Top of the Class, but...
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For seven years I've watched my gorgeous son hunched over Kumon math worksheets. He finds minute enjoyment from them and I'd rather see him chasing butterflies. They've indubitably helped his Math performance at school -- he's top of his class, but I wonder if the attempt has been worth it in the big task of things. He's currently solving about 100 polynomials per day. Man, he can indubitably solve polynomials, and fast. But for what?
His arithmetic skills are awesome but when presented with a math story problem, he falls apart, helpless. No matter how many times I suggest that he
Math Worksheets Versus Word (Story) Problems
- read the qoute carefully,
- note down the givens,
- assign names to intermediate and final values,
- form equations,
- activate his Kumon motor (brain),
he just can't get past the read-the-problem-carefully step.
Who's Fault?
Is it his fault that he lacks confidence with word problems? Not entirely. Our actions, as educators, seem to imply a confidence that solving word problems should come more plainly than simpler operations like arithmetic and algebra. Many parents and teachers feel justified in encouraging (i.e. Forcing) a child to work hundreds or thousands of math worksheets, drill multiplication tables, long division... But few encourage solving hundreds of story problems. One suspects that the relative ease of creating and checking commonplace math worksheets keeps the focus of math instruction on simple, atomic operations at the charge of more holistic story problems.
Enlightened Online Providers of Math learning Aids Offer Word (story) Problems:
- MathStories.com is a dedicated story problems site for Grades 1 to 6. At per year, it has 15,000 National-Council-of-Teachers-of-Mathematics-compliant story problems. You can see samples at mathstories.com/Book_17_3pigs_grades23.htm
- MathWorksheetCenter.com, .97 per year has worksheets in K-12 topics together with geometry and statistics. Each major section has 10 or 20 sets of worksheets and a set of word problems (which also appear in a list of their own).
- EdHelper.com has a basic subscription for K-8 at Us..99 per year and K-12 for .98 per year
- Math.about.com and syvum.com have a small whole of free math word qoute sheets
- SuperTeacherWorksheets.com has hundreds of math worksheets and a few dozen free math word problems on a wide range of uncomplicated subjects for younger children
- MathPlayground.com is a nice-looking free site with dozens of k-6 math word problems for K-6 and Grade 7+ Sat preparation.
BooksAmong the dozen or so math word-problem books of note published in the past decade, one, written by Mary Jane Sterling, from a well-known, favorite brand of facts books, which I'm unable to name here, stands out. The publisher has put a decent chunk of the book online at books.google.com (go to books.google.com and search for sterling word problems).
Striking discrepancy in Child Development
If you are inspecting arranging extra math drills for your child, keep in mind that story problems are more like the real-life problems he or she will encounter, and, they help build his or her critical-thinking skills. Children build thinking maturity like they do corporal maturity. Think about the strikingly dissimilar thinking development that commonplace math worksheets might take care of in comparison to math word problems.
Priorities
Ordinary math worksheets indubitably serve a purpose, but think carefully about the ratio of those to story problems when helping your child prioritize his or her available math study time.
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