A New Year: A New Mathematical Journey!

Here we go. The start to a new year. I sure hope everyone has been practicing their facts. Not just multiplication, which is the main focus from third to fifth grade, but division, addition and especially subtraction. Each year subtraction is the slowest and least mastered of all the basic facts. It is so important for students to have these mastered before we can do anything else. But how can this be done? The old fashioned way: PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE! Work on these each day. Write them out, memorize them in order, write them out some more. Say them aloud over and over. Ask a friend, relative, parent to read facts to you and answer them. Try the opposite way. Have them give you an answer to a fact and you give all of the possible facts that could go with it. Mastering the facts will help you become successful and will make your math life so much more positive. That's a fact!