Weekly Wrap-Up: Math Focus
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It’s Weekly Wrap-Up time! I hope you all had a great week. Ours was fair — nothing bad, but nothing to write home about either. We haven’t done any exciting projects, but have been plugging along with the basics. I am, however, excited about the progress we’ve made with math this week.
I want to thank Marci for mentioning Timez Attack to me last week in response to my request for tips to help Megan practice her times tables. I had been trying to remember the name of that site all week. It’s been perfect. The first day, Megan grumbled about doing it, but by Thursday, she was really excited about it. She was telling me how she had to beat the really big ogre at the end of the first level, in order to get to the next level.
We’ve put aside Megan’s math book for now and are focusing on a couple of weak areas — subtraction with borrowing and the multiplication facts. She’s ahead of where she needs to be in math, if we were looking at age/grade-level, so I’m not at all concerned with taking a break from the book for awhile. I see no sense in moving into division until she’s mastered the multiplication tables.
We’ve found several great resources that we’re using. First, I found a site that offers interactive flash cards. It’s really neat because there are lots of different types to choose from. You can set it to keep score, which we prefer because using that function gives the student 25 flashcards and the percentage of correct answers at the end. I have Megan do two sets of those (we’re focusing on the two’s right now…starting at the beginning). Then, she does a timed drill from these practice sheets that I found. From what I could tell, it should be a five minute drill for 100 problems. My goal is for Megan to be getting at least 90 problems done correctly in five minutes.
After she does those two things, she’s ready for Timez Attack. It’s my plan to keep her flashcard practice and her timed drills in line with what she’s doing on Timez Attack, so, when she moves to the next level of the game (three’s), I’ll move her to three’s on her practice sheets — though I may not move her on the timed drills until she reaches 90% accuracy.
I’m also having her practice subtraction with borrowing using sheets from the Free Math Worksheets site and she and Josh have been practicing their math facts on a site that I’ll be reviewing soon, FactsFirst. I’m really looking forward to writing that review because I’ve really been impressed with the site. It’s only been a week since we’ve been using the Timez Attack/timed drills/practice sheets combo, but I’ve been pleased with the progress so far. I think this combination of practice helps may be just the thing to help Megan in her problem areas.
That’s where our focus has been this week. How was your week? Be sure to post about it and sign up with MckLinky. If this is your first time to join us, be sure to read the Weekly Wrap-Up guidelines.
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Kris Bales is a newly-retired homeschool mom and the quirky, Christ-following, painfully honest founder (and former owner) of Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers. She has a pretty serious addiction to sweet tea and Words with Friends. Kris and her husband of over 30 years are parents to three amazing homeschool grads. They share their home with three dogs, two cats, a ball python, a bearded dragon, and seven birds.
My girls liked Timez Attack as well. However, we only had the free version with the little alien who had to beat the trolls. (I just couldn't let go of the money to buy the full version!) I think it's a wonderful game! We also have a game called "Arithmemouse" – which is like Timez Attack, only your character doesn't get beaten up or "killed" because of a wrong answer. 😉 It's great for younger kids, and a bit less expensive than the full version of Timez Attack. Our 4 y/o really likes it and, although she doesn't know what it all means, she has learned her times tables.
https://www.arithmemouse.com/
Love the online flashcards. I have to bookmark that! Thanks for sharing 😀
@ Mia — We just got the free version of Timez Attack, too. So far the kids are loving it. They were even fighting over whose turn it was to play today.
Wow! You're like magic, you found some great math links!! It's so important to make sure the basics are solid. I wasn't good about that and poor Fox is paying for it now.
YAY! I SO needed to see this! We have been using the Shepherd Software for times tables, and it's getting old and we need some variance; will try the free version and decide if the full version is worth it. THANK YOU!
These are awesome! Thanks! We are working on shoring up the basics while we wait for our new math workbooks to get here. These will be fun!
I remember loving free math worksheets when I was teaching. Timez Attacks sounds interesting.
My mother-in-law helps homeschool one of my nephews, and she has been looking for a way to help him memorize his multiplication facts. Timez Attack looks like it might be a good solution. Thank you for sharing!
You've won a Lemonande Stand Award! Thanks for all the great tips.
Jenny
http://www.bloggingboutboys.blogspot.com
Those online math games are great. I need to get Kathryn doing those again.
I'll check out those math links.
At this point, we have just decided to slow down and not really worry about memorizing, let alone timed tests.