Comments on: The Value of Quick Addition Skills

By: Steph

Steph — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 16:02:06 +0000

I am glad you stopped by my blog, so I could find mathmojo.com. :-) I agree that “mental math” is a valuable skill in itself. One can certainly get through life without this skill (I am an example of that — I’ve never been good at that sort of thing). And Penny is probably right about the “Gold Standard” of learning math. But when you do math through rote methods, you are only seeing one dimension of the problem. You are losing the opportunity to “see” the numbers and computation in your mind and intuitively experience how they work. That said, I have never known anything but rote methods (and yes, I always thought I sucked at math). I learned a great deal through home schooling my kids, especially my son, because he has a very different learning style from me. As a result I am becoming a bit better at math concepts myself and find myself doing a lot more math “in my head.”

By: The Math Mojo Chronicles » Mental Math and Dyslexia

The Math Mojo Chronicles » Mental Math and Dyslexia — Wed, 14 May 2008 14:14:00 +0000

[...] reason for this post is that Angela (Mother Crone) left a very interesting comment on yesterday’s post concerning how mental math has helped her daughter, who is [...]

By: Angela, MotherCrone

Angela, MotherCrone — Tue, 13 May 2008 23:18:19 +0000

We are finding that these mental techniques are helpful in bridging some gaps for dyslexics as well. My daughter is “stoked” about doing math this way, as the number reversals only appear when she copies problems down. In her head, she is learning to calculate quickly without error. She is excited to see how she can apply it to upper level maths next year! I can’t wait to see what she can do after a few months of this!