had a teflon brain when it came to math facts - they just slipped right off the surface... Thankfully, after a couple years, they began to stick.

We have done flashcards - homemade from index cards as well as "boughten" ones. Mostly I would administer these, as his attention span back in 2nd and 3rd grade was minimal and if he'd done them himself it would have taken all day.

We did QuarterMile Math. This went well for a while, then he became bored with it. It was worth doing, though, and I think he benefited from it.

What we've done most is just drill sheets. They are no fun, but that's what has made it stick for him (he learns well what he writes down). I have used Math Fact Cafe to print free sheets - mathfactcafe.com (http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/mathfactcafe.com) - and these were good. I've also used Calculadders, although they are designed to progress through, rather than be repeated. The sheets I've used most are two pages of 80 problems per operation, so I just copy these over and over and he does one per day, even now in 5th grade.

Hope this helps!
Heather

[Beth in Central TX]

Vicki (aka vmsurbat) made an excellent reply (#3 in the post) about flashcard technique here: http://67.202.21.157/forums/showthread.php?t=6436 It really helped flashcard time with my 5-year old.

[ArwenA]

Lots of games, flashcards, books, manipulative's etc... If your looking for math resources I have enough to start a business! Just come on over.

[Adrianne]

We prefer games over worksheets, and so play with cards and dice often.
Here are a few dice games you might want to try.
My son will play games like these All Day Long, whereas he'd sit still for a drill sheet only when he's forced.

We are game people here also. We tried worksheets and flashcards but none of them worked. They only produced a lot of crying with minimal to no results. My boys are not into worksheets.

Dice games work well for add and sub. We also have Mighty Math Zoo millions that the kids enjoy. For mult tables we are using Timez Attack a free computer game.

I do not let me kids play the computer or watch very much TV. At first I resisted but these programs work very well and the kids enjoy them. On this one I had to bite the bullet.

[Part-Time Homeschooler]

We use ABeka flash cards and the Straight Forward Math Series by Garlic Press -- they have worked wonders for ds7!

[whitestavern]

Another vote for games here, especially card games. You can find a bunch online. We like War but instead of one card you put down two, add them together and whoever has the highest total wins. Peggy Kaye has a great book called Games for Math which has lots of ideas. My daughter was still using her fingers a lot, but now she's at the point where she rarely does. We've been doing lots of games for about 4-6 months. I also do a lot of oral drilling when we're in the car or having snack, etc.

[lighthouseacademy]

Another vote for games. We use Right Start math which focuses on mental math and NOT counting on fingers. Dr. Cotter, who wrote the book is adamant that the way to mastery is not through rote memorization, endless worksheets and flashcards but through understanding and games- which means practice. My barely 6 yr old is just finishing the 1st grade book (B) and moving into C. He was adding into the millions last week. Also, before he learned to add into the millions on paper, he learned to add large numbers in his head through strategies. He adds 46 and 35 and can explain that 46 is one more than 45 so 45 and 35 is 80 add one more and you have 81. I think he knows his facts :)

[dfrecore]

My dd5 is definitely NOT a fast memorizer. It takes her AGES to get ANYTHING memorized. Frustrating for those of us who are good memorizers ("how in the world can she NOT know this, we've done it 1000 times already!" has gone through my head more than a few times!).

I've tried everything to help her (flashcards, drills, games, songs), but finally backed off when I realized that she DID memorize things, it just took TIME!

I realize now that we're trying to learn our addition facts that she did finally learn her skip counting (2's, 5's and 10's). She did it 100% by repetition. She had it in MUS Primer, and now she has it again in Alpha. And, when we did it recently, she whipped right through her 10's. But, I will tell you that it seemed to take FOREVER to get to that point. The only thing that helped me to get through that was to realize that I don't have to do anything special to help her. I just have to give her a little bit of it every single day.

I've also found the same thing with sight words. I introduce them, we read stories with them, we have a list on the wall, I repeat "that's the sight word 'the' " about a million times as we read. But, I don't quiz her on them, we don't focus on that, and over the last 7 months, she's learned 20 out of 25 - without my doing ANYTHING except having her see them on a regular basis in her reading. I guess it just takes time for things to "click" with her. She needs to see/hear it 1000 times, as opposed to some kids who only need to see/hear it 100 times (or my ds4, who only needs to see it 3 times!).

Oh yeah - and once she learns something, I go back and review it periodically to make sure it's still "there" somewhere in her brain. So far, it has been!:thumbup:

Good luck!
Danika