Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Thanks for the Advice!

In this post I asked for some help with how to deal with Catherine's lack of focus when it came to independent math work. Watching her drifting off into daydreams when she should have been finishing a couple of question was frustrating. In that post I described what seemed to work for her:

My only solution right now is to simply not have her do the work on her own. I stand at the whiteboard and write the questions out and have her feed me the solutions step-by-step. As I write, she does too and we seem to get through it fairly quickly and enjoy our time. But I don't know if this will help her focus when she needs to do independent work.


Luke, Gary et all responded with the fantastic advice that if that works, then go with it.

So simple.

I'm happy to report that math, using the whiteboard, has blossomed. Freed from having to work through worksheets on her own Catherine now zips through new concepts and works with speed and ease. Her mental math is improving and her general attitude towards math is getting better as well.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

7 comments:

kitten said...

Thank you for sharing!
I need to try this!
Glad it's working for you.

Anonymous said...

Oh good! I am glad things are working for you. I thought the advice was terrific - aren't bloggers helpful!

Luke Holzmann said...

I am so glad what little encouragement I could give was helpful. That's fantastic!

It is great to see kids start to thrive in a subject. I struggled for a long, long time in reading, and I am so glad my parents let me take my time.

Keep up the great work!

~Luke

Dawn said...

Luke - A little encouragement was just what I needed. I was so stuck on the independent work worry that I didn't have the confidence to seize the solution that was right in front of me! :D

Frankie said...

You know, I may have to try this.

As I was reading, I thinking how I could apply it to us (an older child). Part of my son's problem is pacing. He'll finish a problem and stare into space again. Perhaps we could do one on the board, then have him do one on paper, then one on the board. That would help him get into a rhythm, I think. If he doesn't resist.

He is great with concepts: he gets them. It's the nitty gritty that he hates.

Thank you for sharing this!

Sorry to be a downer in my last comment. ;-)

Dawn said...

Oh heck, be a downer if you need to be!:D

I will say that when Catherine does a question in her workbook or scribbler she does work through it much better and I think it's because of what you mentioned - finding the rythym of the work.

Unknown said...

What a GREAT idea! I love this idea. We have to try this. Thanks :)