Math and Mai

My daughter has taken some vacation time this week. Therefore, I am on "vacation" from caring for Drew after school. I guess this is a good thing since it gives me the chance to cross off a few things from my "things to do list". It's amazing how many other "must deal with this right now" things crop up when I am trying to tackle the regular "things to do" list. I feel like I have spent a lot of time doing a lot of things that my Mother would term "busy for nothing".

One of the things I still hope to spend some time doing this week is learning "new math". Has anyone else noticed the difference in how math is taught today? Or is it just me?

Making sure that Drew gets his homework done is a caretaker's duty I take very seriously. There are times that his math homework really stumps me though. Math has never been a strong point for me. But elementary math is not a problem. That is, until Drew started bringing home math homework. There are a few times that I have looked at his math homework sheet and had no idea what he was supposed to do. Thank goodness that he knew exactly what he was supposed to do.

Drew and I would spend a little time everyday doing "homework" during his summer break. I noticed that he struggled with some simple addition and subtraction. He clearly understood the concept of addition and subtraction. He just seemed to have a problem putting the concept into action to solve the problem. So, I carefully explained the role of the "tens " and the "ones". I even brought out the old flash cards. He did so-so to okay after this.

After a little investigating, I found out that his class uses something called a number grid for mathematics. A number grid?! What is a number grid?! Quick search and I find this:

Number Grid

I printed one of these and had Drew practice some math problems the next day. Zip! He's finished and all the answers are correct. I also learned about something called a "number line".

Number Line

I am open to new teaching concepts. I must admit that I don't always agree with all the concepts. My worry is that I could end up totally confusing my grandson when I, out of total ignorance, am assuming that he is learning his lessons the same way that I learned my lessons.

So, I will insist that his teachers share their teaching methods and will persist in learning these new methods so I can help Drew if necessary. I have to confess that I feel ancient at times. I had a young kindergarten teacher look at me as though I were archaic when I asked her what "sight words" were. This was not a term that I knew from my time (a long, long time ago according to Drew and his kindergarten teacher!) ;-)

I should write a blog about the school I attended in my elementary years in the future. It might be a valuable history of ancient teaching methods! LOL!!!

 Mai