I am a married mom with two kids, 11 and 8. My daughter is 11 and my son is 8. I have learned a few things, and some things that I have learned might be able to help others. I'll post those things.
I also hope that you might be able to help me. Learning is an iterative process; you have to go back again and again, and sometimes fail, but keep trying. If I can get a jumpstart off of your experiences and maybe miss a few failures, so much the better!
I'm a married mom with 2 kids also. Our school district adopted the Everyday Math curriculum in 2001 when my son was in Kindergarten. We were impressed with the way the curriculum made math applicable to life and I was personally envious that I hadn't been taught using those methods. My son fell in love with Math and became a part of an afterschool mathemetics club working a couple of grade levels ahead and doing advanced logic and algebra. We were encouraged by his consistent performance and interest. We transferred him into a private school this year (to avoid a 5th-8th middle school). His new school does not use EDM. He began to struggle to catch up with the kids who had been taught traditional mathematics since Kindergarten. It was then I learned that EDM curriculum is only intended for grades K-6 and he would need adjust to traditional methods for 7th grade anyway. Apparently, children who switch at the 7th grade level are having a more dfficult time adjusting than our son is in 5th. I can only imagine if we follow this track with our 2nd grade daughter (who has to work a bit harder at Math), that she will find it even more difficult than he has.
Looking for comments / suggestions from parents of children who have been through the transition from EDM to traditional Math in 5th, 6th or 7th grade - especially recommendations on supplemental learning materials that we can use at home.
Thank you
Posted by: Ann | January 22, 2007 at 06:13 PM