What am I supposed to do if I don't understand my 8 year old's homework? He is very close to failing and I guess there's really nothing I can do to help him if I don't understand the stuff, either. Really, how many different names can you call a square or rectangle? And what the heck is a generalization of shapes? :banghead:
Did you email his teacher? I would try that. Look it up on the internet. They do have different terminology now. We are just finidhing 2nd grade. I guess I will see this next year. Good luck!
Yea, I'm sending her a note in his math workbook for tomorrow. Maybe I need to go sit in on the class!
Google is your friend. Been there, done that. They don't teach it the same way us old folks were taught. :jester:
DS is in 3rd now- what's the topic?- beside Math? DS is on Geometry now. Angles and Line Types (Parallel, Perpendicular & Intersection) Your friends on 4042 can help you!
As mentioned...Google is your friend. I could not pass Algebra if my life depended on it. My brain just does not think that way. I can do physics, trig, geometry and so on but Algebra i can not do. I have even been to Wake Tech twice, since i graduated high school, and had to drop the course because of Algebra. So when my son brings home his high school algebra problems, i Google the crap out of it and can usually find a good page to explain to him, what i can not.
Kelyel - He did the perpendicular/intersecting thing last week; this week it is the geometric shapes: rhombus, parallelogram, trapezoid, etc. The problem 2 nights ago was it wanted you to come up with several names for one shape. Well, I only knew them as one name, so the teacher told him that was incomlete and to find more names. Last night, there was a section that gave you 3 shapes and said to find the generalization for that group. I figured out that generalization must mean "what they had in common" but, I couldn't figure out what that was! Are ya'll doing the "enVision Math" workbook? If so, pg. 73 & 74.
enVision Math is a poor curriculum ... IMHO. Why are JCS using it??????? It looks really sophisticated and advanced but lacks adequate teaching and emphasis on basic foundational math skills.
I'm right there with you 2Not2, I have a child in 3rd, & math is getting a bit over whelming. these schools just keep pushing more & more, its a good thing to challenge, but geesh, xyz of kids get perfect scores, they benchmark the curicculm to that. not every kid is on target with these benchmarks, IMO, they need to focus on basic skills, not push middle school math, etc. on these kids so young, by the time they get to middle school their bored with it, & grades slip. This is just my view.
As far as different names for shapes. I think it means... a square is also a rectangle which is also a parallelogram which is also a quadrilateral. Or a cube is a prism and a prism is a cylinder. I only know that because I'm studying that exact topic right now in my math education class. I get confused too! I have to make a flow chart to describe cones and prisms and cylinders and I don't do flow charts well! Frustrating!
www.mathisfun.com and www.purplemath.com They lost me in third grade math too. ^ those are the sites that help now. They explain so the kids can understand the concepts. Mathisfun has a geometry section.
I have found sometimes that asking an older child to explain it (either to me or to my child) can be helpful. Sometimes it is just confusing because the schools or textbooks have decided to call something by a "new" name. Like "sparkle" words (think adjectives and adverbs). Sometimes it is confusing because it has been too long since I have done a particular type of problem, or because it is being taught in a different way. So an older sibling that was taught a similar way, or a neighbor's or friend's child from down the street might be able to offer some quick help.
True! I've asked my 6th grader to show his brother something on occasion. It works! There has even been something that the 6thgrader forgot from 5th grade that my 5th grader was currently doing and was good at so the little one helped the big one! It's nice when things work themselves out like that!
Now see.. to most people this isn't important. But to me it's pretty damn impressive. I'm an only child. I think the relationship between siblings is a special and magical thing. I'm witnessing with my own eyes every day something I'll never experience.
siblings truly love like no other but goodness knows they fight like no other too. I did it with my sisters and boy do my two go at it.....
That makes me sad!! My son is an only and I do worry about it sometimes. It really wasn't by design as much as I joke about not wanting any more. I hope he doesn't feel short-changed as he gets older.
