I'm sorry to rain on the parade, but some things don't sound right here. What does it mean to "practice concepts"? It makes sense to "practice methods (or algorithms)" and it makes sense to "understand concepts".
Also it is concerning when you say "we go back to previously learned concepts it appears that he has forgotten how to use them". Why does this happen?
I'm concerned that the approach to mathematics may be wrong, and that there may be too much rushing ahead without a solid foundation.
Though to be fair, this does fit nicely with the apparent "vision" for teaching science and mathematics now in primary and secondary.
(Actually, teaching pretty much everything in K through 12.)
I interpreted this as a reluctance to practice
application of concepts.
That is, watch-and-learn = fine, and leads to happiness, a single demonstration or application, fine again, but
do this slightly different application, "I'm bored with this now and I don't want to."
It's probably at least partly a matter of meta-skills being underdeveloped. Kids at this age are not very good at KNOWING when they actually have mastery and when they could use a little more practice/reinforcement. It's a hard target to hit with HG+ kids, though, because they really DON'T need as much repetition as most learners, but they still need (on average) a bit more than they
like.
