1+1=2
I’ve been spending a lot of my thinking energy on mathematics lately; specifically, arithmetic, and the mastery thereof.
Gillian does a great job at understanding the concepts and processes behind a lot of arithmetic, but what she hasn’t yet mastered is the immediate recall. That is, she’s not ‘learned her facts.’
On the one hand, she’s still not even six years old, and pushing her to memorize too quickly isn’t a great plan. On the other hand, though, this lack of knowledge means that’s she slowed on work that should otherwise take her a matter of minutes.
We just purchased a lot of new resources for math. Starting next week on Monday, we’re going to do CaluLadder drills on a daily basis. I’ve purchased some flashcards (just for addition, so far) that we’ll go through on daily basis. We’ve also got learning wrap-ups that she enjoys doing.
What I’m not sure about, though, is whether I should pause in terms of our formal curriculum while she masters the addition and subtraction facts, or if we should continue onwards. If we continue onwards, I think that mastery will likely be achieved around the time we want to introduce addition with carrying and subtraction with borrowing, which seems to dovetail nicely. I considered concentrating on multiplication concepts while we master the addition and subtraction facts, but ultimately, multiplication facts have to be mastered as well… which leaves us back where we started, in a manner of speaking.
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You know, at times like this, I always asked myself THE question: “What was I doing at 5 years old?” I assure you it wasn’t making sure I memorized my addition/subtraction facts in one minute or less
And, I turned out pretty smart
In fact, I was in advanced math, so . . .
Yeah, funny, but I had my multiplication facts memorized at age four and was in advanced math… to each his or her own.
At her age I would just get an addition facts table for her to use to find the answer quickly while she’s working. Math facts and mathematics are completely different and if she is ready and willing to move on conceptually then I wouldn’t want her to be held back because of some memorization.
Sorry if it sounded like I was being facetious. I really wasn’t. It was something that my hubby and I really remind ourselves of . . . to remind us to remember that a childhood only comes once. And that there really is time enough for such things since we came from an era that this type of learning came later and we’re doing pretty well by society’s standards . . . just trying to share a bit of perspective that we employed ourselves, for real.