posted
I am currently working as a teacher's aide in a kindergarten classroom, and I am constantly amazed at how much these kids can do. For example, the other day, one of the little boys was refusing to do his math fact sheet. So I knelt down beside him to try and help talk him through it. Our conversation went as follows:
Me: "Do you remember what 8+4 is?" Him: "No." Me: "How could we figure it out?" (I am expecting him to say something along the lines of "I'll hold up 8 fingers and you hold up 4 fingers") Him: "Well, 6+5 is 11, plus 2 is 13, minus 1 is 12. So it has to be 12."
Posts: 364 | Registered: Dec 2005
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posted
I know from experience, being the oldest sibling, that children have some unusual memory tricks. They are willing to make associations and mnenonics that make sense to their not-fully-developed thinking processes. If they are encouraged to use multiple lines of thinking and memory tricks throughout childhood and adolescence, critical thinking skills develop very well.
I am always amazed at what the 2, 5, and 7-year-olds in my family know and remember. The 2 year old knows his body parts and can speak in full sentences, and the 5 and 7 year-olds, both girls, are proficient storytellers and quite good at math.
It sounds like the child in your class will be able to learn many ways to remember things. He is probably a very smart boy.
Posts: 684 | Registered: Jun 2002
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posted
I do math like that. I always have. I was fortunate that I learned to do math "by the rules" so I could show my work, but man, I was a crappy tutor. If they weren't already getting it "by the rules" I didn't know what to offer aside from my own roundabout methods, which were invariably met with a blank stare.
"Right Brained Children in a Left-Brained World" is a great book which talks about this. Kids with ADD often do math like this, and have a hard time learning the "by the rules" way, which gets them into trouble because they can't show their steps. Their out of the box thinking can be a real boon, if it's allowed to be.
posted
My pre-K daughter (started when she was 4 now 5) can answer many math questions. She can write her first AND last name. Knows all her letters and numbers. Can easily count to 39 (fourty gets her). I am amazed by what she learned in just 2 1/2 hours a day.
Posts: 1766 | Registered: Feb 2006
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posted
You do have to consider that the may have been rather fed up with the monotony of memorizing math facts. When I was that age, I didn't have a lot of tolerance for what I considered busy work. (I still don't handle it well, but I'm better at judging what is busy work.)
What surprises me most is that there is a kindergarten class doing math facts. In my area, the math curriculum has gone far softer than I thought possible. What planet are you on?
Posts: 145 | Registered: Apr 2007
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I'm in a charter school started specifically because parents were concerned that the math curriculum had gone too soft. :-) And I agree, this particular kid is probably just fed up with the monotony of memorizing facts. He's one of the ones who can see the connections and patterns in numbers, and he really enjoys the regular worksheets, but he can't seem to stand the fact sheets.
Posts: 364 | Registered: Dec 2005
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posted
I used to get in trouble in HS Geometry, because all my proofs used really odd, roundabout steps. They made perfect sense to me.
Posts: 3950 | Registered: Mar 2006
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