That answer is perfect. Love it!!

Val

I am glad I am not the only one who thinks EM is retarded. It really is garbage.

At the risk of offending (which is not my intention), I would like to make a gentle suggestion that we use a word other than "retarded". This has come up in more than one post now and while I'm sure that no one here is intending to denigrate people with disabilities, calling something retarded implicitly carries the idea that people with cognitive disabilities are somehow..."less". Although I realize that it has not been used here in that way, it is a word that is still closely associated with its original meaning.

On a more topical note, while I'm neither a fan of EM nor of the lattice method, partial products is nothing more than a paper representation of steps many people take when they solve multiplication problems mentally. I would argue that it not only simplifies many multiplication problems, but also validates the way in which many strong math students flexibly use number understanding to solve those problems.

DH and I were just talking about this over the weekend, when DS showed DH how to do the lattice method - which provided us all a good laugh as DH tried to make sense of that one . I agree about the partial products method being something that is commonly used as a simple breakdown method.

Thank you, Taminy. I love the way you expressed this. Recently, that adjective was used in another post, and I was trying to figure out a tactful way to post the same suggestion.

At the risk of being VERY unpopular, I actually like EM. It is probably very frustrating for hard-core left-brainies because of the need to not "just get on with it" but works marvelously with more intuitive kids.If it's done properly there should be pre-tests for the year and for the unit so that DCs can test out of info they know. Also, does the school know that he's doing epgy algebra? I would hit them over the head with that -- and maybe set him up in the classroom working individually.

I have mixed feelings about EM. The "elliptical learning" works about as well as "spiral software development" (unevenly). But H-M math does the same thing so changing books is no panacea.

My daughter and I also found the EM supplemental games (for early elementary students) boring and repetitive. We liked the Montessori math manipulatives better. We are both visual learners.

I like the way EM introduces deep mathematical concepts to kids at such an early age. But, many elementary school teachers and parents don't get the point of many of the EM exercises. One teacher at my daughter's school says that the district gave up on EM because so many of the teachers "don't get it".

It's too bad, because
"I took a poll at lunchtime at work the other day. 100% of parents of school-aged children who also hold PhDs in science prefer the Everyday Math curriculum.* For inexplicable reasons, our own neighborhood school, and the entire school district, had stopped using EM despite more than respectable standardized test scores and teachers who loved the teaching method. Perhaps EM pushed some parents out of their math comfort zone (read The Math Moron)?"
Read the entire post:
http://badmomgoodmom.blogspot.com/2006/11/who-is-keeping-score-and-why.html

Anyway, I am not a math educator or a home-schooling mom. I managed to earn a BA in pure math and a PhD in theoretical physics, but that doesn't make me an expert at raising kids. YMMV.

FWIW, my daughter enjoys the math puzzles in the "Penrose the Mathematical Cat" series. They really are engaging stories with interesting math puzzles. She read them in K, and is still re-reading them today (at age 8/5th grade). She is now able to solve more of the puzzles than she could 3 years ago.

I was just griping about partial quotients last night. I get all the other 'partials' and can do them....I may not necessarily like those methods, but I can do them. However, I just can NOT get partial quotients.

Thank goodness DS gets it well enough to do it for his homework, because I just can't make any sense of it. I got so confused last night, that I just got out the calculator to double check his work (out of his sight) because I couldn't even get back on track to do it the traditional way, . And I usually do math in my head....

I have a PhD in the sciences (biology) and I don't like EM at all. I'm surprised at the result of your poll, given that the people who lead the charge against the reform mathematics movement (EM is part of this movement) are typically scientists, engineers, and mathematicians. See Mathematically Correct for examples.

I don't like the fact that EM has too many questions with no right answer. For example, when kids learn to measure, they cut out a paper ruler and part of their homework involves measuring things at home. The teacher has no way of knowing if the child did the task correctly or not unless the kids bring in the stuff from home for the teacher to re-measure (highly unlikely). EM is replete with exercises like this one.

Val

Hmm...the use of the word didn't bother me. I'm not sure I'm comfortable with policing expressions that people use.

Val