to the rescue

After my post of frustration about bad attitudes and all, some friends have come to the rescue with some alternates to our current math "program."

We've been doing the workbook version of math and really, Sunny doesn't like to sit at the table and work in a book. It's "boring" to be given a certain page to finish before she can get up, and she gets really belligerent about it. She does workbooks on her own for fun sometimes, but on her own terms. She doesn't focus on one page and work through everything on it. She skips around through the book and does whatever catches her attention. In fact, I've flipped ahead in her current math book and found random sections that she's already done.

I've been thinking about things since writing that, and really - does math need to be learned from a repetitive workbook? I went with a workbook because I had no clue how to teach it any other way. Some things in math, like learning the addition tables, do need to have at least some repetition to get the memorization down. But beyond that, I was at a loss and sinking fast.

This is what has been suggested to mix things up and make math more interesting, less of a chore, and actually learn it:

IXL website - "I excel." Get it? It has sections from pre-K all the way through algebra, and reports are that they're working on high school level math. It tracks the kid's time spent on the website, problems they worked on in which section, skill level, etc. The family subscription is 80 bucks for a year for the first kid, and $20 for each additional child. I put 3 kids on it, so it cost me $120. I'm okay with that. There's one login for the entire family, but each kid has their own section within the account so they get their own reports. I like it.

So far, Sunny works on it for about 15 minutes every couple of days. It's not a computer GAME - it's actual math problems, but it's on the computer so she's more cooperative about the repetitive practice. Posy likes the shapes and directions (left, right, etc) and things like that - she's doing the pre-K section to start. She's also learning to use the computer mouse while she's at it. Birdie, who just turned 2 a couple of weeks ago, thinks it's GREAT! I sit with her and we count to 5 and identify circles and triangles. Too fun!

love2learn2day - a math blog with games, games and more games. Sunny LOVES games. This page has a list of games, instead of having to skim through the blog posts.

Family Math - a friend loaned me this book. I've only skimmed it so far but there are already a few games that have jumped out at me as interesting things to try. If we really like them, I'll bump the book to the top of my Amazon list.

We haven't done anything yet with the math blog or the game book, but they look promising. I'll report back later.