I totally agree with Kriston when she says that those problems are very relative to age. It is much easier to work with younger child who is resisting something (simply doing it with them will be a remedy)
Not with my kid!
Last year, we would spend a full hour together on dumb homework that he could have done with ease in 5 minutes 3+ years earlier. I was working with him. I said, "Just get it done and then you can play!" I said, "You have to show the teacher that you already know it." I tried all those things. None of it worked. He was miserable and acting out at home and at school. He had no respect for his teacher, and he was losing respect for me. He hated math.
What is he getting out of that? Nothing good!
We moved on to geometry, and he could do 10 times the number of problems in half the time! His joy in math returned. His respectful attitude returned. He did the problems willingly--eagerly!--because they were hard for him. He asks for hard now! And that's what I want!
He says he wants to stop cleaning his room, and I say, "No. Life is not all fun and games. You made the mess, you clean it up." He does. Drudgery galore!
I really do hear what you're saying, Ania, but I just don't see it working with my child. I've been there. I tried it. It was the exact wrong thing for him! And I don't think my child is in the minority of HG+ kids. I just hear stories like mine far too often.
I think computation skills are important, but I also think that with a spiral curriculum, the opportunities to fill in the gaps are easy to come by.
If you do drill with a kid and it isn't killing the love of math or the respect for the teacher, then I'm all for it. But I think these two problems are far more likely in the GT population and far more harmful than the danger of not learning the times tables (or whatever) RIGHT THIS SECOND. The kid will memorize the multiplication tables eventually. But if he comes to hate math and think all teachers are idiots, then multiplication is the least of your worries!
