The 3 Rs: Arithmetic

I started a post on kindergarten math months ago. Since then I have started and deleted at least three more posts on the topic. It's a snarly subject. Kara has purchased at least three kindergarten math curriculums and four or more math curriculums in higher grades. With all those resources plus the Internet you'd think I'd be able to find something I like, but I haven't. The curriculum I tried with Bentley last year we sold because it wasn't very good. (I had picked that curriculum, but it didn't impress me when I used it.) I've tried two different ones with Jake and Viva this year and I don't like them any better.

How hard can it be to teach kindergarten math? If you stick to standard public school kindergarten math topics, it's easy. Count to 10. Show you know how many seven objects are. Identify a circle, square, rectangle, and triangle. Differentiate between one o'clock, two o'clock, and three o'clock. And the list goes on in this manner. Kindergarten math is way too basic, too simple, too boring. 

Jake and Viva are way beyond kindergarten math. Jake can write and read numbers to 1,000. He can add and subtract in his head. He can easily do two digit addition and subtraction. He understands and does carrying. Sometimes Viva struggles with identifying the numbers 11-19 and reading two digit numbers (29 becomes 92), but she, too, can add and subtract two digit numbers using the abacus for larger sums like 7+9. Most days she can do carrying. 

Both Jake and Viva can tell time...some of the time! Telling time is actually quite complicated. You have to read the little (hour) hand first using the big numbers on the clock. Then you have to read the minute (long) hand by counting by fives. At 2:57 the hour hand will point at the 3, but you still say 2. (Unless of course you want to say 3 minutes till three!) When the minute hand points at the twelve we say o'clock, not 0 or 60. If the minute hand points to the 1, it's four-oh-five, not four five even though it's four ten and four fifteen. It's complicated! (We moved the clock with Roman numerals on it to the office and got a clock with regular numbers!)

Jake knows the basic coins. Viva doesn't consistently know them. (Bentley struggled with coins last year. Young children do not see or use coins in their daily life.)  We play games with coins. We discussed how the dollar sign goes before the numbers, but the cent sign goes after. Dimes are smaller than pennies and nickels, but are worth more. A dollar and two quarters add up to $1.50, not $1.5. (We haven't studied decimals yet, but here we are using them.)

We practice saying the word sphere  because it's very hard for five year olds to pronounce. We talk about hexagons, octagons, and quadrilaterals. Jake and Viva play with tangrams and pattern blocks. They use the abacus. We draw graphs. They measure rice in half, quarter and third cups. We sort beads into bags of 10 and then put 10 bags of 10 into 100 bags. We read math story books.

The twins did pages in a workbook which I liked for its number writing practice. It's important to learn to write numbers neatly and efficiently. Working in a workbook gave the twins practice reading and interpreting written directions. Unfortunately some of the problems in the workbook were confusing, so we quit using the workbooks now that the twins can write their numbers correctly.

Kara has an online math program she subscribes to. Bentley did all of the kindergarten level math last year. Jake and Viva did a few lessons with it last week. One of the lessons (Venn diagrams) was interesting, but the other two (top, middle, bottom and inside vs outside) were feeble. I'll have to search out the good lessons and let the twins skip the lame ones.

Well, that's my review of what Jake, Viva and I have been doing for math this past semester. I'm still pondering what we'll work on this semester. Maybe it's time for Viva to nail down her addition and subtraction facts. Jake is probably ready to learn the times tables. 

Bentley is working on memorizing the times tables. Last semester he finished the Teaching Textbooks third grade course. He did it on the computer. Kara says the Teaching Textbook curriculum is not as rigorous as Saxon Math or Singapore Math, but that's okay. B liked the Teaching Textbook program and was able to do it on his own for the most part. Kara had to supervise and help him out if he got stuck. He's a perfectionist and when he misses a problem he gets upset. We have to tell him to chill out. Everyone misses a few problems when they are learning--that's why they are called practice problems. He's now working on the fourth grade level and working on learning his times tables. He'll finish the fourth grade level in a month or so and later this spring we will give him a very challenging third grade math course put out by the Joy of Problem Solving math site. I'm excited to see how he likes that course--finally some fun math!