Any 1st or 2nd grade teachers here?

[SCW]

We are homeschooling my son this year and I'm having some doubts about our (my wife and I) teaching technique/curriculum for math. We are both working with him but it just seems he doesn't "get" the concepts some days. We are just working with basic addition and subtraction right now, and my daughter (age 5) is getting it right off, but my 7yr old son has the trouble.

Also, he's a little bit ADD but we try to keep that in check, for what that's worth.

 

[Beej]

Never taught elementary, but if he's slow on the uptake it wouldn't hurt to have him tested for learning disabilities, etc. Early intervention is the key to being undifferentiated from peers at older ages. On the other hand, its useful to recognize that at earlier ages girls tend to pick up complex concepts a little quicker than boys, so this could absolutely be within the realm of 'normal' for both of them.

Abstract concepts in general are difficult for young children to comprehend, not necessarily due to complexity inherent in the subject matter, but rather that they have not yet developed schemas for understanding the world in terms that we often take for granted. Jean Piaget, who practically pioneered the world of Developmental Psychology, was able to prove that young children are able to demonstrate abstract reasoning and logic when methods were demonstrated in terms they understand.

Related to this is the concept of learning styles. They can loosely be broken into three realms: visuo-spatial, auditory and tactile/kinesthetic. Without going into too much detail, each style represents the methods with which the individual learns best. Visual learners tend to need to see something demonstrated to grasp it. Auditory learners need to hear something explained to grasp it. Kinesthetic learners need to feel or 'experience' something to grasp it. Recognition of this is why schools organize curricula to encompass all three in concert. For example, teaching subtraction. First explain (auditory) the concept: you have three apples, when you take away one, how many remain? Then show it to them via diagrams or real fruit (visual), then finally let them physically have three apples and remove one to count the remaining group.

At any rate, testing will eliminate the possibility of a learning problem, or will alert you to it early, so that is probably your best bet early on. Otherwise, just stick to it. Many parents who homeschool run into this kind of problem with their own kids. Some kids just need more time to adjust to this type of supported learning.

Hope this helps...

 

[BSD]

Ditto for what Beej said. Best thinkg you can make use of is a psychometrist to help ID potential problems as well as learning styles. We homeschool our three children (oldest heads off to college next year) and it really vareis from child to child. Our oldest had fabulous reading comprehension yet struggled with math. On teh other hand, our youngest was running circles around my oldest in math at the same age but lagged behind him in reading.

BSD

 

[RichP]

Let me get back to you later, my wife is a elementary ed teacher who works with a variety of kids. If you want shoot me a PM and I'll give you her email and you can ask questions directly...

 

[javajeep]

Just to reiterate what Beej said, you really should get testing done. If there is no problem (and there probably is not), you have wasted nothing and gotten a great deal of peace of mind. If there is a problem (highly doubtful) you can seek out intervention.

In first or second grade, try your best to take the concepts that you are working on and find concrete examples that clearly illustrate them. For example, instead of drawing a piece of pie on a paper, go out and buy your kid's favorite pie or cake. Would you rather have 1/2 or 1/3 of the cake (you may want to use cupcakes). In any case, as Beej said, you need to make the concepts concrete instead of abstract. The ability to get abstract ideas usually develops later in childhood (or early adolescence).

 

[RichP]

Just to reiterate what Beej said, you really should get testing done. If there is no problem (and there probably is not), you have wasted nothing and gotten a great deal of peace of mind. If there is a problem (highly doubtful) you can seek out intervention.

In first or second grade, try your best to take the concepts that you are working on and find concrete examples that clearly illustrate them. For example, instead of drawing a piece of pie on a paper, go out and buy your kid's favorite pie or cake. Would you rather have 1/2 or 1/3 of the cake (you may want to use cupcakes). In any case, as Beej said, you need to make the concepts concrete instead of abstract. The ability to get abstract ideas usually develops later in childhood (or early adolescence).

Way to go, spin em up with sugar just kidding, yea, objects sometimes make alot more sense than paper images. You can use liquids too, less fattening. There are alot of kids that can read like adults, problem is they don't have a clue what they just read, no retention or comprehension.

 

[SCW]

Thanks all. We have had him tested and he's borderline anything. He took a very long time to talk (first words at about 4 1/2) but he now has only slight lingering speech issues. He's also a little behind with physical development and has what is basically low muscle tone and control. Not bad enough to be a problem, but enough that he still can't ride a bike on two wheels, etc.

Academically he is all over the place, and we’ve read a few books on learning disabilities and homeschooling with learning disabilities, but he just doesn’t fit the mold very well on either side. Some days he’ll get stuff right away and other days you can’t convince him that he knows 1 + 1. Actually dragging his butt out in the yard and making him pull weeds while I give him math questions seems to help quite a bit, strange as that seems. Being out of the chair is frequently what works best, but you can only do so much without sitting down to a sheet of paper.

We decided to homeschool after we came back to Utah from New Mexico and we were completely disgusted by the education he was getting here. In NM he really accelerated and seemed to start enjoying to learn new things, in 3 months of Utah education he was regressed back a full year, and they started talking special ed. I’m convinced that would make a retard out of him rather than help.

Rich, I'll send a PM right now- Thanks