everday mathematics?

[Ladybug]

Does anyone else have any experience with this math curriculum? Thoughts? DD1's school is using this and she gets her first textbook next year. I'm hearing a lot of mixed, passionate opinions from parents. I'm curious what you think.

[houseelf]

I am not personally familiar with it but many Ohio & Minnesota schools use it. I have heard equally passionate mixed reviews.

[Phoebe]

We have it in our school district. I am not a fan. It is a spiraling program where the math concepts are taught and revisited throught the year. I think it jumps around too much without spending enough time on one topic. Also, the concepts are taught in an abstract way. Sometimes, I have no idea what they are talking about. My daughter who is entering third grade is a black and white thinker so she has a hard time understanding the homework. Also, they don't teach this math program in our middle school which totally screws up some of the kids when they reach 6th grade. Lastly, because of the spiraling effect, the school district expects the math facts to be learned at home and taught by the parents. I am all working with my kids, but my children are not interested in that. Many parents in our district seek outside help for their kids such as, Kumon.

Although our school district is considered one of the top in our state so it must have some merit, it doesn't suit my children very well.

[houseelf]

the school district expects the math facts to be learned at home and taught by the parents.

This is a dirty little secret that most parents don't know yet. Many schools expect these kids to get this at home.

[poky]

Lastly, because of the spiraling effect, the school district expects the math facts to be learned at home and taught by the parents.

What do you mean by "math facts"?

As someone who took as much math as she possibly could in school, I can tell you that math *is* a big spiral; you're always coming back to and revisiting concepts you learned years before and adding layers of complexity to them...but that said, the spiral I experienced was months to years long, not weeks or days, and was much more apparent from middle school to college than it was in elementary school.

Also, the *reason* I took as much math as I could in school was because my parents (who are NOT math people, but were teachers themselves and understood the importance of learning the basics) took it upon themselves to drill me with flash cards on addition/subtraction/multiplication/division when I was struggling with it in elementary school. At some point in that drilling, the *patterns* behind it totally clicked for me, and I was hooked from then on; it didn't matter that by 7th grade or so, I'd gone past their ability to help me out (they had my sister call me when she had problems with math in high school because they couldn't help her).

I'm not at all sure whether their "relate these concepts to 'real life' situations" would have helped or hurt my enjoyment of math; for me, it's all about the abstract analytical beauty of it, whether it applies to anything in "real life" or not.

I know you probably have, but have you checked out the everyday math website? They have hints and tips for parents for the homework there. http://everydaymath.uchicago.edu/parents/homework_help/

There are other factors in how interested kids get in math and how well they learn it, too. I was speaking this weekend with a woman who's an engineering major, and helps teach "how to teach math and science" classes in the education department at her school. She said the sad fact is that when you ask a lot of early-grades education students why they want to teach, for instance, 2nd grade, their answer is "because I know I can do the math" - they might prefer to teach older kids, but they're so afraid of math that they choose a lower grade because of it. People who dislike math having to teach it is really not a great setup to begin with, unfortunately.

[GrayMatterWife]

For whatever it's worth...and maybe this is only tangentially related...

I am not impressed, at all, with how math is taught in elementary school--period.

Concepts are introduced in a dumbed-down way, and the basics aren't taught.

And the expectations are SO LOW. They are worried about the kids getting the "concept" that is being taught (mastering their "method") but no one seems to care if the kids actually appreciate the actual MATH.

I was so irritated (and my son was SO BORED) that I ended up teaching him column addition at home, because I was told that it was not in the "concepts" that the kids were learning. My poor son! No one would show him how to add 25 + 19. It was NOT THAT HARD. he completely got it, once I explained it.

Then, MY KID gets in trouble for being bored at school. GRRRRR.

[Pollyanna]

For whatever it's worth...and maybe this is only tangentially related...

I am not impressed, at all, with how math is taught in elementary school--period.

Concepts are introduced in a dumbed-down way, and the basics aren't taught.

And the expectations are SO LOW. They are worried about the kids getting the "concept" that is being taught (mastering their "method") but no one seems to care if the kids actually appreciate the actual MATH.

I was so irritated (and my son was SO BORED) that I ended up teaching him column addition at home, because I was told that it was not in the "concepts" that the kids were learning. My poor son! No one would show him how to add 25 + 19. It was NOT THAT HARD. he completely got it, once I explained it.

Then, MY KID gets in trouble for being bored at school. GRRRRR.

This is why, IMHO, it is so important to have different learning groups (especially for math). In second grade you can have kids that are just learning column addition all the way up to long division. If you don't separate the children the teachers will have to teach to the middle leaving a very large group of children either bored or frustrated.

[HouseofWool]

All of this is just one more reason why I keep hoping that C will get into the local charter school. There they have multi grade class rooms (K/1, 2/3, 4/5) and the kids switch back and forth based on their abilities in math and reading. I was not impressed at all with his math curriculum this year and while he learned some basic concepts, it was absurdly easy for him. Most of it, he had been doing for a long time already.

[DCJenn]

My only hope that is that having to learn it in Spanish is going to be enough to keep the dude interested because he's got the basics already. I was amazed at the level of the 'math' homework for kindergarten- shape and colors. OK- they were in Spanish but please- don't tell me that most of these kids don't know shapes and colors by the time that they're five? I mean I get that we're an inner city school district w/ a majority of minority students but couldn't they raise the bar just a smidgen? The rich white kid schools haven't dumbed down their math programs. and they wonder why inner city kids have a hard time with middle and high school- let alone college math.

Jenn

[Ladybug]

Thanks for the link, Sandy. I'll check it out more thoroughly tonight. I just heard about this yesterday. I'm trying to keep an open mind because I want to figure out how to make this work best for my kids. It seems like the most productive way to focus my energy at this point. There is talk about phasing this curriculum out and some parents are very impatient and vocal, but I can see how tricky it would be to switch from this curriculum to a traditional math curriculum. Not that it can't be done, but not overnight. It will be interesting to see what they decide to do. Supposedly girls do well with this curriculum although some parents would say otherwise.