Timed Math Drills
I don’t know about you, but I hated timed math drills when I was in school. They made me sweat, squirm, and hate life for 5 minutes a day. Math was the one area in school where I didn’t just instantly “get” everything and I hated struggling.
Often, I hear homeschoolers talk about avoiding things like math drills in an effort to make math “meaningful.” I agree that math instruction should apply to real life and be taught in ways that are fun and enriching. We have certainly been known to play lots of math games and use food and manipulatives to keep things interesting.
But, I have decided that Cole will be doing timed math drills this summer. As much as I hated them as a child (loathed, dreaded, avoided)…the truth is that they also happen to be really effective. We both want him to memorize these math facts over the summer. Cole is on board – he wants to be on target with his skills – but he is a nine year old boy, it’s summer, and he wants to maximize play time, too. Timed drills give us both what we want. He wants to spend as little time as possible doing anything related to school work (who am I kidding, me too!) and I want something effective with the ability to see definite progress.
I never thought I would be using these, but here I am. Hopefully, we will see the results we need to see over the next 2.5 months. When he can do 50 problems in three minutes, we will move on to the next set. *fingers crossed*
June 25th, 2009 at 3:21 pm
Hey!!! That’s so funny, cause I’m having the kids do these too!!! I just wrote up and photocopied some pages. I’m going to have them try to beat their own scores, but i think i’m going to alternate days with flashcards, and somehow make that into a game with both kids. Basic facts are the basis for everything math. the kids’ school does “mad minute” where they do as many problems as they can in one minute. they do them daily and try to beat their score each day. But i think i may have them do a whole page and try to beat their time each day. I wonder if there’s really a difference in those two methods.
June 25th, 2009 at 3:37 pm
Hey
My kids FINALLY got their math facts when we used manipulatives. The thing that worked for CJ were “Math Wraps” – I think I gave them to Leah V (but i don’t remember). I had them for addition, multiplication, subtraction and division. You time yourself, check yourself and move on.
I don’t think there is a way to avoid the drilling, but at least manipulatives make it fun.
Oh – you know the “finger trick” for the 9’s in multiplication, right? I’ll show it to you some time if not…
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August 3rd, 2009 at 10:12 pm
I am working on multiplication drills with Ruby as well. She is too slow, imo. I don’t want her moving on to divison unless I am sure that she has her tables memorized.