Sep. 2, 2008 - Math Tricks
Jonathan has been homeschooling part-time. I have been amazed that he has sat so well for me. He is RAD, ADHD and FASD. He definitely has gaps in his learning. He reads at a fourth grade level but can't add his doubles (4+4 is too hard for him). I am seeing that he was taught tricks to do the work and has been relying on them. I want to get him past relying on these tricks that slow him down and help him to see that there are easier ways to do the math. I even caught him counting to add 9+1 today. He is in third grade. He is smart. I showed him the pattern with adding one and then threw a bunch of off the wall problems at him and he even got 153+1 real quickly. Why do schools teach these tricks to the kids? They handicap them.
