What's a good math curriculum for an unmotivated 1st grader?

Question

What's a curriculum that is effective, provides clear directions/instructions, offers practice, and is easy to follow and understand? And that's not overwhelming to the student or teacher?

I've heard that 3 good programs are Singapore, MCP, and the OLD (pre-2004) Saxon books. Are these all designed for "whiz kids", or can they accomodate children that struggle?

My 6 year old daughter can sit perfectly still, and sometimes she shows good comprehension. But a great deal of the time, she has an "I just don't care" attitude toward learning and she literally lets things go in one ear and out the other. All efforts to make lessons more interesting fail. Her answer to almost everything is "I don't know." Which is frustrating, because I know that the few times she seems to try, she comprehends pretty well.

I'm hoping for a curriculum that lays out lessons in easy to understand ways. Do any of you know of one that fits the bill? Thanks!

Answer 1

You've received many great answers, including recommendations for Math-U-See http://www.mathusee.com/, which we also use for our visual/kinesthetic learner.

Knowing your child's learning style is so important.  Here is one website that you might find helpful: http://homeschooling.gomilpitas.com/arti...

One more word of advice: many times children (especially young kids) seem to be unmotivated because they do not understand how the academic subject relates to their lives.  Therefore, do your best to talk about math during the day.  For example, when you are at the grocery store, tell her, "Honey, I put 3 apples in the bag, but I need 2 more."  When she brings the 2 apples, tell her, "Thanks.  How many apples do we have now?"

We also found that playing games was a wonderful way to reinforce math skills.  

All the best.

Answer 2

I would go with whatever is most comfortable for you to teach.  I always thought all kids that age felt that way about school.

Answer 3

Look at learningpage.com.  THey have unit studies that you can prink out that work with math, science, and language in grades preschool through grade 3.  We use this in addition to our curriculm and my girls love it.  THe turn the hallway into a huge mural for each unit.  THeir favorite was the ocean one, where we lines the ceiling and walls with blue saran wrap and made different animal "swimming" in the hallway.  My 6 ft tall husband didn't enjoy it so much, but the girls had a blast learning, even my 4yr gets right in there with my 9 yr old.  Make math fun and she will get motivated. We learned fractions in the kitchen making cookies, use licorice laces and skittles for number lines, m&ms to teach percentages, and fruit for comparisons, oranges make great less than and greater than signs.  Use your imagination.  She may just be creative and bored with everyday bookwork.  Good luck.

Answer 4

I have some suggestions for you.....

-http://www.livingmath.net

Tons of math literature books suggestions. A whole different way of learning math

-online free game http://www.bigbrainz.com/#ScrollStart  My Kindergarden nephew learned his times tables using this game

-Horizons workbooks-Fun , colorful, just enough practice. Spiral approach. Very affordable.

She just may be young and you may want to wait.

Best of Luck!

Jana

http://www.purehomeschooling.com/

Answer 5

Try Math-u-see . I heard most positive reviews about it and I am going to try it too. It is all you described: fun , easy to follow for you&student , very easy to understand .  

Answer 6

BJU is the best.http://cgi.ebay.com/BJU-Bob-Jones-Grade-...

Answer 7

It's hard for us to give recommendations without knowing her learning style and your teaching style.  That is the first place to start.

Also, I have concerns about how you're HS'ing her.  Are you making her "sit still" in a chair at a desk?  That's school at home.  It sounds to me like she's a very kinesthetic child who needs to move, wiggle, bounce, etc.  You need to teach her in kinesthetic, hands-on ways if that is the case.

Math-U-See is good for hands-on and visual types.  She might do well with curricula on the computer, whether a CD-rom, or online curriculum.  Look into K12 for that.  You can purchase just math for her if necessary.

Let her move while learning, or go outside.  Do math drills while swinging, jumping on a trampoline, or bouncing on a large exercise ball.  Let her do math problems with a dry erase marker on a window, sliding door, or mirror.  Spray shaving cream on a large cookie sheet or on a shower wall and do problems that way.  Use a spray bottle with water and spray out answers on the driveway.  Do regrouping with blocks, graphing with M&M's, use sidewalk chalk.  Put sand on a cookie sheet and write problems in it....etc.  Think outside the box and make it FUN.

If she's competitive, she might like doing Calculadder:

http://www.calculadder.com/intro/view_ca...

It's not a curriculum by itself, but is a great add-on.  I love the Master Packs for ease of use.

Answer 8

I would not focus on teaching using a curriculum, I would make sure that I integrated mathematics into as many situations as I could throughout the day.

For example, keep track of how many rainy days there are this month - that's statistics, graphs or charts

Measure rain-fall in a test tube and keep track of it - charting

Your daughter can help you bake - that is weights and measures - have her write down how much you need if you want to double a recipe.

Make clapping and stamping rhythms or have her make up a dance using repetitive steps, and have her teach it to you - patterning and rhythm

Look for patterns in everyday items - brickwork, fences, car tires, wallpaper

When driving, show her when the car window is half down, or three quarters down, talk about money - 100 pennies in a dollar, 50 cents is half a dollar, the window is 50% down.

Math is all around us, just open her eyes and she will see it everywhere.

Answer 9

Over the yrs we have used Saxon, Calvert and Singapore.

Saxon is IMHO too dry and repetitive.

Calvert was very heavy on work sheets. For K, my DD would often have 5-8 worksheets.

Singapore is wonderful. This is our 4th yr using the curriculum.

The first yr was the original edition, now we use the US edition.

This yr they also have a CA edition that is aligned to CA standards.

I have heard that the CA edition will go beyond 6th grade. I am hoping that is the case, because I have yet to find another curriculum that we really like.

Answer 10

  

    I am in the line of teaching for almost 29 years,I have seen why younger ones dont like the work with numbers.It depends on many factors,  1. the parents  a) the mother

                                   b) the father

                                   c) the environment

                                   d)childs' capacity of comprehending

                                       -childs inclination

                                   e)the teachers understanding

                                           the teachers innvoation

                                   f)this type child needs personal,and individual

                                             attention.

             in my opinion it is not hard to make them follow matha-

      matics or any subject.If  I could get hance to teach the child it

    takes few weeks to make them follow and make them learn maths

    and make them learned in very modern approaching way.  

         This is Mr.B.A.Augustien:Email: [e-mail]

         H.N. 1-6-225/a/3,Ramnagar,  Hyderabad.Andhra pradesh,India-500020

Answer 11

I would really go with Math U See...after trying Saxon with my son when he was younger, I wouldn't touch it with a 10 foot pole.  Sheesh, he is a "whiz kid" in math and found it incredibly dry and confusing!

MUS is short, sweet, and easy to work with.  It's also sectioned out by concept, rather than grade level, so it's easy to start with wherever the student happens to be.  

You also may want to consider that she might not be ready yet for formal math instruction...just because the schools do it, doesn't make it right for every child.  Some kids just aren't ready for it until around age 7 or 8, and there's nothing wrong with that.  I've found over the past 5 years of homeschooling (my son is going on 11) that the key to comprehension is often presenting the material at the right time.  I can have him do something until we're both ready to fall down and cry, and he won't remember a thing...but if I wait until he's ready (often a few months or so), he sucks up the info like a sponge and retains it permanently.

Anyway, hope that helps!

Answer 12

Look into Moving with Math http://www.movingwithmath.com/based/hb_o... It'll get her involved by using the manipulatives, everything is laid out for you. I haven't used it because I decided to design my own program, but of all the programs I've looked at, for the early grades, that was my top choice. Math-U-See is also supposed to be very good. Comes with video lessons which can help get any mom-child dynamics out of the way.

Btw, have you checked into a learning styles quiz or inventory? It could be that the style you've adopted for homeschooling isn't meeting her particular style of learning.

Answer 13

With my older daughter (4th grade) we started with Miquon math which she loved.  She's very math minded and did very well with it.  My younger daughter (2nd grade) needed more structure and repitition and so we switched to Math-U-See for both of them.  The older one had moved beyond Miquon so needed a new curriculum anyway.  I highly recommend Math-U-See.  It works well for both of their very different learning styles.

Sometimes, as hard as it may be, you have to take a step back.  Teaching should not be like dragging a donkey.  My oldest had no interest in writing.  I pushed, she cried, and nothing was accomplished.  Finally, I just let it go and focused on other things and focused on lots of drawing and art to strengthen her fine motor skills.  She writes beautifully today but would still rather type than write!  My younger daughter was slow to read.  It wasn't until the end of 1st grade that she finally "got it".  Until then I just let it go and worked on other things.  When she finally got it and was ready, she skipped ahead a couple grade levels in reading.

You can also sneak in math skills.  Using teachable moments is so important in the younger years.  Pizza teaches fractions very efficiently.  We also did some "cooking math" which involved counting, fractions, measurements, etc.  We measured out the length of a dinosaur in our driveway!  We did math problems in the sand at the beach (you could also use dirt at the playground).  They have both helped roll coins.  We did M&M math...3 m's + 3 m's equals how many?  Would you rather have 4+4 M&M's or 6+2?  

What I've learned is that no curriculum works perfectly for every child.  Some work very well, but since children are all different with their own learning styles, the best we can do is pick and choose what works best and adapt from there.

Answer 14

I really like the Oak Meadow curriculum,

http://www.oakmeadow.com/  but as the kids got older, we switched to MCP and have been very happy.  We had Saxon, but it was too dry and dull for us.   With a young child, we introduced math as part of other activities, like cooking, sewing, gardening, etc.  They really like to get to do the measuring, watch the clock, count the beans, etc.  We also play some games using math.  

A lot of learning happens at different times for different children.  My neighbor's home schooled daughter didn't read at all til she was 11, then read Tolkein at 12.  She elected to go to public school for 11th and 12th grades and graduated near the top of her class and is in a great university, doing well.

One of mine really struggled with math for a few years, but is fluent now, and is really interested in computers - has even built a couple from spare parts.  

Good luck and don't push too hard, learning is supposed to be fun for both of you!