This is an interesting topic for me. I'm having my DD6 do about 10 minutes of math a day this summer, which is not expected by her school (in addition to reading practice, which is expected). I've thought a lot about the why question.
- I feel that the school is not quite moving her along at the pace she is capable of. This is a chance to get her up to her actual level of challenge. During the school year we just don't have the time to do extra. I don't have to worry about this backfiring because the school will let her work at the level she's at next Fall.
- So far she has a love/hate relationship with math. As near as I can figure it out, she hates having to confront something that doesn't make sense to her yet, but loves the mastery once it occurs. At ten minutes a day, I'm hoping she'll learn that she is not being asked to climb Mt. Everest, that she's being asked to do very manageable chunks, and that comprehension really is the outcome of just focusing for a few minutes.
- As a more general point, I want her to get over this business of throwing a drama-queen death-of-Hamlet scene when she's asked to focus on something. Particularly, when her MOTHER asks her to focus on something. Again, at ten minutes a day, I'm hoping that the cause-effect relationship will start to sink in -- just focus, and we're actually done really quickly.
The ideas of giving the kid some partnership in the scheduling is interesting to me. I will try to work that in.
