Need help teaching 8 year old simple math?

Question

My niece has had a lot of family trouble this year (parents divorcing&mother w/ drug problem) and her grades took a real drop, esp. in math. She is being held back and she wanted me to help her. She can count by tens but when I introduce a number in the ones place it throws her off. Like 11+10=21, 21+10=31, and so on. I have gone through it with her a million times and it doesn't click. I try not to get frustrated but it's really hard. I am not a teacher and I have done my best at trying to present this in different ways (with money, legos, on paper). that might make it easy for her to understand. . but she is always either way over thinking it or not trying at all. She is a smart kid, she can read and write well . . . she just has a block against math. I need advice, I want to help her . . . but not sure how to go about it. She says her teacher would get mad at her for not getting it . . people like that don't need to be teaching.

Answer 1

there are some really good sites that have games and activities that can help her to learn in a fun way.

Answer 2

Since you think she might not be trying at all, perhaps her teacher suspected the same thing.  That could explain a teacher "getting mad", though most likely that's an 8 year old's interpretation of a teacher who's frustrated that the child is not getting it and that the teacher doesn't have enough time to give her all the one-on-one time she needs to get it.

Anyway, the advice on using a 100's chart is great.

I taught my children to "skip count" by first making a poster.  For tens, I drew circles onto a piece of poster board and then they counted out 10 grains of rice and glued them into the first circle.  We counted them and labelled the circle "10."  Then we counted out 10 more grains of rice, glued them into the next circle, counted all the rice so far, and labelled the 2nd circle with the total "20."  And so on.  We took a couple of weeks to make the poster, but eventually had 50 circles, counting by 10s up to 500.  

After that, we'd practice using it daily.  Eventually, the children could easily count by 10s and understood the process.

Anyway, I'd suggest making a chart like that, to make sure that she really understands the idea of counting by 10s.  I'd use a hundreds chart and practice counting by 10s starting with any number (and let her first try looking at the chart and actually count out 1, 2, 3, .... 10 to find the next number, then count again to find the next number, etc.; I'd have her write the number that she started with and each number after that, so that she can see the numbers.)  I wouldn't try to show her the shortcut for a while, let her do it the long way until she gets really good at it.

Once she gets really good at using the hundreds chart to count by tens starting with any number, she may realize the pattern of simply changing the tens' digit.  If she doesn't figure it out on her own, eventually bring out her past practice and have her look at all the ones she's done previously and at the tens chart and see if you can get her to figure out that you are always dropping down to the number below the current one, and then to see that the number below the current one has the same final digit, but a different tens' digit.

Keep practicing the skill.  Let her do it the original way, of counting to find the next number, if she wants, but gently remind her of the shortcut and how much easier it is.  She'll eventually get it.  But it may take a lot of practice.  And eventually she'll be able to do it without the hundreds chart, but let her use it until she doesn't need it any more.

I've found that most kids who have "a block against math" haven't been given enough practice and time to build a solid foundation, or they've been convinced that they are too dumb to learn math, or both.  So, keep working on math with her.  Work on stuff that seems a bit simple, to help reinforce the basics and to build her confidence.  Work on stuff that's a bit harder to help stretch her ability.  Using objects is good.  Try other ways, too, to make it fun.  Using stickers to do the math, or as rewards for problems done right helps.  Get some fun math videos, such as "Multiplication Rock".  Try doing her practice in different ways, such as on the sidewalk with sidewalk chalk (or with a paint brush and water), or with markers on a markerboard (or markers on paper), or with paint on paper, or with colored pencils, or with colored paper, or with a stick in the sand at the beach, or whatever you can think of--most kids will see this kind of variety as making it more fun.  

Get her to keep practicing and she'll eventually get it.  That she's asking for your help is a good sign, though don't be surprised if it takes longer than you think it ought because of the trauma she's been dealing with--her mind may be elsewhere a lot of the time and she may need to talk out her family problems more in order to be able to get her mind back onto school work....

Answer 3

Math U See! My daughter was having trouble with subtraction concepts. This program really helped her to visualize the problems. The lessons are really short and on DVD. She watches the lesson then does a few sheets by herself. Once she has the concept she can move on. He is really big with place value and makes it fun for the kids to learn.

Take a look and order the free DVD from http://www.mathusee.com

Answer 4

Does she like computer games?

If yes, check out mathBlaster.  It is a fun game and IMO helps kids learn math.

Answer 5

Skip counting is good, but as another poster said, it doesn't necessarily build understanding.

Try a 100's chart.  It's just a grid with 1-10 on the first row, 11-20 on the second row, 21-30 on the third row, and so on.  You can make one of these yourself using a word processor with the "Table" function to create the grid, then print it out and put it in a sheet protector.  Then you can use it for lots of skip countings -- obviously, counting by 10's is the entire right column.  Count by 2's, 3's, 5's at first -- circle each number as you count it, with a wet-erase marker (vis-a-vis is one brand of these, they're for writing on overhead projector films and work better than dry-erase markers on this type plastic -- erase promptly).  When she's got this "down" try having her count by 3's but starting with say 5 -- 5, 8, 11, 14, and so on.  Count by 5's but start with 4 -- 4, 9, 14, 19, etc.  Count by 10's but start with 7 -- 7, 17, 27 and so on.  She's just adding quickly in her head.  Work up to counting 12's -- dozens of eggs, for example.  Try counting by 25's to 300, by 50's to 1000, by 100's to 3000.  It's amazing how this little "game" can build math understanding.

Don't play the game for too long or she could get frustrated or bored.  Better just a few at a time.

Answer 6

You say "she can count by tens". It may be that she can regurgitate counting by tens but does not understand the concept that only 0-9 'fit' in the 'units' position and that the 10's position is created by the regrouping of the 1's. Try this web page: http://nlvm.usu.edu/en/nav/frames_asid_1...

The 'create a problem' tool will help her practice. The parent/teacher section will give you the vocabulary you need to help her.