ColinsMum, thank you for taking the time to give such detailed, sound advice. I had seen your other thread before-- I think it might've actually been the first one I added to my watched-topics list. I just went back and reread it carefully. I love the What To Do When Stuck rules, and the thing I like best about your approach to your son's learning is that you strive to keep him challenged with tough work that's just within his grasp.
I think my son will probably need some periodic teacher input, and I don't think he'd be likely to interrupt her to say he needed help with something he didn't know. I don't think they're likely to stick him in a corner with the computer during math anyway, because of their apparent beliefs about socialization, etc. (with which I tend to agree, although it does present an additional constraint that seems to make the situation impossible to resolve perfectly), as well as possible reluctance to have him hog the computer too.
I still haven't had a chance to discuss things with his teacher from next year. She may also want us to assume more of a teaching role with math, correcting homework, etc., but I don't know. I tend to doubt it at this stage, since it sounds like they're not planning to have him work alone. I think I will do what you say, and see how well the cluster group works this year, since you're right that the fit is as good as it's going to get for a while.
I think I'd try to be more general than that: I'd emphasise that the situation can change fast with him and that you'll need to review the situation frequently and not necessarily on a predictable schedule. Certainly, don't agree now on the exact material he'll be doing in the autumn unless you're sure it's currently a long way ahead of him! We had a meeting in the summer in which we discussed generalities, and agreed to have a meeting to discuss details at the beginning of the following year.
I think this is great, practical advice which I will follow. I'll probably start by asking how often reassessments will happen, who we can approach with ongoing issues with level/pace, etc. The answer will surely be the teacher, but these questions will either get everyone in the same frame of mind on flexibility, or at least prompt a needed discussion.
Are you and DW happy to do the actual teaching and planning of his maths? If so, then doing teaching at home and "homework" at school may be the way to go, practically speaking. Don't overestimate the stage at which many elementary school teachers start to feel insecure with maths themselves, by the way.
I have been reluctant to do it much, mostly over fear that I'll give him a bad conceptual framework on which to build. So his math "instruction" for some time now has mostly taken the form of me pointing him at a task on the IXL website and turning him loose, and just answering specific questions if he asks them. That's not a good solution, though-- that website doesn't feature any lessons at all, and though it has explanations when you miss a question, they seem to be pretty poor at teaching concepts. I think I'm going to be forced to get over my reluctance.
Because of that, I recently bought Singapore Math for third and fourth grade. As far as I can tell from IXL, he's mastered third grade stuff except possibly for some weights and measures, to which he simply hasn't been exposed much and which I don't care about. I bought third grade because I wanted to make sure he didn't have any gaping holes in his knowledge, and we could just skip the parts he knows. So far he's going through it fast and will be ready to do the fourth grade in short order. Singapore Math seems to be a mixed bag-- I'm not in love with the way some of the topics are presented, but others are great-- but in any event I think it's far better than not having a curriculum or any lessons.
Why would he be loaded down if learning spellings is quick for him? Is it that they expect spelling homework that involves writing?
You make good points. It's not just spelling, actually, but vocab too. They seem to do some repetitive reading and vocab stuff in our school. For the next year, I think I will try not to worry too much about his time being wasted in the classroom. He's excited about the skip and it will probably take a while for that excitement to wear off. Time spent on below-level stuff at home will hopefully be minimal, and they might go for giving him advanced vocab work at school.
You can offer to take on any part of the work involved in setting and marking special work for your DS that you feel happy to do and they feel happy to give up.
I'll just make a general offer along those lines. We're happy to do anything.
I don't think doing number theory in Alcumus is going to help by leaving lots of third and fourth grade topics untouched! You do pretty much have to be able to do arithmetic to do number theory
That's the thing. Sort of the way people talk about learning to read enabling reading to learn, I mostly want to get him to a point where his math knowledge enables deeper exploration of whatever interests he may develop. Right now he shows beginning interests in electronics, robotics, programming, etc. where math may help a lot. In addition if we go too long between math sessions, he asks me for math because he misses it. I just don't want to stunt his growth.
Well, I've already got the squeaky shoes. He will just have to learn to enjoy them, as they are past the returns period.
