I got a call from a new homeschooler yesterday asking me about memory work. She was especially curious about our math memory work. So here's a quick breakdown of what we do for math memory.
W is 8 and in 3rd grade so he is memorizing the multiplication tables. So far he has memorized the 2's, 3's, 4's, 5's, 10's and 11's. He's currently working on 12's. He loves math and math memory work so this is right up his alley.
J is 6 and in 1st grade and he's memorizing doubles addition problems. Like 1+1=2, 2+2=4, 3+3=6 and so on all the way up to 10+10=20. I do this because way back in the day when I was using Saxon math that is where they started W. I didn't really get it at the time but am so glad I went with it and here's a little story that shares why.
A few days ago I asked J what 7+8 was. He seemed a bit overwhelmed so I asked W to tell him the easiest way to figure it out. This was W's response.
"Well you know that 8+8 is 16 so you could just take one away from that and know that 7+8 is 15. Or you know that 7+7 is 14 so you could just add one and see that 7+8 is 15."
The next step for J is doubles subtraction. 14-7=7, 16-8=8, etc. Then we'll move on to multiplication.
Please keep in mind though that we do this at our own pace. J has been memorizing doubles addition all year and still doesn't have them all down and I'm OK with that. Also, many people have let me in on the fact that 3rd grade is the year that all the multiplication tables 2 through 12 should be memorized but I'm fine if we end up doing 6's, 7's, 8's and 9's next year instead. When it comes to math we don't move on until they've got it down!
So what should I write about next week? Any questions or suggestions?
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