First Grade Math

My child's teacher recommended the website SumDog for my child. She said that it's a great way for kids to practice while still being fun. She said it helps them move away from using fingers, because they want to try to be fast to score more points in the games. My son loves it.

As for how typical this is - I think that still using finger to count is common, but not ideal, and teachers work hard trying to move students away from it at this age.

I don't remember how fast they were, but I remember my son often had plenty left blank, and absolutely HATED those timed sheets. (He is in 9th grade now).

I don't remember doing those "speed drills" as they call them, back when I was in school. It just seems like it adds more stress to the kids and I really don't see the point. Just practice in general will increase their speed... they don't need to be timed for it to happen. Just practice, practice, practice. I wish they would stop with the timer, though.

Tell your poor little daughter not to worry and just do the best she can. I remember still counting on my fingers when I was in 4th and 5th grades. She just needs to learn to do it a little faster.

The speed will come over the years with more practice. Until then, tell the teacher to back the he!! off because truly she is ONLY worried about that stupid test they take. Your little one will get it; please don't try to bash math facts into her head. There is no reason. She can use her fingers until she masters them.

Please give her a hug for me and tell her not to ever let the teacher make her cry again. She needn't worry about the teacher; mommy and daddy are the only people she needs to worry about.

Well now that you know she is expected to do this, just start working with her. One way I did this was have our daughter call out math to us. We would make mistakes and she would correct us. See how fast you and dad can do this.. she will get a kick out of being the teacher for a change.

The ones she already knows by heart.. move on to only working on the ones she does not know by heart.

You can do this just verbally, by doing work books, by having her do the math with items like buttons, cheerios, m&m's..

You will have the holidays to also work on this.

My 7 year old is in third grade math and still does not have all her "facts" memorized. She is doing long multiplication and long division, and is NOW seeing the benefit of having these COMPLETELY memorized, so is working much harder on it. She has more multiplication facts memorized than addition and subtraction, however.

Continue to work with her. If you pm me I'll give you a website for a game called "x germs addition" that's super fun and helps.

I can remember doing drills like that when I was a kid and it sounds pretty standard. The teacher shouldn't be on her case though, she should be helping her and working with her to develop the skills. Continue reviewing the figures with her and, eventually, it will be easy to her. She'll remember the simpler sums without needing to add on her fingers.

If you want a game to help her, please consider a couple of the Discovery Toys that I have. Number Rings has been one of our most popular toys this holiday season. The goal is to cover all of your posts (either 1-12 or, when she gets older and can multiply/divide, 1-18) with your pegs by rolling the dice and adding or subtracting to get the numbers you need. For example, if you roll a 6 and a 4, you can either cover pegs 6 and 4, you can add them together and cover peg 10, or you can subtract and cover peg 2. It's a great way to build the skills while having fun. Check it out here (if you order by 12/16, it's guaranteed to arrive in time for Christmas): http://www.discoverytoys.com/PUBLICSTORE/stores/karenchao...

My son is in 1st grade.
He does subtraction and addition, and uses his fingers.
And my son is GOOD at math. Compared to his classmates.

MANY MANY MANY kids this age, use their fingers for equations.
Normal.
I think your daughter's Teacher... is a bit anal.

AND per my son's Teacher, she does not "time" them.
Nor do they get, 24 equations.

At this age stage/grade, they are LEARNING to do it. NOT fully mastered at it, yet.
Normal.

My son was in Kindergarten, doing subtraction and addition too.
Now in st grade they do double digit equations.
LEARNING it, not mastered at it.
BIG difference.

EVEN 2nd graders use their fingers still.

I think your child's Teacher, is a bit... over the top.

I hate those timed drills -- my daughter is actually very good at math, but does very poorly on speed tests, they freak her out and she panics.

She uses math fact games at school and has a few loaded on her kindle that she really enjoys and help her learn the facts. It really helps - look online, there's lots of free ones no matter what device you have (iPod/Pad, Android, Kindle, etc.) or just on a regular computer.

uh oh. My 1st grader can't do double digit adding and subtracting! I think my oldest started end of 2nd grade! Sounds like you've got a tough school. Not sure what you can do except practice over the holidays?... Maybe skip any double digit practice and just focus on "math facts". Can you also find out if other 1st grade classes expect this? If not, then you could ask the teacher why she's expecting more than other classes.

Poor kid! It's so tough when you first start doing these drills. I always hated them for my kids, too.

I can remember my daughter's second grade teacher saying that basic math facts would be essential for her success at upper level math. For me, all I saw was a smart but anxious 7-year old (and yours is even younger!) stressing. I didn't push -- and I should have.

This particular daughter is now a college junior who plans on going in to medicine so she's managed. ;-) Still, all through high school the fact that it took her more time to "get" basic facts (& I'd include multiplication & division in that) was a disadvantage to her and caused her even more stress.

You might want to try turning this around a bit. It's great that you're planning on working with her on her math facts & the speed of her recall -- I wish I gave that more attention back in my daughter's day. Also, this is a great opportunity to begin teaching strategies on dealing with academic pressures. Isn't it awful that we have to think about that for such young kids? Still, I wish I'd done a better job helping my kids learn that early on. It would have saved us some heartache later!

Hang in --

I agree that if they understand the math then it doesn't matter how fast they are. My Aunt used to stress herself out over tests in grade school. The teachers didn't believe my Grandma when she told them that it was my Aunt and not my Grandma. There is just too much pressure on tests and it doesn't make the child smarter. Plus it's only first grade...let them be kids.
Everyone learns in different ways; Visual, Auditory, and Kinesthetic. I'm thinking my second grader is Kinesthetic and I'm Visual...lots of head butting between us, so I have to walk away and let him be.

Just keep practicing with her. When my daughter was in K, she would stress out as soon as she was suppose to get 10 problems in 3 minutes. She is now in 3rd and can easily do 100 problems of add, sub, and multi in 3 minutes. She is so comfortable with timing now, she doesn't even think about the timer. I concentrated on letting her know that effort is more important than getting them all right. Once she felt that I am more impressed with good effort, she stopped worrying about the clock.

There is a website where you can make your own worksheets for practice. I would run the drill 2x a week at home. http://www.softschools.com/math/worksheets/

BTW, Don't look at my daughter's times, she attends a gifted school so she is above average.

Check on these:
www.ixl.com
www.funbrain.com

She will get the hang of it.....play, play and play with Math games!

My grandson is also in 1st grade. He has been doing math with me since he was 3. We did addition & subtraction with m&ms & goldfish. We would count school buses when we were in the car. He would keep score & add in his head. Now you are thinking....oh she is just bragging. WRONG ! Now he cannot add or subtract even on paper. He is failing math & most likely will have to repeat 1st grade all over again. He has to do 20 math problems in 1 minute. He stresses & his mind goes blank. He has a great teacher & she dropped it to 10 problems in 1 minute. Now he is getting 100%, except when he stresses. Which he is doing all over again because now they are into double didgets. We tell him to do his best. He also has a tutor thru the school. It sounds like you are doing everything that you can. Good luck !

My 1st grader still uses his fingers too.. practice is all one needs. Same with reading.. it takes time and they will get better with practice. :)