son freezes up when he has to do math

Hi,

My son is a 5th grader. He excels in every subject in school (mostly As with a couple of Bs inbetween), is very outgoing, and always gets raving reviews from his teachers about his manners etc. The one place he is struggling is math. We have tried everything, but he cannot remember the basic math facts. When we make him do sums at home he just stares at the paper and starts shaking. This is not for every part of math though. Only when he sees multiplication sums. Last year he had a fantastic teacher in school who encouraged him a lot and made him actually say he liked the subject. This year he is back to square one.

I am worried because next year he goes to middle school and work load will increase multiplefold there. Do any of you have imaginative ways in which he can remember the basics of multiplication (fun way to learn the tables)?

 

Thanks a lot Rakhii. He is enrolled in extra math classes. He does all his homework, and tests, but because he freezes, takes longer than usual to finish his tests. The first grade he gets is always a D, but after the teacher lets him resit it, he gets B. But don't want him suffering in middle school.

 

I had enrolled him in Kumon earlier, but was not happy with the center near my place. We moved him to another learning center, where his general grades improved, but there is no way to make a kid memorize stuff. Thats what I was looking for...some way to memorize and retain the stuff he memorizes.

Thanks for the suggestion though!

 

Thank you all for the suggestions. Another avenue we are looking at is seeing if there are any apps for the IPad. That way if we want him to do something constructive during our many loooong road trips, he may not pout. I am taking all these suggestions to use during the upcoming holidays. Yup...its 4 months away, but I know from experience that 4months can go by in a flash.

 

Thanks for the tips Rihana. The school is following common core and we are in constant communication with his math teacher. It just hurts to see him when he does his math, but that is a subject he can never escape. Give him lines to memorize for a speech or a play and he remembers everything in a very short amount of time.