DS8 and I are just over the halfway point in our first year of homeschooling. I am keeping the curriculum very light, bordering on unschooling, practically. The one subject that I really want to keep up is math, and we've run into a stumbling block.
Our math curriculum is primarily Life of Fred; we started with Apples this summer (for the sake of completeness), and DS is now nearly finished with Fractions. What has gone from fun reading the book together has turned into crying and screaming. When we get to a tricky "Your turn to play" problem, or a Bridge, he becomes belligerent and claims that the book never taught him how to _____. When I offer to show him how to do it, he refuses and stalks off to his room. We've made almost no progress since the beginning of the year.
We tried Beast Academy briefly back in December, with similar, angry results. If he can't figure out how to do a problem instantly, it is "way too hard" and he won't tackle it.
The problem as I see it is two-fold. One, DS seems resistant to even slightly challenging math. Two: DS seems to have memory issues regarding what we've covered (not only forgetting what we've covered, but forgetting that we even covered the topic at all). And I guess a third problem in that DS gets angry in what I assume is his frustration with the first two problems.
So what to do? He is ahead, grade-wise, in math, but I don't want to back off completely just because he doesn't like doing hard work. I feel like I need to push him a little, but it seems that even the lightest nudge results in frustration.
(I should add that DS is a rather mathy kid. He adores Vi Hart. He delights in playing with mobius strips and reading about fractals. He spends several hours a day writing games in Scratch.)
