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I would like your thoughts on private enrichment classes, programs, or online learning for DD5 whose strength & interest area is math. DD5 is currently in Kumon and bored by the repetitiveness. We are considering E.nopi, area gifted enrichment programs (Center for Gifted and CTD), or online learning (EPGY, GLL, or other) Does anyone have any experience with these and what are your thoughts? I also wonder if any enrichment is necessary at this point since she hasn't started Kindergarten yet.

Thx

Hi snewsom - Sorry your post got missed. Hopefully others will chime in. I have a few comments. Our DS7 loves math, too. He did some EPGY when the local school math wasn't challenging enough, but it's very dry. He has liked things that are not curricula, such as the Penrose the Mathematical Cat series. There's Timez Attack, an online multiplication game (there's a free version). Hmm. Trying to remember pre-kindy. DS did like the Jumpstart online educational software, which includes math games.

Do you feel your DD is quite advanced in math? If yes, have you spoken to the school to see what kinds of opportunities there are in math for your DD? Ultimately, what helped our son in kindy was when the school staff tested him using MAP, and discovered he was quite advanced. The GT teacher basically tutored him in 2nd grade math for the 2nd half of kindy. We had offered to have him do EPGY at the school too, but they came up with a better plan.

I guess I should ask what is your goal? Does your DD want to do more math? Before school starts, I would try to keep it fun. But if she's begging for math, I wouldn't hold her back.

Good luck.

ETA - found a link re: math in GT kids: Encouraging Math Thinking in GT kids

I have a pre-k. �He likes the pattern stuff. �After the tanagrams on the iPhone came the mighty mind and supermind magnetic http://www.fatbraintoys.com/toy_companies/leisure_learning_products_inc/magnetic_mightymind.cfm
Been using a whiteboard and this structured multiplication drill:
He already had a number sense and one to one counting and random simple real life addition and subtraction, from Dora I think, and skip counting from "The math factory" DVD. �I'm a rookie mom, not a teacher but I like this. �There's a lot to be said against drill, but as I see it he's learning to read a math sentence, he'll never be scared of math. �And this way is more than just memorizing. �You memorize equations and skip counting, and use it in a number line, and use the number line as a chart to look up the answer. �Just a whole bunch of stuff going on there.

I like the look of the Montessori golden beads and thousand cubes, tried to make my own with ponybeads and leather cord but gave up. �Found out there's base ten blocks online much cheaper. �Didn't buy them though. �I decided 100 pennies are base 10 and started teaching counting change instead. �Funny story. �My dad just gave my boy a roll of pennies and said, "you told me you know money, what's in your hand?". The boy looked at the wrapper and said "5, that's nickels". My dad said "nope, that's 50. �That's pennies.".�

And we're still working on time. �Sometimes we write 1-7 on the calendar and he puts an x on each day waiting for his dad to get home. �He knows about what seven days means because of that. �I lmao yesterday when I told him something was going to happen in a week. �I said it will happen in one week. �You know when you go xxxx on the days waiting for your dad to get back? �Well this thing is going to happen in "one 7 "x". �Groan. �

I made this clock by getting a $3 clock from the family dollar, unscrewing the cover, white out and marker on the hands. �

The Singapore math books 1A & 1B don't have a lot of repetition and they have a real good reputation, but only if your kid has good motor skills for writing and drawing. �It spends a little while on counting, circling, same and different, more and less, etc.. But since there's less repetition it moves faster and soon you'll need to be willing to write numbers. �I already did the kumon tracing workbook (not the classes, only pre-homeschool)& kumon abc book, as well as phonics related and draw write now lessons with him, so he's ready. �Here comes my brag - last week he copied a 5 by sight without instruction. �It was his last number that he couldn't write. Yay!

I play UNO, guess who, monopoly, go fish, clue, connect four with ds3.5. �I think I'll add battleship, mastermind, checkers, no stress chess, either backgammon or mancala. �As for websites readingeggs.com has a lot of value and gets a lot of use for the price I paid. �For free is kidzui.com if you have room to download firefox and kidzui. �It's not exclusively educational. �It's cartoon network, PBS, the disney channel, and nickelodeon and 5,000 prescreened G-rated YouTube videos and encyclopedia. �My boy has kidzui with starfall, Jumpstart, and readingeggs (logged in with remember me checked) in his favorites file in his kidzui browser. �

IMO there's nothing that you need to do to prepare your kid for school besides potty training and how to do a time-out. �The hubby and I just agreed to keep teaching the boy as long as he wants to keep learning. �I have no idea the long term outcome of teaching a kid too young. �I've read there's drawbacks, just to temper my enthusiasm with a warning. �This post is just me. �We don't really have a definite goal or really any kind of plan where we're going with this yet..

We loved Mathnasium. Not repetitive and definitely not dry- if you google 'mathnasium reviews' you can get some information but we sent my son there in 1st grade and when we tried to discontinue he offered to use his 'own money'. See if there is one in your area and ask for a trial class.

We very recently signed up with Manga High (free, for now). Mixed feelings about it so far. It has a collection of maths games, inc. Prodigi which are "straight" multiple choice collections which adapt in level (get so many right, get given harder questions, get two wrong, get given easier ones). They have a concept of getting medals for high performance and there's also a ranked class list for each game - be aware that they make your child's full real name available (to other users of the site) in this list; I couldn't possibly suggest that you lie about it if you mind this. My DS7 loves a game called Sigma Prime where you have to shoot prime numbers at incoming shooting stars in order to disintegrate (factor) them, and hated one called Bidmas Blaster that involved easy sums but scary game play requiring better fine motor skills than either he or I have.

We started using ALEKS when DS was 5, which was cheaper than most alternatives then (it was before open enrollment or we might have considered EPGY). There are several threads around about ALEKS compared with other options.

Pretty much anything you do is going to get your DD ahead of the class she'll later join, which is potentially a problem, although if it's a problem you're going to have anyway or if she's clamouring for it, you might decide that doesn't matter. I'd certainly say it isn't necessary unless she's making it necessary, though!

Take a look at http://www.mathwizard.net/.

I am using it with my DS6 and he loves it. The grade level work is much more challenging than what they do it school.

(In case anyone googles up this old thread - too old for me to edit my post above.)
I now disrecommend Mangahigh, unless you specifically want video-type games. The useful interface for picking a topic and practising it with increasingly hard questions on that topic is no longer available. (Children still get set topics from it by the system, but in our experience this is useless - they've never assigned a topic DS hadn't mastered at least 2 years ago, despite the system having current level information at sign-up and supposedly involving human judgement.) I emailed them about this and was told it was a mistake that it ever had been - only their tutors were supposed to have access to it. Really silly: they had a good product, and then decided to make it worse.

Thanks to all for your input. Update: we tried e.nopi this summer and DD loved it, especially the Critical Thinking Math. We are taking a break while she adjusts to K, but she is already asking to go back.