More math

I didn't think about skip counting as a method of learning math facts until I started homeschooling. Even then I didn't think of it much until it was time to teach Sparkle her math facts. Then I saw so many math programs using skip counting, so I bought into the idea of skip counting. I taught Sparkle skip counting and drilled her in skip counting.

Then I discovered that skip counting is slwo and error prone. It takes too long to skip count up to the higher numbers, and it too error prone because it is too easy to get numbers mixed up. Was the next number 42, 48, or 49? Does 45, 54, or 56 come next? Yuck. I find when I'm skip counting, I'm actually using my memorized multiplication tables in reverse.

So it's no more skip counting for me. Instead I'm going to teach Sparkle tricks and shortcuts for memorizing math facts. My favorite trick is for one of the hardest to remember facts: 56=7x8 (5678).