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My 9 year old dyslexic daughter is in 3rd grade at a school where they use Everyday Math and she is struggling. Prior to this school she was at a school that used Saxon math and she did much better with that. I was thinking of buying some Saxon math workbooks for her to use at home in hopes she doesn't end up with gaps due to EM.

But before I decide to purchase I thought I'd post here and ask if anybody had any suggestions other than Saxon math. TIA!

Wanted to add that I think the repetition with Saxon helped her immensely. The homework layout was very identical from day to day, so even as a 1st grader she could figure out what she need to do at each section of the page despite the fact her reading wasn't the best.

Reading is somewhat of an issue (not so much as it was in kindy and 1st) when it comes to math, but not where the majority of her troubles come from. She struggles with comprehension of concepts if they require a grasp of directionality (before/after, more/less, etc) and she also transposes her digits frequently and reads them backwards (i.e. reads 46 as 64). Transposing even occurs when she is doing double digit adding and she will carry the wrong digit... for instance if she adds the numbers in the right column, comes up with 15, she will write down 1 and carry a 5. Sometimes she will also start adding the numbers on the left column first instead of the right column.

Everyday Math doesn't give enough practice before it spirals to another skill or concept. She requires a lot of repetition to retain what she has learned and EM is not giving her that.

In my frank opinion, Saxon Math sucks at developing math ability, and you shouldn't short your daughter on that despite difficulties with arithmetic. You can add extra practice to any program. Have you looked at Singapore Math? I know I sound like a one-trick pony, but I've actually evaluated Saxon Math and it is inferior. Singapore Math also has a consistent layout. I also recommend taking a look at Math Mammoth (a silly name for a decent program)-- it's also better than Saxon and offers a consistent layout.

But they're all better than Everyday Math in my opinion-- well, maybe it's a wash with Saxon Math.

This happens to my dysgraphic ds - one encouraging thing is it seems to happen *less* as time goes on - but it can be so frustrating! When we talked about this to his neuropscyh in 5th grade, she said that we should encourage him to check and double-check and triple-check his work. That works in some ways... but he also sometimes accidentally changes work or gets confused on work that was correct to begin with because he makes the error the second time around. DS has an accommodation of extra time on testing, and the ok to get an extension on homework with no deduction in grade if he can't finish the entire assignment in one night (he wants to do the full assignments, so he finishes the work on either the next night or the weekend). His neuropsych also recommended he be allowed to use a calculator to check his work on tests (unless the test was specifically testing direct calculation skills).


My dd10 isn't dyslexic, but she has a relative weakness in inductive reasoning, and math is quite a challenge for her. She had a tough time with EM for this same reason - lack of repetition before moving on. Yep, EM comes *back* to the same concepts, but dd needed much more repetition before leaving them the first time around. We've looked into quite a few different alternative curriculums etc, and jmo, but I'm not sure it's the actual curriculum that matters as much as being sure she really truly *gets* a concept before moving on, and that means a lot of explaining and repetition. She also seems to get a better understanding through manipulatives, hands-on work. And.. lately she's been reading the first Danica McKellar book... can't remember the name but something like "Math Doesn't Suck".... she seems to understand the way McKellar explains things. It's not a curriculum, but it might be a good resource to have around on the side - when your dd is a little farther down the road in math.

Good luck - my dd would *totally* sympathize with your dd!

polarbear

@PolarBear

I'm told she can have as much time as she needs on tests, except for when it comes time to take the state standardized testing that starts this year in 3rd grade (she doesn't have an IEP or 504). Despite being allowed as much time as she needs she doesn't really seem to take advantage of that, she'd rather just be done like everybody else. I've told her teacher to suggest to her to go back and check her work for the reversals because, again, she just wants to be done and probably won't take the time to check. I can only imagine she might do the same thing as your son and possibly change answers that are correct.

Thank you for the book recommendation, I will keep an eye out for it!

@lucounu I will check out those programs, thanks for the suggestions!

We bought some of those drill and kill Kumon books. Frankly, I do think they have helped alot in terms of improving speed and accuracy and well as not writing numbers the wrong way, etc. Repetition really helps.
Actually, my fourth grader just got all 15 of 15 math questions right on his one-minute speed test! (I don't know if it was multiplication or what). He had at age 6 on the WISC on 99th percentile on most parts and a 43rd percentile on PSI.