I’m truly overwhelmed and humbled by the many responses I’ve received in the comments and through email to my S.O.S. post about math. Thank you! It is great to see the possibilities through so many different eyes and we’ll be using some of the ideas in the near future.
Today after a chat with Makayla I found that one of the hardest things to her is simply staying focused on math when there are things going on around her with the other family members. It might be someone talking, playing, or even just walking past her that draws her attention. It really didn’t surprise me too much, she’s a lot like her daddy in this area. We decided to try an experiment. For the next week or two she’s going to test out new places/ways to do her math.
Day 1 (today) found her upstairs in her bedroom with a fan turned up for white noise, curtains shut, and earplugs in. Her worksheet was on a clipboard, she had the Math U See blocks available, and if she needed help on a problem she was to go on and do the rest before we worked together on trouble problems. The other children stayed downstairs working with mommy on their own math, reading, and other activities.
How did it go?
It went pretty well, actually. She completed the work and only made three mistakes, all of which she was able to look at the problem and tell me where she went wrong without any hints. She was still cheerful by the end of math. In Makayla’s words, “It really helped to not have all the noise around me. I like doing math there.” The one thing she didn’t like is the earplugs, which ‘felt too big’. She used them about half the time today. I need to see if they make some for children so they fit better for her, as blocking the noise seems to be important for her.
It looks like we’ve found a good place to do math, now our focus is going to switch to finding the best setup in her room. She’ll try working on her bed, on the floor, and we’ll move a desk upstairs to try as well. She has climate control with her fans and blankets so she feels comfortable temperature-wise. There is a bathroom just outside her door. She can even stand and do math at her dresser if she wants to.
There are more changes in the works in an effort to make math more enjoyable, which I’ll share after we try them.
5 comments:
Glad moving her location helped. I almost replied this morning to your post and then saw all the comments you already had. We have math struggles too and I think many of them stem from distractions. The other frustrations come from actually having to *think*. Most subjects come easy for her. It's not that she doesn't know how to do the math, she just has to use her brain...lol! Good luck and I hope things get easier!
That's so great! She's so smart. I knew Makayla would find her own solution!
That's great! I didn't even think of that. Alexis is the EXACT same way. She always takes her math and runs upstairs and goes into one of the bedrooms, (doesn't really matter which one), and she closes the door and does it there. If she's downstairs it takes her much longer and she loses concentration. Hopefully that will do the trick! :)
Thats FANTASTIC!!! Kyle has a problem with that from his Auditory Processing Disorder, we have to make sure that he has nothing to draw his attention away from his work. His desk faces the wall and sometimes he will wear my headset we use at the computer. This seems to really help him, We started all his changes to routine and room in Feb after his diagnosis and its been a huge help in keeping him on track!!! Can't wait to hear another update!! XOXO
I don't know if this will be helpful or even apply to your situation, but a couple of things I find work really well with my girls when they are struggling with the same thing is
1) Schedule. If we get off our morning schedule or start late they struggle so much. They do wonderfully when we are up on time, exercise and start bright and early. Math is always the first thing we do.
2)Sleep. If my girls do not get enough sleep I am usually looking at math taking 3 times as long to get done.
3)Lack of interruptions. They will have those with their siblings for sure, but what really throws them off is if I get on the phone or head into another room for an extended period of time to do another household project. It's a pain in the butt, but if I am present and accounted for my kids do SOOOO much better! So I have organized my schedule to do that.
4)They know that nothing else happens until their school work is done, however I do have a time limit for math and when that time is up we move on to the next subject and so on and so forth. When all the subjects have been taught and our school day is done they go back to the subjects they didn't get finished and do them then. (usually only math) I don't know why, but it doesn't take them long to get it done at that point. It's amazing! The only time they take FOREVER is when I'm distracted and don't move us on at the end of our allotted time. When I do, it works like a charm! Sticking to the there is no free time until work is done has helped motivate them as well. When Charity has had several on days, which means I'M making sure the things above are happening, I will start hearing things like, "Mom, I love math." When usually it's the tears and I hate it. It makes all the difference for us.
Hope something in all of that was helpful. That is what I have found works for us.
Jen
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