Well, if he were asking for broccoli when all the kids were asking for cupcakes, would you deny him the broccoli?
If he's asking, go where he takes you. My son wanted this HUGE 100s chart on his wall. I was afraid of what friends would say. I let him put it behind the door so you couldn't really see it w/ the door closed. Ha Ha Ha.
I also tend to de-school the house when friends come over. I got busted a couple of months ago w/ "Re-forming Gifted Education" left out on the couch when a friend came over. It turned out great b/c her son's preK teacher had just told her that in 30yrs of teaching, she had never met a kid as gifted as her son, so she had lots of questions for me which I was happy to answer.
Regarding the math, you can write it down for him. I think alot of math at this age though should be mental math. I use Singapore Math and Rightstart Math to teach it b/c frankly, I learned by rote. Now I'm much more proficient w/ my mental math and the boys have learned it from the beginning.
for ex:
58+13=58+10+3=68+3=68+2+1=70+1=70. I know it seems long compared to carry/borrow, but the kids get fast very quickly and intuitively begin to make the 10s and trade. Same with subtraction. My just turned 5yr old will do 54-8 by 54-4-4=50-4=46 or 16-9 as 1 gets to 10, 6 gets to 16, so 16-9 is 1+6=7.100-46 is 4 gets me to 50, then 60,70,80,90, 100 so 54. Later we'll get to 16-9=17-10...it's based on 5s and 10s.
I LOVE the Rightstart Abacus for demonstrating the above strategies especially for 4yr olds. It's different from the usual abacus in that each rung is broken into 5 blue and 5 yellow beads. So kids quickly see 8+5 as 5+5+3 and very quickly are able to transpose numbers and turn them around etc. My boys are quicker at mental math than I am.
Ok probably more than you wanted to know lol
Dazey
