Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Math Substitution in Regular Classroom

We could use a few good ideas on substitute math curriculum. DS7 is in 3rd grade (public no GATE) He has a great teacher and has plenty of enrichment/ independent learning opportunities when he finishes regular classroom work, but math isn't a great fit.

His teacher responded well when we asked her for some differentiation because he was bored and unchallenged with the regular math lessons. She lets him take the unit test before they begin and if he passes w/ 85%-90%, he can do lessons in the 4th grade math book during that unit. GREAT! But- the school uses Envision Math Curriculum and most of the 4th grade lessons are extensions of the same concept. For example, Subtraction w/ three digits to 5+ digits.

I mentioned to her that from experience, when he learns the operations, he seems to understand the concept as a whole. Bigger numbers are more interesting than smaller ones, but still the same concept. I pointed out areas that we have not exposed him to and that might be more challenging but I left it at that.

Any ideas on how to approach a good thing and make it better? Good math curriculum recommendations that I could supply that might work well during that time? We had a Dreambox subscription over the summer- but didn't continue with it once school started. It would need to be something he could do independently.

This is exactly what my DS told me about the Envision math. So, he gets pulled out for "differentiated math instruction group" twice a week now but he has expressed disappointment in it b/c of this very reason. He says the good thing is they get to do "games" or something once they master their lesson ( I think they are math games or logic games), whereas before in regular class they were suppose to just sit there or do the same thing over and over and over. I have no advice for you unfortunately but am interested to hear what other's advise. Envision Math sure is turning out to be quite a dud of curriculum!

For something completely different that thickens problem solving skills, you could look at Beast Academy by Art of Problem Solving. http://www.artofproblemsolving.com/Store/beastacademy.php?
If the style clicks for him (comic book content presentation with puzzle type problems,) it might be pretty motivational.

Alternatively if there are computers in the classroom that he could use, there are a ton of options in that direction.

Well, no surprise, right? This is just like EveryDay Math-- it's just the Pearson version.

Choose your poison, basically-- both are toxic.

Seriously. You called it right HK (of course)!

Ah- the conundrum. Sounds like it is worth bringing up with the teacher and finding some alternatives. Other than math, our DS seems to really enjoy 3rd grade this year. Not exactly challenging- but he seems happy.

I never imagined that I would have a kid that didn't fit the system. And for several reasons, my DH and I really want to make public school a "good enough" fit. In terms of being an effective advocate, I think I'm doing a good job at building supportive relationships at his school, but I've also taken a very conservative approach.

If he is happy for the most part and being challenged in his extracurricular activities (he is turning out to be very musically talented) is it fine to let him coast through elementary school?

No. We are in the same situation. The child spends 7 hours each day learning exactly the wrong way to function. Heavy extracurriculars are not enough to counteract that.

If he is happy for the most part and being challenged in his extracurricular activities (he is turning out to be very musically talented) is it fine to let him coast through elementary school?


The answer to this is, probably not. First, do you know his level of giftedness? I did feel the same way as you - to allow my son to coast through elementary school - for the first year. In K, my son learned very little academically but he was having a ball and it wasn't SO academic that it bothered him. Once he hit first grade, it started to bother him that he was learning nothing. What I also noticed is that he was sitting in school all day, tuning out, handing in worksheets within 30 seconds of them being handed out and not growing at all. Very quickly, my son became perfectionistic (as he was used to doing everything perfectly in 30 seconds or less), he developed zero work ethic, and began "dumbing down". These are all terrible things to have develop and continue throughout any period of time in school.

Our DD had the same problem in 3rd grade, but it was a Montessori classroom so the math is a little different anyway. But they did just keep adding digits, and on top of that they insisted that she make all corrections to math errors before moving on (to the next digit, so no big incentive anyway). That was when we started trying different things outside of school--unfortunately they were not receptive to doing anything more for her at school, even though it was a not-cheap private school. Ultimately we did EPGY for awhile, but have since become quite enamored of AoPS and their free and quite catchy Alcumus problem sets. But it was all outside school--EPGY and Alcumus are online, so that would have been a stretch to do inside school anyway. This year the teacher is letting her work through an AoPS book on her own. Also we've been doing IMACS (live classes, in person) for a couple of years and she really loves those, but they seem to be limited to cities in the Southeastern U.S. Unfortunately, as discussed in a recent thread elsewhere on this site, a downside of trying to accelerate outside school is that the kid may end up having to take the same old math classes anyway (i.e., not being allowed to accelerate), so it's worth considering doing more 'enrichment' /lateral stuff--there is also a good article about this on the AoPS site by Richard Rusczyk (sp?), here: http://www.artofproblemsolving.com/Resources/articles.php?page=calculustrap

Best of luck!

Very much the same boat as you. Kinder was fun- not intellectually stimulating, but goofy and social. 1st grade was like torture. In fact,he told us awhile back he knew that he had exactly 59 days of 1st grade.... because he was counting. We did testing and a grade skip last year- definitely a happier kid. No doubt he would be better off in a school with more kids "like him." But we have no GATE in our area and affording a private school for gifted seems unrealistic- they are outrageously expensive for our income bracket.

I'm going to check out the BEAST academy stuff and ask his teacher if that might something he can use as substitution.