I am still going shopping for software this weekend, but we have a book!
I was doing some volunteer work for my son's teacher yesterday, and mentioned that I had not heard back from the school's TAG person about my request for math resources. The school has little in the way of TAG resources until 3rd grade, and although my son's teacher is not trained to work with gifted children, she is a kind, generous person who has made a real effort this year to keep him engaged. She found an out-of-adoption 4th grade text and told me that we could keep it.
You should have seen his face when I gave him the math book and told him that it was his to keep. His whole face lit up, he bounced, and started to chant "my math book" in a silly, squeaky voice he uses when he's really excited. He looked through it for a minute and then told me that he was going to do one page every school day and 3 pages every day on the weekends and in the summer. I was kind of busy when we got home, but he went straight to the table and started the book. About 20 minutes later he came to show me, and explained very seriously that the first lesson was just a "talking lesson" so he was working on the next one too.
The text is very small, and he is trying to write his answers in the book. I think I am going to photocopy the lessons and blow them to about twice their original size. He is SO excited, and I don't want him to run out of steam just trying to copy the problems or write cramped little answers in the text book.
Jill
