A Negative Number Black Hole Consuming the Universe (Especially M&Ms)

I suppose as a kid, it’s tough to focus on learning something new when your dad tells you that the entire universe might be erased by a minus sign.

We’d pretty much exhausted the positive integer subtraction worksheets, but had a high-motivation goal on the table involving another iPod download here, so something had to fill the gap in the space-time continuum… I figured it wouldn’t be a big deal to toss out one of the introductory subtraction pages on negative numbers because I had the time to introduce the concept and work through a few examples.

Unfortunately, as far as my young charge was concerned, negative numbers might as well have come from Mars. Or worse. Much, much worse.

“Negative numbers? How do you have minus something?”

“It’s not like having something, it’s more like owing somebody something… Pretend I give you ten M&Ms, and you say you’ll give me ten back later. It’s kind of like you have negative M&Ms because you have to give them to me later.”

“But I have ten M&Ms because you just gave them to me.”

“No, pretend you ate them.”

Pause of imminent doom.

“No I didn’t. Here, I’m pretend giving them back. I don’t want negative M&Ms”.

The more I talked, the more negative numbers sounded not just odd, but down right scary. Numbers that can cancel out other numbers? Sudden risk to the global candy supply? By the time I exposed that Bank of America might, without asking, take money out of your bank account for overdraft fees, my daughter was pretty sure the world was coming to an end. I’m fairly certain the Birds and the Bees conversation is going to be feel like a walk in the park after all this. For half an hour we danced around the growing risk of explosion from the matter-antimatter annihilation of the numbers I created. Micro-black holes at the Large Hadron Collider had nothing on me here.

Before we plunged across the event horizon into a stretchy existence shredding demise, I gave up talking and my old friend, the trusty number line, pulled us back to safety. In these situations, you don’t know you’re on solid ground until you hear, “Oh that’s it? That’s easy!” in your ears. Thank you, Mr. Number Line… The world is safe from antimatter M&Ms and overdraft charges for now.

And, thinking about it, maybe I’ll just wait a while more on the Birds and the Bees, too.

New Number Line worksheets are posted here:

Introducing Addition with the Number Line

Introducing Subtraction with the Number Line

Introducing Negative Numbers with the Number Line

Many grade schools now using various types of timed tests for basic arithmetic. This web site was originally created to provide practice worksheets for a time testing program used at a local school district. If your child’s school is using a similar program, these worksheets will provide several variations on the single practice sheet that typically comes home for each lesson.

The Rocket Math programs are typically divided into multiple levels usually identified by letter, where each level introduces a small number of basic facts. The problems on each level are built on the The tests are usually given daily, with each test lasting one minute. Practice on the problems is pretty critical to success, especially if your child isn’t one that works well under the pressure of the clock.

There are different Rocket Math levels for each of the four basic math operations. My kids started with Rocket Math addition in first grade and have generally worked up through the operations year-by-year, (subtraction in second grade, multiplication in third, and, still to come, division in fourth grade.)

For practice here, as part of home work two or three times a week I’ll run off five of the worksheets, usually two from the level my daughter is currently on and then a selection of three from the next two or three levels she’ll likely cover. I’ll then use the free web timer on the site and run a five minute test. Its very critical that you grade the tests and have your child correct anything that’s wrong. In fact, where an answer is consistently wrong, I’ll even resort to having my daughter write the correct math fact out eight or ten times. Memorizing a math fact wrong is simply deadly here and you need to catch this as early as possible when it comes up. Never (never, ever) skip grading a Rocket Math test. Child Protective Services has a special room for parents that let their kids memorize 6×7=56.

Anyway, apart from the raw practice these longer tests give, the logic here is that this is a much longer, harder and more stressful test than what she goes through at school each day. That makes the tests at school seem a whole lot easier by comparison. It does make create something of a motivation factor, and that’s really the key hurdle to overcome.

Motivation around here comes in many forms. It starts with having a positive attitude around the tests, no matter what happens. Reinforce that the practice is what counts (not getting 100% accuracy or completing it on time, even though that’s what you want ultimately.) Passing a particular five minute test under the timer usually merits a high-five and a serious break from whatever’s going on… Maybe a getting a little time on the Wii with Dad or a Godzilla movie or something else fun. We’ll set targets for levels and maybe working up to level ‘N’ means a $20 trip to Toys’R'Us or going out for a Quadruple-Venti Mocha at Starbucks (actually, cocoa for the kids… Dads need motivation, too.)

All the way around, the key here is making the activity fun and engaging. Making this enjoyable at home plus the success this will bring with testing at school will quickly turn Rocket Math into enormously positive experience. Honestly, how great is it to have your kids saying not only that “I’m good at math!” but also “I love math!” This Dad was never so proud.

More than budgets or bureaucrats, more than textbooks or teachers, parents are the reason that kids perform as they do in school.

That’s not to take anything away from the support our teachers and schools are providing, and our teachers here are the first ones to raise the same flags Mr. Akst is waving. Nay-sayers not withstanding, this article hits the nail on the head. There’s only so much a teacher in a classroom with 20 kids can get accomplished, and these days a one-on-one homework hour with your child is more than just an opportunity… It’s a necessity.

Read the full article here.