Math Is Fun Forum

foxluv

Member

Registered: 2007-04-22

Posts: 3

newbie...hi all

I love math but now I have become a tutor to my 2 grandchildren who are failing in Algebra and Geometry.  I was very good in Algebra and had a really hard time in Geometry.  I have tried the Geometry but it moves too fast and I work full time and the 2 children[14 and 16] are new to my household.  They just lost both their parents and are having to cope with a whole lot.  They came from a very unstructured household where Mom said if you don't feel like going to school just stay home and never bothered about their lessons whether they did the work or not.  I can teach the Algebra just fine but my granddaughter cannot do simple math so I am at a loss to get her interested again in numbers and where to concentrate my efforts.  I have started with the simple worksheets for subtraction{negative and positive signs} and she has a really hard time with this.  For example -4-3 = -1(her answer).  Any suggestions?

MathsIsFun

Administrator

Registered: 2005-01-21

Posts: 7,711

Re: newbie...hi all

That is a wonderful thing you are doing.

Perhaps you need to take her further back until she can do the work easily, then progress forward and try to discover what concepts she is having trouble with.

In the case of the negatives you could try this page: Adding and Subtracting Positive and Negative Numbers and there is a little interactive called "Casey Runner" at the bottom that may help her.

It may be that she simply thinks "Who cares about math ... boys and fashion are more interesting", in which case you have to somehow convince her that the rest of her life is important and that nearly every interesting career needs good math skills (and without math skills she won't even get a job selling food!)

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"The physicists defer only to mathematicians, and the mathematicians defer only to God ..."  - Leon M. Lederman

Tigeree

Member

Registered: 2005-11-19

Posts: 13,883

Re: newbie...hi all

Welcome 1 Welcome all! and welcome foxluv enjoy !

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People don't notice whether it's winter or summer when they're happy.
~ Anton Chekhov
Cheer up, emo kid.