Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Recommended Resources Math curriculum and getting too far ahead thoughts

My DD7 (finishing second grade tomorrow) *loves* math and is always begging for math workbooks. On a whim, I ordered Singapore 2A, 2B, 3A, 3B and Challenging Word Problems 2. According to the Singapore site, there were topics in 2A/2B that she was not taught in her second grade which is why I got them.

In 2 weeks she has finished 2A, 2B and 3A. She thinks the Challenging WP 2 is too easy. She is already about halfway through 3B. It suddenly occured to me that perhaps having her do third grade math prior to third grade was not a good idea. She starts in the GT program next year and they will be doing compacted math (all of 3rd and part of 4th grade) next year, but even so I am wondering if I should have her continue.

She LOVES these books and is already asking for 4A and 4B. But I think that maybe I would like to go a different direction? DH thinks she is not "really" learning 3rd grade math and that she will be fine and I shouldn't worry. (Boredom was an issue for her this year.)

Suggestions for things that would keep her math happy but not necessarily covering the curriculum she will see next year?

First, I bet she *is* really learning 3rd grade maths! As I see it you have two choices: let her get so far ahead that the school will see that they have no choice but to do something special with her; or switch now to something off the mainstream. Frankly I think given how far you've gone on the first path already, and especially since she's begging for more, I'd go further along it - she's probably already learned a substantial amount of what the GT programme were going to teach her next year! So let her do 4A and 4B, make sure she does them thoroughly, make up problems on the earlier stuff for her and check she's really got it; go on higher if and when she needs it too; and then explain the situation to the school at the start of next term and let them deal with it, it's their job after all!

If you do want to go sideways, I think there were good ideas in your earlier thread on this - I'd suggest the Murderous Maths books especially as being good for recreational stuff. Won't meet your DD's workbook desires, though, which is one reason for suggesting that you just go with what she wants, provided she's really learning the stuff properly.

Sorry, I meant my DH's comment as a kind of funny. I know she's really getting it. She's able to work through different kinds of problems and extrapolate what she has learned to other real world problems. I know she gets it.


Do you know a US source for these? I was not able to find them.

I also looked at the Life of Fred books recommended in my other thread and thought they were too advanced for her, but when she finishes 3B I think she might be ready for them!

She loves logic puzzles, but she seems to have this insatiable need to sit down and work math problems!!!

I'm frankly astounded at how quickly she mastered simple multiplication and division. They only touch on it slightly in second grade in our district but once I showed her one example of how to do a problem like 345x9 she was able to do any problem of that type. And when I showed her how to do simple long division (like 345/9) she was able to do any problem of that type. And she's doing multi step word problems that require both multiplication and division to find the answer.

I know a lot of kids here are much more advanced than that, but I was really surprised at how quickly she totally and completely understood the concept.

Ah, I misread your tone - sorry!
amazon.com shows several as available (albeit with "ships in 2-4 weeks") - search for murderous maths (with the s :-)
Or abebooks.com - mostly second hand copies and will mostly be shipping from the UK, but should work.
I know exactly what you mean, it's the same with my DS - what's astonishing is not so much that he knows these things, as that he snaps them up so voraciously. Have fun!

Well, you can send her over here to homeschool math with my 7 year old. They sound very similar. He learned multi-digit multiplication and long division from paying attention to his older sister's lessons...vs. being taught directly. I'm sure they'd have a blast making up problems for each other on our white board.

On a serious note, I wouldn't know what to do if I had a child like this at a public school. I think I'd be inclined to let her do what she wanted and fight the public school to provide at her level, whatever that ends up being by the Fall. You could also throw in some problem solving (check out Art of Problem Solving, Math Olympia, The Math League for resources you can buy) and some other math concepts. Some ideas are converting to and from different bases (binary, hexadecimal, etc), statistics, probability, business math, stewardship, math books like Murderous Math, and anything else not in a typical school curriculum. Perhaps some computer programming might be interesting as well.

Zaccaro books are good as well - Primary Grade Challenge Math.

Forging ahead w/ SM has it's risks. Ask me how I know. On the one hand, you're feeding their interest...on the other hand you're only making the divide wider w/ the classroom. There's no easy answer.

I moved into othe arenas with my son...chemistry and physics and history...but of course that is making problems in those areas later on...delaying the problem.

We homeschool, but I'm still working on reigning in my DS7. I'm not comfortable with him doing higher level maths yet, so we're going for depth and breadth. I had a thread a bit ago asking a very similar question and got some wonderful ideas.

http://giftedissues.davidsongifted....chooling_How_to_handle_ma.html#Post45283

Thanks all! I'm going to give the Zaccaro Primary Challenge book a try.

I would like to order the Murderous Maths books, but money is an issue right now. Our library does not carry them, which is too bad.

BethG - my library system carries the Zaccaro books so you can look at yours for those.

Thanks all for the suggestions. Our library does not carry the Zaccaro books, but I am going to order Primary Challenge. I think working along those lines is a better idea than getting deeper into Singapore at this point!