Be Careful With Worksheets (Reprise)

Be Careful With Worksheets otherwise you end up with kids like this:

That's my son, save yours from a similar fate. Take Crewton Ramone's teacher training and learn how to play math and make it fun for your kids.  Here are few comments off the new Kajabi site:

This was a low stress test--should have been fun and easy making 9's and 10's, he is showing classic test anxiety and stress ticks in his hands and neck it's all in his mind and attitude but you can see the effects are very physically real.

I actually went down to his school and told his teacher to STOP giving him worksheets. He's known how to make nines and tens since he was 4 or 5...oh look! Video proof:



But he had been literally stressed out with multiplication worksheets over and over and over again...btw he's known his multiplication tables out to 12 since he was 6 or 7 again I have it on video...we were working on 13 to 20 when we were interrupted.

Be careful with homework too.

Research Shows Homework Doesn’t Improve Academic Performance, 

It Makes It Worse

Especially if that homework is a drill for time math worksheet or yet another mind numbing multiplication worksheet.

http://thespiritscience.net/2016/06/14/research-shows-homework-doesnt-improve-academic-performance-it-makes-it-worse/

Don't believe me? Do a search on Finnish Schools. 

"In the past decade, Finnish students have hit it out of the park. Their PISA scores in math, science and reading have been at, or very near, the top year after year, while the US has floundered near the middle and bottom. In 2000, the Finnish surprised everyone when their students placed first on the reading portion of the test. In the latest results released in 2010, Finland scored third in reading, sixth in math and second in science. The US trailed coming in at seventeenth in reading, twenty-third in science and thirty-first in math." ~We Are Teachers.


Timed tests will cause more of this for my son, pressure tests where he isn't fully prepared will be worse than that, he is now in a private college prep school.

And you wonder why Crewton Ramone is the alter ego of a pissed off math tutor; this is what they do to kids and this kid is my son. He did not come into the world this way and he did not always behave this way especially during math. We rarely used paper and pencil just blocks or a white board and STILL look at his face in the first video...now does he looked stressed or like he's having fun racing his brother in this video? Then look at the first video...note his hands and how long it took him as compared to the younger boys who have yet to be damaged.



Don't worry though, they eventually got to the younger boy too...

Manipulatives to drawings to symbols.

Like language, it's important that the students hear the patterns as well as see any patterns before they write down the symbols. Multiplication is a great example of this idea. Long before students see a multiplication table or worksheet young students should be singing songs, using blocks and hearing the patterns that are associated with the various multiplication tables. Then when they are exposed to the symbols, they understand what they mean. They understand that three times three is written 3 x 3 and that it really is the same as nine. The equals sign and all the symbols are understood. If your children are playing with blocks they can see that nine is a square number and what that means. Nine really is square even though the symbol for nine has curves and a circle. 9. Look at it, it doesn't look very square, little kids and even some older kids can get caught up in the symbols instead of understanding the concepts and what the symbols represent.

Parents and teachers can use worksheets to reinforce math learning but they should be used sparingly to introduce new ideas, if at all. With manipulative based teaching we always start in the concrete with base ten blocks, then move to sketching then at last to the symbols. Since most worksheets are symbol based, it's only natural that they should be used last not first. Concept based teaching techniques emphasize understanding the concepts long before students see the symbols. In fact, a lot of little kids can start getting complex math concepts well before they can write complex symbols, however understand for everything there is a season the best time to introduce large numbers of math facts is early on according to their ability to generate brainwaves in particular ranges at particular ages. In the early years they are in "download mode." So large numbers of facts can be downloaded and when I say facts I don't just mean math facts. When have finally figured out early is better when teaching languages and rather than being confused they switch between languages easily. Also as an aside if you have various base en block sets in different colors he kids will switch between blocks easily, it's he parents ha get confused and often pass it on to the kids but left to their own devices they know what a three looks like with Mortensen Blocks as compared to Cuisenaire rods...the nine is blue with one teal with the other, occasionally autistic kids or other learning challenged kids can have problems but not as often as you might think. If it is a problem, stick with one or the other but years of experience tells me the parents have a much harder time than most "normal" students. You will find this in teacher training and linked in many places, a post called house for a duck explains this a little more in depth than I need to go into it here.

Think of like an Ipod, you come in clean slate and down load for about 12 years or so and then you begin playing he songs. In other words first you "download" the info and store it, THEN you use that information. First you get the thoughts or ideas then you think about those thoughts or ideas. First you acquire those thoughts and beliefs then you create a life based on those thoughts and beliefs. First you acquire he programs then you run the programs. First you acquire the math facts and formulas then you apply the math facts and formulas. First knowledge then application. My focus is on helping you help your students with step one: making 45 addends and 400 multiplication facts available for instant recall in a FUN way, NOT drill hardship and stress that leads to what you see in the first video up there.

Here is a page of testimonials.

Using math worksheets 

to introduce math concepts is literally teaching backwards.

 

First Grade Math Worksheets should be introduced after quite a bit of playing has been done. That way the worksheet is just practice that allows you to see how well they understand the math concepts you are teaching. They can be used for drills but using drills at an early age has unintended consequences, you don't want to turn them off at an early age and excessive drills will do just that eventually. The worksheets should be easy to begin with and then become more challenging as the student's confidence builds. They should be thought of as practice instead of as tests or drills or something to be fretted over. Some students develop math anxiety at an young age and worse test anxiety AS YOU CAN PLAINLY SEE. Of course formally educated teachers with degrees from American universities are ever so much smarter than I am and we have the Post Traumatic Math Disorder in many, many students to prove it.

If the child firmly grasps the concepts any math worksheet should be simple or at worst “challenging.” If children don't have the writing skills required you can actually do the writing for them. Be sure THEY tell you what to write, you are not doing it for them just writing the symbols. This is more for parents or home schoolers because teachers in school will find this impossible unless the number of children is very small in their classroom and we all know they rarely are.

Often times it's a good idea to play with the concepts for several days and then give the worksheet on Thursday. If the students don't complete it they can take it home and/or they can finish it off on Friday. If you are homeschooling or just giving your child a head start, be sure you play for a couple of days at leaste before you get out a worksheet. With first graders you can often use the same or very similar worksheets every few months and it will be "new" again. This is normal it takes quite a few impressions to get information into the long term memory. Many teachers lament that after Summer Vacation or even Christmas or Spring Break their students don't remember most of what they have been taught. FEAR NOT. It's not about storage hat capacity is unlimited it about retrieval. It's still “in there” and this is a great time to bring it out with a practice sheet on material they are already familiar with...it also can give you a gauge on what you should play next. This is education. Edu cate: "to draw forth" not "to cram in."

Worksheets are great for reinforcement, and great teaching tools when used properly. I have quite a few worksheets but I don't make them easy to find or get to on purpose because to many will go there first and use them incorrectly. Dig around my site there are lots of FREE ones and then there is a collection of them here but you need a password and some training.

These were the worksheets we were playing with in the first video...basically you make nines and tens. If done right playfully, your kids will be able to make change faster than a cash register...if done incorrectly you get what you see in video one. CHOOSE. My sons went to public school against my will BTW.

Using the Making Change Worksheets. (Be sure you have the latest JAVA update to view.)


Practice and fun will make it easy to do calculations in their head, no pencil no paper. Automatic.

Now that you have been well admonished:

FREE WORKSHEETS HERE at Crewton Ramone's House of Math. More free worksheets and books coming soon. Maybe get a lifetime password while you can still make 10 easy payments of $35.00 and be in for life. The trig page alone is worth tha...

PS Yes it is infuriating that this happened to my own sons, but I think their sons will not be subject to same and later in life like me they will know first hand of which they speak should they decide to pick up this torch and carry it further...or maybe they'll just be singers or play drums. Happy more important than mathy.

Algebra with Base Ten Blocks For A 6 Year Old.

 Your kids could be doing this.  Just get a password. 
 
From an email I got:

 "Made much more "math" sense since I had paid $50 for the 2 previous years. 

 And when you announced that your price was going up for the lifetime membership, it was an easy decision. Thanks for doing what you do. My 6 year old is now working on division since yesterday and it was so easy for him. We worked on division facts from 100 down and he only missed a handful. Not bad for his first day. But of course, working on multiplication for the last 6 months made it a whole lot easier. 

When we were done, he said "division is not that hard, why do they wait to teach it in 4th grade?" (He has a fourth grade cousin.)

I'm sending you a link of me and my son factoring Tri-nomials if you get a chance to glance at it. Nothing grand, especially since you have seen it thousands of times with other 6 year olds.



"I am really appreciating your website and all those YouTube videos. I needed to get a firm grasp on so many concepts and how they are related, never mind how to then go about teaching it. I feel that this is the first real opportunity for me to actually really understand what I was taught all those years ago. All that 'stuff' that I had no idea what they were talking about, clueless as to the why too, and so also promptly forgot pretty much everything.

Thank you for all your time, energy and effort!
Sincerely,

JP, UK"

Well I have good news and I have bad news. The good news.

Sale will be happening on Friday 27 Nov 2015.

Lots of Items on sale.

I will have passwords on sale. I will have gift certificates for training on sale. I will include a training with some kits...and of course 10 pay options.

Now the bad news: prices are going up...just a few bucks here and there; but pretty much all plastic is going up...like a DCSK will be $551.25 instead of $525.00 mostly reflecting shipping costs.

Combo kits will be 95 bucks instead of 88.75...etc...but during the sale they will be less...and as you notice we haven't had a sale since June and depending on how this one goes it will be quite a while until the next one...whether this goes well or not.

Might want to tell your friends to get on it NOW.

Base Ten Block Comments And Testimonials.

  Well this was pleasant. You can find it here not on my testimonials page. It would be nice if a few more of you put up some comments/testimonials. Because of course I think Crewton Ramone's House Of Math great but who cares what I think, lol! People want to hear from YOU. People who have used it, paid money for passwords and blocks have some experience. Of course they are skeptical. They should be. Math has always been a mystery and hard and their own experience tells them math is anything BUT fun.

I'm here to show that some of those decisions you made as a teen or pre-teen regarding math may need to be reevaluated with some new information. Here are a few people that have discovered the difference base ten blocks coupled with a good methodology can make...

I find math kits and books that are squeaky clean never been used...which is sad because the blocks properly employed are powerful tools AND they are FUN. They make learning math fun and easy. Learning through play is a natural thing for little kids. Many parents have forgotten how to have fun and play, even less when it comes to math. But slowly but surely I am hearing more of these stories, which is pleasing. But again I am not the one who needs to hear these stories, OTHERS do. I've known this for more than two decades.

But up until quite recently there was no one showing people not just the HOW but the WHY. And more than, that not just the theory, but theory in practice via video and screencasts that you can watch as many times as you want. I also do training that as you can see from people's comments quite literally  BLOW THEIR MINDS. Because it is my hallucination is that math is EASY and fun and I often end up getting groups of people to hallucinate with me.

Also you may want to tell people NOW as opposed to later because now prices are low and later prices will be going UP.  Some of you may remember just a few years ago when a lifetime passwas just $100.00. Believe it or not I have had some of those people send me money again when they see all the new stuff I add...

y= mx+b explained.

Part of the reason prices are going up is because people have the mentality that if prices are low it must not be worth anything. When I was selling passwords for a buck I could not make a sale. When I was selling them for 5 bucks I got a few more. When I started selling them for 150 bucks suddenly I was selling lots of them. This is ridiculous to me but my marketing people and a in addition to them, a billionaire explained it to me in no uncertain terms. Perceived value. Fine.

However, YOU can add to that perceived value by commenting,  "liking" other comments and posting your experiences on social media. But either way apparently if it's not $500+ it must not be worth anything as a math curriculum.

So very shortly prices will go up. They are telling me to raise prices as is. Anybody that has been here for a while knows every time I raise prices I give you even more stuff on password protected pages and more "content" in general. Those who were clever enough to get a lifetime way back when they were $100.00 have written to thank me more than once and occasionally send me money too. Which is really really really appreciated. Most people even at $249.00 are AMAZED at how much bang they get for their buck...and I'm only just getting started.

YOU are the most powerful force. People don't come because of me exactly; they come because of you. So your continued support via comments, shares likes etc is much appreciated and indeed needed for growth. And the more it grows the more pages and content I put up. I promise I will never rest on my laurels. Too much math to do.

I have to walk a fine line because I want to compensate people for spreading the word but at the same time paid testimonials are not worth as much as "organic" ones. So I am looking at an affiliate program where if they pay for a course because you recommended them you will get compensated. It will be non different from you telling them about a good movie except when they go see it you get a small portion of the ticket price....and my movies teach them math or how to have fun teaching math. So everybody wins.

People have found that the more money and customers I make and get, the more content they get.  I am also still selling combo kits that as I have said have barely been used if at all but mine come with passwords and training...my reasoning is simple. The reason they are so pristine is because they never got used. They never got used because mom and dad didn't know how to use them or how powerful (and fun) they could be. So if you get a kit from me you don't just get a kit you get passwords and some VIDEO TRAINING.  By the way IN PERSON training is happening in Dec. DETAILS HERE. For these crazy super mondo deals go here.

Just think, just by sharing you experience you might inspire others to share theirs, which might in turn help a child or entire family avoid a lifetime of fear and frustration with mathematics, just because they decided they might give it a try.  Or maybe they are on the fence and yours is the comment that resonates and pushes them over. Thanks to all the people the give spontaneous testimonials via email and FB.

Here are a few pages that could use comments from YOU. Thanks to people like Anna and Kirk and Lisa and many others who post comments on a semi-regular basis.  Here is your chance to join them.

http://www.crewtonramoneshouseofmath.com/homeschool-math-Subtraction-book.html

http://www.crewtonramoneshouseofmath.com/How-To-Teach-Trig-To-An-Eight-Year-Old.html

http://www.crewtonramoneshouseofmath.com/parents-teachers.html

Note that doesn't say "school," it says "district."

I will put more comments boxes on more pages in the future. If you can't make a comment because you are shy or whatever then please put a like on some body else's so people can see it's not just four guys in a room pretending.

People who actually use this get results, and as you can see, they get GREAT results. Shasta could use more training but even without it she is getting test scores well ahead of her peers. Shasta is a motivated young teacher...and she has found that these blocks combined with my methodology make for a winning combination.  If you use the methods I have outlined in these blog posts and on my website you will find that you have great successes too.

Thanks for your support.

If you want to leave a comment here feel free:

Base Ten Blocks and Math Anxiety.

I have seen students whose confidence is so shaken by calculus or algebra that adding small numbers is no longer certain....the reptilian brain kicks in even basic operations become difficult...too much stress or anxiety and you can literally do about two things: fight or flee. This is why in martial arts you fight calmly and better yet with no conscious mind....otherwise the reptile kicks in and you can't remember what to do even if you have practiced for certain situations 1000 times.

I remember a student who was excellent in the dojo...got his belts easily etc. Went to his first competition and got his ass kicked by another guy who was considered less skilled...because he panicked and by his own admission "forgot everything." I have also heard of stories where guys get in street fights and lose with guys who are untrained because of the same reason.

What does this have to do with math and base ten blocks? PLENTY.

It's the EXACT same thing when a student with test anxiety is tested on subject matter with which they would otherwise be completely conversant and familiar...but get an "F" because during the test they can't think.

I remember a student who I worked with coming back with an "F" on material we both knew he knew:

"What was I thinking!" he exclaimed looking at one answer that should have been obvious and to which he wrote a completely wrong answer.
"You weren't thinking."
"Gee, thanks..."
"I'm not criticizing you...you couldn't think..."

And I then went on to explain what happened, and for that hour we did no math but talked about how to handle test anxiety and math anxiety and did some breathing exercises...explaining the flight or flight syndrome so they understand that what's happening is not only normal but HARD WIRED IN for SURVIVAL removes the "I'm stupid" thoughts, allows them to recognize it when it starts to occur and nip in the bud and deal with it instead of letting it run away with their their thought and emotions.

This student went on to pass his class with quite a few 100's something for which I'm famous, (check these vids out) and his parents gave me a hefty tip at the end of the year...he might have gotten an "A" if he hadn't started of with so many scores under 40...lol...and that's another thing too many parents wait till the kid is failing before they "breakdown" and get help. 

This also why the emphasis is on having FUN and playing: so the reptilian brain never gets a chance to kick in and your child's attitude and associations with math are pleasant and positive. As they get older math anxiety is avoided altogether because they understand math and the relationships and how it all goes together...and the symbols are easily decoded and understood.

Base ten blocks make math easy. There are silly people who think base 10 blocks will lead to "block dependency" where the kids can't do math without the blocks. Ludicrous. My blog and website are proof positive that this couldn't be further from the truth. Do any of the kids on that testimonial page get to bring blocks with them to public school when they take the test? Of course not.

Are DBoyz doing algebra and multiplication in their heads without blocks?  Of course they are. Your kids can too...and I can teach you how to do it yourself: check out this parent/teacher training page.

"Soon" (a very relative term at the house of math) there will be an audio course and more on the training page...here is a transcript of the beginning:

Well Hello! and welcome to Crewton Ramone’s 6 Disc -- probably 7 Disc, Audio Program--there is a bonus disc there with a guided Meditation--but what I want to do here over the course of this audio program is get you to understand that anybody can teach math the way I teach math, that YOU CAN use base 10 manipulatives to make math fun and easy, whoever your students are and whatever your mathematical background is; whether you had a good experience or a bad experience, whether you're male or female, you're a homeschoolers, you’re a teacher, a parent that has a kid in public school and you just want to able to help with math or give them “enrichment” this audio program is for you.

Now, specifically the target market that I’m looking for are the people with young children-- if this describes you then you are definitely in the right place. If you are a parent that has young children, definitely children under the age of 12, under the age of 8 better than that under the age 6 even better than that. Well let's say you have a student in--I don’t know if they are in grade school or middle school or high school...wherever they are this audio program is for you and if you have decided that you want to try and help your student or help your child understand mathematics then you are in the right place.

Now in order to do this I want you to be able to use these tools to their best effect, you just need to have some basic understanding, understand some principles and concepts, and you too can teach mathematics, you too can do what I do -- so many would say, "oh you are a genius" or "you are this or that", "oh--you are teacher: you’ve been doing it for 20 years" - "oh you’ve been..." {etc, etc}

Okay, when I was doing this and was two or three years in, people were like, "Wow! I can’t believe you’ve only been doing this for two or three years!", Okay? The idea is Jerry Mortensen had the same problem, everybody was like "Oh! Jerry is special he created the programs...of course", "Maria Montessori she is special because she created the -- Mario Montessori -- whoever it is, right?" -- they all have a crowd following that says, “you can do it but I can’t”...”you are special", "you are different” and what we are trying to do, and Jerry especially, but myself included, is trying to make you understand that you can do it also.


This blog and website is about removing excuses. There was a time when you spent 500 bucks and you got a kit and there were 4 hours of video. TOTAL. That's it. Watch these vids and now you are on your own. Not anymore.

If you wanted more training you could fly to Idaho once or twice a year...IF they were having a training: there hasn't been a training there for years now.