MUS Alpha lesson eight, advice please

[Karen FL]

Solving for the Unknown
DS who will be seven in January does not grasp this lesson. We did move on to lesson nine which is the plus nine facts.
He has no problems with math facts so far.
This is a boy who loves Math and asks for extra Math sheets.
Once we got to the review page in lesson nine, he got the solve for the unknown problems wrong.
He loves Math and likes to do extra Math work. I made an extra page of a "Solve for the Unknown" worksheet for him and he scored 75%.
Should I move on or work with him on this concept until he gets it?
I remember Mr. Demme saying not to move on until the child can teach the lesson to you.
But I think I also recall him saying in Primer not to worry about the "Solve for the Unknown" concept as long as the child can figure it out with the blocks.
DS can figure out these problems with the blocks.
DS, however, cannot figure out what to do with the Solve for the Unknown word problems at all. And the poor thing wept when I told him that zero could be an answer in the solve for the unknown problems.
I see that Mr. Demme has a couple of "Solve for the Unknown" word games that I'll probaby try.
What say ye?

~Karen~

[kim in ks]

we did alpha last year, and my 7 yos loves math also. BUT he also get's hung up on these 6 + ? = 10 and he usually puts 16? unless I remind him how to work it w/ the blocks. THen he gets them, but he always wants to add the 2 numbers he says together. Now to answer your question , whether to move on, I finally did, but would make up a couple of these a day for him to do w/ the blocks, and most of the time now, he remembers the correct way to get the answer, we are in the Beta book lesson 9. Practice, Practice , Practice!
kim

[Hen Jen]

I am doing Alpha with my dd age 6 - she is a go-getter and loves doing math. She didn't get the unknown either...I just kept working with her, pretty much leading her through the problems using the blocks, she kept adding the addend and sum. I kept moving along with the lessons, the problems pop up in each chapter so we keep trying. We are just finishing up chapter 15 and just a few days ago she was finally able to solve for the unknown totally on her own. I think it would have been too frustrating to try to make her understand it before she was ready.

[Marie in Oh]

we pressed on with the next lessons, finsihed the book, etc, with nary an understanding of the solve for the unknown concept. Picked up Beta, it clicked. Hmmmm.. I think it is a maturity thing and I wouldn't worry. I'd keep going.

On a side note, my 5 yo started doing those two days ago and she gets it. I don't think any of my others got it at that age. Maybe she'll be our math girl.

Keep on pressing on!

[Linda]

I agree with Marie.

We moved on even though the "solve for the unknown" problems weren't mastered. Sometimes I'll ask ds7 questions to help him figure it out.

For example: 5 + X = 8.
He'll say he doesn't know.
I'll ask him what he does know. "Is 5 + 1 the same as 8?"
"Nooooo."
"How about 5 + 4?"
"No. That's 9."
Then I"ll gently remind him that he has enough information to come up with the right answer.

He's gotten much better with them over the past few weeks (as compared to a few months ago). Keep practicing. Drill those facts. Move on.

[Holly IN]

we pressed on with the next lessons, finsihed the book, etc, with nary an understanding of the solve for the unknown concept. Picked up Beta, it clicked. Hmmmm.. I think it is a maturity thing and I wouldn't worry. I'd keep going.

On a side note, my 5 yo started doing those two days ago and she gets it. I don't think any of my others got it at that age. Maybe she'll be our math girl.

Keep on pressing on!

I agree. That is what we did. We went on to the next lessons.

Holly

[Cadam]

In the teacher's book it describes a little game that helped dd a great deal. I set up the blocks, say, a 2 block, 3 block and 5 block with the 3 covered with a small bowl. Then I pointed to each thing saying "2 plus what equals 5?" and she had to figure out what was under the bowl. I taught her to "count up" from the 2 to the 5 to find out what was "between them".


We did this over and over and over and over but she had fun.

[Karen FL]

Thank you, everyone.
We will keep moving on.

[mom2mea]

I think it is a good idea to move on too. I let dd use the blocks if she needs them when solving for the unknown.

[Quad Shot Academy]

I am surprised by the answers to just move on! I thought one of the main points of MUS was learning the subtraction after the addition because they are just inverse operations. That way they are really learning one set of math facts, then filling in the blanks for the second set. if you know 8+3=11, and that 3+?=11, then you know that 11-3=8.

My kids have had to spend almost no time on subtraction and division because they understood that they were just doing missing numeral equations. Otherwise, they would be memorizing four separate sets of math facts.

I would do a few oral and written problems a day until right before the subtraction facts are introduced, then I would focus on it until they get it.

[Cadam]

Thank you, everyone.
We will keep moving on.

I would be careful not to move tot he next book until this is mastered though.

[dwkilburn1]

It took my DD a while to get it, but we did move on initially. Once we got to subtraction it clicked that she was just subtracting the known numbers to find the unknown. Once we did that for a few days it finally made sense that each side of the equation had to be the same and she simply had to find the missing numbers. Some minds just don't get math well; she gets that from me *sigh*.

By the end of the year it will probably be easier for y'all, but dwelling on it may make him lose confidence if he truly is not ready to learn it.