My Ds 8 is a mathy kid. In first grade, he hated math. We needed to manage his behavior to keep him out of the bathroom and in the class. He told me he saw no reason to memorize math facts. He was sort of right. He's not that good at memorizing unrelated facts (but can totally explain all the details of a concept) so recall took as long for him as counting things up and down. Very slow.
We spent the summer restoring his math joy (talking math, but NO facts). Then in second grade, it started out bad, but his teacher took him under her wing. She de-emphasized timed tests (and then he excelled at them) and she played a lot of non competetive games without pages of calculations. He fell in love and said he wanted to take his teacher to third grade. No need to restore the love this summer.
I think it's a real challenge to keep the thinking mathy kids engaged.
For me, I back off in the summer. Fortunately, he remembers the success of second grade and wants to go to third with the same knowledge so he wants to re-memorize times tables. But, it only works because the other parts of math have been fun. (PLus, I give him candy)
Long story to say that if you have a mathy kid who can think well and doesn't like calculation, I'd embrace it! The world needs more physicists and pure scientists who can think. For my ds, I encourage it and tell him to hang on til he gets to high school. I tell him it gets better each year, to do well on tests so he gets through the yucky stuff as quickly as possible and doesn't have to repeat, and I keep close contact with the teachers to catch problems quickly. Once they understand him, they have felt a real sense of success (in K, 1, and 2 at least) when he begins to engage in the class. And the undone math computation doesn't seem as important anymore. They encourage him to share his knowledge and they tell me how much they enjoy him. Still, I dread the possibility of a teacher who can't see it, who believes fast equals smart.

I would like suggestions on making math fun - or am I better off phrasing it as looking for fun math activities? Thanks.

Oh, do I ever agree. My kids do very well when they conquer something that seemed TOO HARD!

I agree with you: I feel it's the job of the parent to know when something really is too hard and when something is being avoided due to some type of fear or uncertainty.

In addition to addressing perfectionism and self-esteem, I find that this approach can help kids learn to persevere. By remembering "I thought I couldn't do [x] before, and I tried and I did it. Maybe I can do this too, even though it's hard."

Val

Thank you - this is exactly what I'm looking for! Do you know what kind of math games they played? DS isn't doing any math over the summer, but we will be homeschooling this fall and I'd like fun to supplement whatever he ends up doing for math. I'd also like to use fun to get the math facts into long term memory, and to work on speed. I'm looking to restore the math joy - exactly!!!! Thank you.

Exactly! I am definately trying to cultivate that perseverance attitude in my children.

‘It’s a funny thing about life: if you refuse to accept anything but the very best,
you will often get it.’ — W. Somerset Maugham

‘Obstacles cannot crush me. Every obstacle yields to stern resolve. He who is
fixed to a star does not change his mind.’ — Leonardo Da Vinci

‘Far away there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations. I may not reach them, but I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them, and try to follow where they lead.’

— Louisa May Alcott


Perhaps I have been brainwashed, but to this day I don't believe there is anything I can't do if it is important enough for me!

Questions,

I hope you can figure something out, I don't think there are exact answers. DD8 did ultimately find memorizing mult. and div. facts "fun" when she used Alek's because it became a game to her. In fact, the pressure of the speed element seemed to enliven her, but another child may have an opposite reaction.

I think it's a matter of preference. Lots of people will argue that mental calculation isn't of as much importance because of calculators. Our girls seem to posess their father's math aptitude, so they will learn the calculations and are great thinkers as well.
If a child is really resisting, it could be that they are not in a good place for certain learning at the moment. You could spend hours agonizing and pushing it, then both parent and child are miserable, when that child could easily and quickly learn it at a later time when they are ready.

We are all different in the way we learn and many of our paths will be different. Whatever works for you child is the best path for him IMO.

Oh BTW, sorry for going off track on your question/thread.

Maybe I can come up with something helpful if you give an idea of what he's currently doing in math that doesn't seem fun to him.

Try reading the math story books such as Math Devil. I would alternate between this, a workbook math and math computer games. He may also prefer word problems to plain calculation.

Have you tried Timez Attack? Try www.timezattack.com; you can buy an upgraded version, but it's all basically the same. It's a sort of RPG, but with multiplication facts as weapons. KG used to play that one a lot.

Or www.FunBrain.com? That's arcade style, multiple levels.

My KG suggests using easy problems.

Yes, Neato, that's it exactly. Even his OT says he's not developmentally ready - even though he can do it. And he's definitely one of those I can't do it, it's too hard ... oh, that was easy! kids. For now, I just want to get the bad taste for math out of his mouth.

And I agree with what everyone said about learning not being fun all the time, and understand it. But I am looking for fun.

And good idea, Mia, to work on Timez Attack again. That's how he learned the multiplication tables. Those were tense times, with a sweaty mouse, under time pressure, LOL. That's the sort of stuff I think I should sprinkle into math. And he enjoyed the Number Devil CD. So I think before we start another formal math curriculum, we'll do some playing with all this stuff.

Good suggestions! Keep 'em coming. Thanks.