If you know me you know I love to talk about the Robinson Curriculum (RC). Today I wanted to tidy up our homeschool supplies and I while I had my math supplies out ( for my elementary math sequence and materials see my previous post here ), I thought I'd share some math fact resources and strategies we use daily. Any links will be in red. If you end up purchasing through one of the Amazon links I will make a small commission, at no cost to you.
First let's talk about a logistic that I think must come up in RC homeschools. It's having multiple kids learning their math facts and only having one set of flashcards. The solution for us was having a set of flashcards for each student. I just made them with index cards. It took a few afternoons. If you go this route queue up all the Star Trek Next Generation episodes on Amazon and enjoy your new hobby this week. I also learned you can use half as many index cards if you cut them in half hamburger style.
I decided to buy some index card boxes for storage. We place the mastered cards behind a sticky note and keep the practice more cards in the front. I also slipped a timer in there.
How to use the flashcards? I add new sets of math fact cards as they progress through their workbooks so they are constantly reviewing what they've already mastered and learning a new set of facts. We don't move on to the next set of facts until they pass their fact test in their workbooks. If my student is stuck on a certain set of facts I may reprint the worksheets that practice that set so they can keep practicing on paper.
I like to introduce new concepts and skills to them for a day or two and then let them work their more independent daily routines. The kids do flashcard practice with the "wrong and right pile" method each day and work a little in their workbooks or skills packets that I created. That is the essential work but there are some other helpful activities and resources we use as well.
For bonded numbers and addition within ten we also like to use Abacus Flashcards and the game Shut The Box.
I like to let them use an Educational Keyboard or one of their Memory Pyramids to check their workbooks. There are keys in the books but it's nice for them to try different ways of checking. Keyboards can also be fun for math fact practice with the flashcards.
Okay so the kids come to the schoolroom and grab their workbooks and math fact boxes. They grab a stack of cards to work on and sort them into right and wrong. They can just keep looking at the wrong cards or I let them use some of the following strategies. (They don't have to work on their entire wrong pile in one sitting. They can focus on four or five facts and I'm fine with that.) They also could make a wrong pile out of facts they missed on a workbook page or test.
1. Quiz each other with their cards.
2. Mom can quiz them and if they say the wrong answer or "I don't know" Mom says, "calculate" and they calculate on a calculator. I like them to see the correct answer.
3. Make their own set of flashcards. My oldest likes to take his wrong pile and make a new, very colorful and artistic, set of flashcards on his own. He then shuffles those into his original wrong pile and uses them for practice as well. I like to keep the original card in the mix too.
4. Take their wrong pile to the Abacus and calculate it there and then flip it over to see if they got it right.
5. Take their wrong pile to the chalkboard and draw out the problem to see if they can figure it out. They could also do this on paper.
6. Use manipulatives like math cubes to try to work out the problem.
After this they quiz themselves on the flashcards again. If they think they have them memorized they mix them back into the larger pile they began with and have someone quiz them. Then they do a workbook page or two and set their timers for five minutes and I let them pick which facts to study hard for the last of math if they haven't mastered the wrong pile. This all pretty much takes us the two hours but because we change strategies throughout that time it doesn't feel so long. Some days are shorter, of course, but I like to give them the time to really dig into their math facts and try to find for themselves, what strategy for learning works for them.
Math facts are the bedrock of their math education so I don't want to gloss over them and we try to enjoy ourselves while we're at it!
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