My poor son... I think he's the first child in several generations who isn't naturally mathy. Oh sure, in my family, we get gym-phobia sometimes, but MATH PHOBIA? Nah... As long as you can make a picture in your head, it's easy-peasy. Right?
45 feet is how many yards? Umm. Well, here's a yard stick. There are three feet in each yard, and we want to measure in yards. Divide up all those 45 little feet into groups of three and see how many groups you get. I draw pictures. I get out the rulers and yardsticks. I make manipulatives. I draw more pictures. Nothing. I draw a picture of my sister's house and mark it as 45 feet wide, then I draw three-foot-long dogs in front of it. How many dogs long is it? Ummm. I count 15. Fifteen dogs (or yards) is the same as 45 feet.
He just can't flip the numbers around. Yards are bigger than feet, so you need fewer of them to make up the distance. A yard is made up of three feet, so DIVIDE up the 45 feet into groups of THREE feet each. Take the number of feet and DIVIDE BY THREE to get the number of yards.
I'm told he's "gifted", but he doesn't seem to have the knack for flipping numbers around. Divide three pizzas among four people? Well, split up each of the pizzas into four pieces, right? Then everyone gets one piece of each pizza. That's three pieces each? Hey, if you put all three of your pieces on one pizza pan, you have three pieces, and those pieces are fourths -- you get three-fourths of a pizza! Everyone gets three of the fourths of pizza -- 3/4!! Three pizzas divided among four people is 3/4 of a pizza for each person. A fraction is actually division!!
I must be the worst teacher EVER. Or he's just not mathy. "Those who can't, teach. Those who can, make crappy teachers." It was always true for gym teachers, anyway...
2 comments:
Math can be SO DARN HARD to teach.
Have you checked out the Kumon series? A friend recommended them to me, and I loved them for my sons--we used them in summertime for enrichment/catching up.
Oh, I so feel your pain. We have crying in math here, too, I had a similar frustration in addition with my son. He could NOT wrap his head around the fact that if you got a number bigger than 10, it moved into the next column. It took forever to sink in. I just hope that it clicks soon for your boy, and when my own boy gets there in a few years, that I can call on you for help! (Or at least mental support). Gotta love it.
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