Rod and Staff Math Student Textbook

[Gigi]

Re: Rod and Staff Math Student Textbook

Bumping with a question.

My son is diligently working through rod and staff math 2. He is using the Simply Classical curriculum. I am beginning to ponder math for next year.( I like to buy things in pieces so the cost is spread out).

I had already decided that he would write in his textbook, but now I'm worried there may not be enough room. He has large penmanship, like kindergarten/ first grade size. Is this doable?

I love rod and staff, but was leaning towards a workbook style for him given his special needs for next year. I could go either way, tottering on the fence right now.

Those of you who have used third grade, what's your opinion?

I laid them side by side to see how much of a difference there is, and here's what it looks like to me:

The vertical space between the 2 lines where the answer is supposed to go is a bit smaller. The difficultly will come with the horizontal space. In the first few lessons, it's fine since the answers are single digit / fact review. Later, though, it will be much harder to fit answers directly under the correct column since the type used in grade 3 is quite a bit smaller than grade 2. I hope that makes sense.

My younger daughter barely has room to write, and she's only mildly dysgraphic. I'm not sure what I'll do with my youngest. I've actually considered hand writing the problems for him on regular or graph paper. I did try to enlarge the page in the copier, but that didn't really work.

HTH!

[Colomama]

Re: Rod and Staff Math Student Textbook

That's my concern exactly. Sure, single digit answers will fit, but what about multi level multiplication and long division? Those are covered in this level and I really don't want to copy all of the problems (or 1/2 of them as most people just assign every other one). I don't think he will successfully copy the problem from the book to a separate page.

[pickandgrin]

Re: Rod and Staff Math Student Textbook

Colomama,
In third they won't have any multilevel multiplication or long division, so I think you could make it work. It's two and three steps, but not two or three lines vertically. The answers are always on one line. Here's a sample from near the back of the book: http://samples.milestonebooks.com/1-13391-3/#7 As you can see on this page, ideally they leave a space between problems. However, there are two lines worth of white space for them to write in if they need it.
Here's another sample: http://samples.milestonebooks.com/1-13391-3/#5

Perhaps if they do their work in another color than black (the print in the book is black), it would help them keep the answers from getting jumbled with other problems.

If you'd like to see a photo of the Math 3 book beside the end of Math 2 workbook, I can do that for you another time. Just remind me!

HTH!

[KF2000]

Re: Rod and Staff Math Student Textbook

Here are a couple other thoughts, but take them for what your children are like, since you are dealing with individual issues...

One thing I would keep in mind is that while your child's handwriting is that big right now, it will likely improve during this year, won't it? So that as the available space gets less, your child may also be able to print smaller? Again, I don't know what your children's progress is, but there might be improvement in that sense.

Also, if you do run into a problem, you could always jot the problems out for them into a spiral notebook. I have had to do that for for a long time with my one who was overwhelmed by the focus needed to copy and complete her work. We would do things orally as much as possible, and then the problems she had to write out, I would very often jot them out for her. It seems like a tedious task when you think of doing a whole book, but when you focus on just one day at a time, picking the best assortment of problems, it's really not that bad. Especially if you keep up with fact drills orally or with flash cards.

This is also a good strategy when you get past the third grade book....there is a lot of work where they just write down an answer (which could be done orally), or where they just have a line or two of problems to copy. I often helped by doing the copying, especially where there were strong signs of a meltdown coming.

Hths!
AMDG,
Sarah