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kbfsc
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| Posted: Sept 15 2014 at 3:17pm | IP Logged
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Hi friends,
I searched for discussions here regarding kids that are great at math, and found nothing from the last few years. So I wondered if there are any new insights. My 8-yo son appears to be one of those people for whom math comes very easily. Math comes naturally to me, too, so I hope I'm up for the challenge! I want him to be free to move at his pace, but I don't want him to miss some crucial concept. Right now we're working with Math Mammoth, and it's pretty good, but he's getting bored. What would you do? Let him work ahead? The next thing I have is Teaching Textbooks 4.
TIA!
Kiera
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Kiera
happy mama of ds '02, dd '03, ds '06, dd '09 and little ones in heaven
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jawgee
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| Posted: Sept 15 2014 at 4:07pm | IP Logged
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My 8YO, who is also good in Math, started TT4 last year and is just finishing it up. He'll start TT5 in a month or so.
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Monica
C (12/2001), N (11/2005), M (5/2008), J (8/2009) and three angels
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ekbell
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| Posted: Sept 15 2014 at 4:28pm | IP Logged
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The (Canadian, with no answer key) math workbooks I use have a marvellous innovation called a pre-test. Before starting a chapter, my children take the pre-test, answering all the questions they can and putting question marks on all the questions they can't answer.
I then go over the pre-test and decide what parts of the unit I need to assign. If the child does the pre-test perfectly we might well skip that unit and move to the next one.
I also customarily only assign half the available work on a particular topic. If the child does well, we move on. If she does poorly, we go over the topic again, work through the erroneous problems together and then I assign the remaining problems.
Since we start each unit by trying a bit of every topic in the unit, I know that we're not missing anything but since we spend as little time as possible on anything my children have proven they can do, there are minimal complaints of boredom.
And we have more time and energy to spend on the topics where my children do need extra instruction and practice. :-)
[I admit that the lack of an answer key provides further incentive to avoid assigning unneeded busy work. I do use a calculator when reasonable but still.... ]
I'd also recommend searching for living math books to keep interest alive. I personally think these work best as bed time choices or leisure reading rather then part of lesson time.
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DominaCaeli
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| Posted: Sept 15 2014 at 10:32pm | IP Logged
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We don't use TT or Math Mammoth, so I can't comment specifically, but my 8yo son is also very good at math, and I have allowed him to work at his own pace the whole way through. We were using RightStart, so I was teaching him the lessons for the past few years--I was right there alongside him, so I was able to make sure he was understanding the material before we moved on. I was also able to do orally or skip sections that were naturally obvious to him. (For example, I would assign him half the problems for that day if he found it all to be a breeze, or we would cover two lessons in one day if the explanation took very little time--as it often does for him.) So at this point, he's a few grade levels ahead, and that has worked just fine for us.
One way I have tried to keep things fresh is by using more than one curriculum at a time. For example, during the geometry section of RightStart Level E last year, I had him doing some Singapore alongside--some of 5A/B for review, and some of their Challenging Word Problems workbook. He really dislikes busywork, as do I, but I want to make sure he has enough repetition to have mastered the material. Having him do a bit of review while still having his main lesson be a challenge has been a good balance for us, and using a variety of curricula at once has allowed us to meet that. This year he's doing Challenge Math, RightStart Level G, Singapore NEM, and Jacob's Algebra all at the same time, little by little--and I'm guessing that getting through it all will take a couple years. He likes the variety, and it has helped keep him interested and challenged. I'm sure this depends on personality, though--your son might not like the variety. So it's just a thought. :)
I mentioned Challenge Math, and that's one book I highly recommend for an advanced math student. My son loves it. It has chapters on topics not often covered in elementary programs and it's just perfect for the way his brain works. I believe there are several different versions: Primary Challenge Math, Upper Elementary Challenge Math, and then just Challenge Math. I'm not sure what the differences are among them as we're just using the last one, but they might be worth looking into.
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Celeste
Joyous Lessons
Mommy to six: three boys (8, 4, newborn) and four girls (7, 5, 2, and 1)
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Kristie 4
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| Posted: Sept 15 2014 at 11:00pm | IP Logged
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My math gifted child used Math U See until she got through Zeta. Worked for her as she just did the first page of the lesson worksheets, possibly (but not always) one of the review pages and on to the next lesson. She went from there to the Jacobs and Foerster's highschool texts.
She loved doing this as she could just zoom along. We hit Algebra at the end of 5th and used the Key To Algebra first couple of books and then went into Jacobs Algebra. She did that in a year and 1/2 and ditto with the Geometry. So we kept moving forward but weren't stressed about the rate!
Hope that helps!
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Kristie in Canada
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4Real Forums : Living and Loving Numbers
Topic: really good at math
