help for careless mistakes in Math

[MotherDuck]

My daughter (6th grade) continues to make careless mistakes in Math. She knows how to do the problems when I walk through them with her, but when she is on her own she is constantly making careless mistakes. I would say around 30% of her work is wrong because of careless mistakes. She misses steps, or multiplies incorrectly...the list goes on and on. I don't know how to help her. She completely understands the concepts...even to a higher level than most kids her age...but the careless mistakes are slowing her down...and making me CRAZY!!! Math is not the only subject she is careless in...but it's the most obvious. It doesn't really seem like she cares about her work...she is so capable, but most the time hands in work that is well below her capability. It seems like she puts forth the least amount of effort possible. Does anyone have any suggestions of how I can help her...or any resources that will help me. I'm about ready to throw in the towel.

[Kyles978]

Can you trust her to correct her own maths work? At around her age I would suggest she check her answers in the back of the book and then be asked to fix them herself. If it is a simple copying error she should be able to fix it, whereas if she cannot find the error or doesn't know what she did wrong she can ask you to help her with the concept. Remember 80% + is an A at school and shows competency. Perhaps letting 10 or 20% errors slide and making her fix the problems if she gets more than 20% incorrect would encourage her to concentrate and work harder the first time around without setting an impossible standard of perfection.

Just a couple of suggestions, you know your child best, try it if you think it will help, or not if you don't.

I hope you find a solution soon.

[MotherDuck]

Thank you, Kylie.

[CoastalGal]

Originally posted by Kyles978:
Remember 80% + is an A at school and shows competency.

Really?? All the resources I have looked at in preparing a transcript for my oldest, say either 93 - 100% or 90 - 100 % is an A.

Have schools relaxed their standards??

[bretaschutte]

Hello,

I just wanted to offer a "hang in there". Last year, one of my daughters very much fit the profile that you described in your post. At best, she tolerated school. Below par work can be very discouraging when you are dealing with a child who is capable of much more. Math was our biggest issue as well and it seemed to spread like cancer to her other areas of discipline. We were doing what I would call an "academically rigorous" curriculem for math because I knew that my daughter was capable. The daily struggle with apathy and tears caused me to re-think my position. I say all of that to say this. We did two things that made a black and white difference in our home. We spent an entire summer working on good-better-best. (ex. That was good, but what could you have done to make that better?. . .or Wow! That was truly your best!) We talked about that in relationship to chores, sibling interaction, honoring an adult, meeting someone for the first time, etc. It was only logical to transfer that to our school work. We also chose to swith to Teaching Textbooks for math. She really loves this particular curriculem. In many ways, it has breathed new life in her. What a change I have seen in her! It was very much like "Who are you? and What have you done with Brooke?" She is truly doing her work with excellence! Knowing the heart of our children can be such a puzzle. I am stumped daily I will pray for you and your daughter. May God poor out His wisdom and understanding to you in this area.

Blessings to you!
Breta Schutte (mom of 4)

[Kyles978]

Amy, I'm in Australia. If you want to know letter grades the best bet is to look it up for your state. Sorry, I forget we speak a difference language sometimes

[CoastalGal]

Originally posted by Kyles978:
Amy, I'm in Australia. If you want to know letter grades the best bet is to look it up for your state. Sorry, I forget we speak a difference language sometimes

Sorry, I missed the fact that you are in Australia.

I used our state website, the local school district website and a really neat book entitled "Homeschooling High School" to come up with my grading scale.

[MotherDuck]

Breta...thank you so much. I love your idea of "good, better, best"... I will try that. And thank you for your prayers as well.

[H Coffman]

I agree with Breta, I was struggling with my UG 8yr. old son with not wanting to work hard. Our days were miserable with all the arguing and persuading. My dh pointed me to a section in a book called "The Leadership Challenge" which has a section on developing psychological hardiness (PH) (basically the ability to see a challenge as an opportunity for development v.s. something to be avoided.) The 3 main ways, they say, to foster PH is to offer challenging tasks that are within the person's skill level (sounds like you have that), to build commitment by offering more rewards than punishments, and build an attitude of challenge by encouraging people to see the challenge as full of possibility. All that to say I have begun giving my son a certain mark if he does his work with "complaint" or another mark for "diligence." As well as encouraging him to see the possibilities that open up to him if he is able to be a diligent worker and/or do that particular subject well. At the end of the day we tally the marks and see if he has done well. If he does well all week I offer a reward (an hour of video games really does the trick.) These practices have resulted in what I consider a mini miracle. Our days are so much more pleasant and he is truly learning the value of a diligent/hard working mindset. He even told me that it feels kind of good to be diligent. Awesome! Sorry that's long, but I hope it helps.

[BLT]

You've gotten some really good thoughts here that I think I'll put into practice with my own family. Here are some thoughts more specific to math:

* Does she know her basic math facts cold? The better she knows these, the less of her mind she'll need to use to deal with them, and the more she'll be able to focus on process. There are many, many ways to drill these facts in relatively pleasant ways, and it really does take a long time to know them well enough, even for extremely bright kids.

* Sometimes it helps to use graph paper, one digit per box. My sister really struggled with careless errors until she tried that.

* Sometimes a kid just doesn't see the benefit to them of being careful. I generally require my kids to make corrections on incorrect problems, which helps, but if there are too many errors, I also require that they re-do the lesson completely. This can be done in many ways: recopying the same problems onto another sheet, doing the evens if only the odds were assigned the first time, making a new set of problems using the same concepts, using a similar lesson out of a different book, and so forth. I find that this helps my kids to be careful.

(And on different grading standards: Saying 80% is an A doesn't have to mean that standards are lower; it can mean that the problems are actually harder, but that a student isn't expected to get as many correct. The Singapore math books follow these expectations, and I'm really enjoying that. It allows more complex things to be taught and tested, without expecting everyone to know everything. If we expect our brightest students to get 100, we have to limit what we teach more than if we expect our brightest students to get, say, 92.

I've just really come to understand this concept and am using it in my own learning. It's often no harder to learn, say, 200 facts at an 80% retention rate than it is to learn 100 facts at 100%. In the first case I've mastered 160 facts, and in the second case 100. So I'm coming to like the non-perfectionist idea of learning much better than I used to.)