I am at a loss. Bright girl but failing! I don't want to pull her back into 3rd grade math, I worry about her self esteem further plummeting. I just want to help her build confidence.
You are smart to worry about this early on and trying to find a fix to this problem.
There are 2 paths you can take:
1. If one of the parents has time in their schedule, I would strongly recommend that you buy a great program like Singapore (including intensive Practice, Challenging Word Problems etc) and/or Beast Academy and then highly condense the content for the 8 year old so that you can accomplish a lot of teaching afterschool. And find the areas of weakness and go over more content in those areas. I would also suggest the MEP program but that one requires much more condensing for afterschooling . If you are a mathy person, there is no need for the Singapore Home Instructor Guide, but if you are not, then you might have to read the guide before teaching which might take a bit of your daily time.
2. The second option is to find an afterschool math enrichment center - if you can, stay away from chain businesses and find a tutoring center where your daughter can get a lot of individualized attention as well as instruction instead of worksheets.
I think, from what you describe, all that your daughter might need is constant prodding from you and not too much in the way of "teaching" or "instructions" and this can be achieved at home afterschool. Good luck.
