Yikes! Math!

[BarefootMom]

I learned cursive in 2nd grade. And by 3rd grade everything had to be in cursive.

I am just surprised that they are even teaching it.

There are several schools across the country that are banning the teaching of cursive writing because it is a skill that is no longer needed. I have read that some school expect a typing efficiency of 45 wpm by the time they reach 4th grade!

 

[mom'sfolly]

Unfortunately, the best way to make simple math automatic is drills. If your kid gets the concept of how to add and subtract, then drilling or flash cards are the best exercise she can do. Schools don't do much drilling anymore. It is boring, parents see the homework as busywork, and it doesn't teach different strategies for doing math. The schools also make kids add by doing groupings...ones, tens, hundreds. This might be good for some children, but for mine, who were good at math, it just slowed them down and frustrated them. Kids need to learn that 5 + 6 always equals 11, the different techniques they teach them are to help them get there. The other teaching technique is fact families...they work kind of like this:

1 + 14 = 15
2 + 13 =15
3+ 12 =15
4 + 9 = 15
5 + 10 =15
6 + 9 = 15
7 + 8= 15

And then they use the doubles rules...8 + 8 = 16, so 8 + 7 = 15. They will also practice counting by different numbers to set up learning multiplication....3,6,9,12,15,18,21,24,27,30,33,36,