Learning the Facts

Just the facts, Ma'am!  I can picture a policeman on a tv show from the 1950s saying that to a woman in an a-line dress at the front door with a pad of paper in his hands.

If it were only so easy!  Knowing the facts, that is.

As a kid, the kinds of facts I learned were my math facts.  I don't remember ever having a hard time learning them.  I just learned them.  I can't remember not knowing them.  I also don't remember my mom quizzing me on them.  At times, I've wondered if my teachers all just gave us a magic pill that gave us the gift of knowing our math facts.  No, not really.  I know they didn't really do that.  But, I do wonder how I learned them.

For my kids, learning there math facts has not been easy.  My children are all much more language oriented than number oriented.  As a result, I have been on a quest for several years seeking keys to help unlock this box of knowledge for my kids so that they could acquire and use their math facts easily.  I've found a few helpful resources over the years.

The first tool I found was xtramath.org.  This was the key that helped my oldest daughter memorize and learn all of her facts for addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.  It worked very well for her.

But, it wasn't the cureall that I hoped it would be for my younger two children.  I modified the program and used the 6 second timed program with my middle daughter for addition and subtraction. But, her frustration level with the math facts led her to procrastinate and daydream when she was using the program so I knew I needed to switch gears with her.

I began using paper sheets of facts.  She completed half a page a day.  The more she used the facts the easier they became for her to recall.  Time and repetition has helped.  But, there were still a few facts that wouldn't stick.  So, I began searching again for another helper!

I found that helper in a book by Susan Greenwald, Five Times Five Is Not Ten.  This book shares tricks on how to learn the multiplication facts up to 9s.  At the beginning of the book, the author has

included directions on how to use the book and there is a baseline sheet to record what a child has learned.  I appreciate that the book is reproducible for the individual who owns the book so that I can recopy sheets for each of my children and I don't have to buy a second book.  What I found was that my daughter knew many of the facts in the book automatically, but that I could use the pages I needed for the facts that she needed a little extra help with.  I like how the pages are formatted.  Students have enough room to write the answer by each fact and there isn't any distracting froofiness.  This book has been very helpful!

In the case of my son, Ms. Greenwald's book Two Plus Two Is Not Five, has been helpful to him.  The book is structured the same as the multiplication fact book with directions at the front and a

baseline sheet at the back.  It is also reproducible (very important to me!).  Before I used this book, I had been using subtraction fact sheets from a free online site.  But, what I found was that the facts were added in too quickly.  My son needed more practice and reinforcement.  My son is making progress and I can see that his addition facts are coming along.  This book's worksheets are giving him that.  He doesn't have to use the tricks if he can memorize the facts for a given number easily, but if he needs the tricks--they're there.

A child doesn't have to learn all of the tricks.  The tricks are helpful if a fact (or group of facts) aren't sticking.  It's like looking at a wall that you can't climb straight over.  You need to get around, so you start looking around for another way.  A few feet away you see big rock near the base of the wall that you can step onto and use to boost yourself up and climb over the wall.  That's the role of these tricks--to be that little extra boost your child needs to get over the wall when needed.

In connection with the books that Ms. Greenwald has put together to help children master their facts, she has also compiled a book of worksheets to work on addition and subtraction with regrouping (and without), Addition and Subtraction:  Beyond Math Facts.  My son is working on regrouping with

three digit subtraction in his second grade math book.  It's challenging for him, but I can see that he understands it.  When we finish his second grade math book in a few weeks, I'm going to take some time to give him some extra practice with 3 digit regrouping before we move on.  These worksheets will be perfect for him for several reasons.  First, I can give him some easier sheets to practice with regrouping to the tens place.  Then, he can review adding two 2-digit numbers and regrouping.  Then, we can practice three digit addition and subtraction with regrouping.  Second, the numbers are clear and easy to see.  There is space for him to work above and below each problem (very important!).  Finally, I appreciate the mixed practice sheets that throw in easy problems with the harder ones.  I have found that it's discouraging to students when every problem takes a lot of work.  I'm glad to have this workbook in our Math arsenal.

The longer I teach and watch students learn math, the more I realize how essential it is for students to learn their math facts and know them by heart!  I want my children to be able to focus on the new skills they're learning in math each day and not get bogged down by trying to recall the facts...  I'm thankful that I can see they are all making progress and remembering more week by week!

Please note that I received complimentary copies of these books by Susan Greenwald for review.

Just the FACTS, Ma'am

He he he...  When I Autumn was in first grade, I switched math curriculum half way through the year.  I searched and searched.   In the process, I looked at Abeka and noticed that they required daily practice of math facts.  I felt like I was already trying to do so much in a day and I pushed it off.  I pushed it off for two years, actually until spring of last year. I realized that we needed to invest time in the memory of the facts.  Without the mastery of the math facts, I knew my children were not going to be able to complete their math assignments in a timely way.  They would end up spending more time on the facts than on the concept of the problem they were working on.  This hadn't happened yet, but I could imagine it happening down the road.  So, I began searching for how to work on their facts with them.

I went through the addition deck with Autumn last spring.  When she didn't know a fact, I set it aside in a pile and she was to practice that fact aloud 3 times a day.  It seemed to help some, but I couldn't get her to understand how quickly I wanted her to be able to recall her facts.  

We pressed on through this fall working on the facts.  Sami was working her way through the facts as well, but I encountered a different challenge with her.  She didn't rely on her fingers, but she relied on her number line instead.  I had to take it away.  She needed to learn the facts and continue to be dependent on the line.  

Over Christmas break, a friend told me about a free computer facts practice program online.  It's called xtra math.  It looked neat and my kids started out with it three weeks ago.  It really is a wonderful program and is great for classroom settings and homeschool settings.  It could also be used by parents at home who want to supplement their child's public/private school learning.  Every day students are tested on a series of facts.  Then, they practice some facts that they are slower at recalling and a few that they don't know.  

It only took the first day to help Autumn understand how quickly she needed to be able to recall her facts.  As a 4th grader, she has most of her addition facts down pat.  But, she still needs work.  What I noticed right off the bat, though, was that in order to type them on the computer fast enough she needed either for a) me to type them or b) to learn 10-key.  I was thankful for this course of events.  My kids began learning 10 key the very next day.  It's been an easy introduction for them to keyboarding and they love the challenge of it.  I have an older typing book that they are using for the exercises.  Autumn just started putting in her own numbers yesterday after 3 weeks of working on learning 10 key.  

Sami, on the other hand, has had a different experience with the program.  She has greater gaps in her learning of the facts.  Looking at the computer and recalling an answer was very hard.  I began to say them aloud and that helped.  I think she is more of an auditory learner than a visual one.  But, she still struggled to stay focused on the facts for the length of the lesson.  I have to remember she's really the age of a first grader, who happens to be in second grade.  She does have a late birthday and her eyes are continuing to develop.  

So, I pulled Sami off of the program.  I copied the facts practice worksheets from the practice book for her math book and she is completing one sheet each day.  After she's better at 10 key, has had more practice with the basic facts, and her brain has connected more of the dots (doubles and doubles plus 1), then I'm going to try xtra math with her again.  

I do really love xtra math and it's perfect for Autumn.  She's finally understanding that I want her to know her facts right away.  The repetitive practice to learn the ones she struggles with is working with her.  

But Sami needs more time.  So, I'm reinforcing her learning a little bit differently.  She's still learning addition strategies and making the connections in her brain.  

I have to be honest that one of the reasons I let it go and justified not putting time into it earlier was that when I taught in the public schools we didn't have time anymore to help the kids memorize their facts.  They didn't have to learn them.  I had only 2 weeks to help the kids in one third grade classroom familiarize themselves with the multiplication facts.  I would use the word "familiarize", not "know".  But, this is a failing of the schools I worked at.  I do firmly believe that kids need to learn their math facts.  It will make math so much easier for them down the road.  I know my children really do need to know their facts.

Just as I was starting out three weeks ago with xtra math, my mother in law mentioned to me that her daughter's children are learning the facts through song at Classical Conversations.  I had forgotten about this, but realized this might be another avenue to pursue the facts for Sami.  I began to do some research to find some cds that would be genuinely helpful and edifying to my kids.  I am so excited because I found four different cds that I like.  Actually, I love them.  The first is for skip counting, the second cd is on addition, and then two are for the multiplication facts.  Over the next two weeks, I'm going to be posting reviews of these cds.  

So, that's the facts and my family's journey to figuring them out---so far....