Hi everyone:
When I recently met with a psychologist who does G&T assessment and consulting, she suggested I try to get DS9 (grade 3, in regular elementary school, gifted in math but much more verbally gifted) tutored in math to: 1) boost his confidence 2) advance his math knowledge and skills to test into a better school 3) deal with the perfectionism issue, where he is REALLY unwilling to try anything he doesn't already know how to do and 4) not have ME involved with this hot-housing because he is probably being even more perfectionistic around me.
I think she is accustomed to dealing with a totally different economic strata than plain old middle class us. The tutors she put me in contact with are great-- and charge anywhere from $100 - 200 per hour! We haven't started with one yet and I was hunting around for less expensive tutors.
At any rate, during this hunt, an acquaintance whose son really likes math suggested we try Kumon. It seems like they emphasize starting a child at a point well below their frustration level, and then doing lots and lots of computational worksheets until the child achieves 100 percent mastery of a particular set of math facts and then moving on to a slightly higher level, and doing the same,with about 15minutes of homework each and every night. I feel like this could address the perfectionism issue, AND help him develop a real comfort with computation. (his school does not focus on developing this at all.) on the other hand, he might REALLY REALLY hate the repetition.
Has anybody tried this with a perfectionistic child who is afraid to try something s/he doesn't know ( and an unconfident, not self-directed math learner?)
bk
