Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments School Decision Time

I am glad you made your decision. If you are like me you probably spent 90% of your time thinking about it. It's hard to consider all the options especially when there is no clear winner. I think 3rd grade in the private school sounds like a good option.

Good luck

Congratulations on making a decision. And I totally agree, it is painful making these decisions for the short term. But I've come to realize that is what parenting a GT kid is all about!

Congrats on the decision, that has to feel good. I'm glad you are having a good summer and wish DS well in the new school. Is it crazy to think that this school rollercoaster thing will start back up in about 6 weeks(for us anyway)?

Didn't summer vacation just start, like, yesterday?!?!?!?

Is that all? 6 weeks? Sheesh!

Just two thoughts on the division question.

(1) Devise a test, if he passes, great. But
make it timed and difficult.

(2) If you really think he needs more work at
division, introduce higher concepts that require
division. For example (a) modular arithmetic,
(b) polynomial division, or (c) division with
fractions/exponents. That ought to be conceptual
enough for anyone :), and if he gets polynomial
division, he gets division. Though I'd do
modular arithmetic first.

I like that idea, thanks for posting! I am not intuitive at math, it's not my strength, though both DD's seem to have interest and talent in that area. DD8 seems proficient at long division. I've given her fractions and geometry to work on, but once she's mastered multiplication and division of fractions, wasn't really sure what to get into next. She is already bored(maybe bored not the right choice, tired, she just doesn't like it all anymore) of mult. and div.
I think I'll skip the timed test, but will look into your suggestions.
This board is so great for picking up ideas!
I know a lot of posters go higher up in concept and jump around. I'm just not that comfortable. I have had her gain a solid level then go to the next. Boring and laborious! I just don't have a comfort level and am afraid to make a mistake in helping her develop math talent. I think we will look into a tutor soon.

OH incogneato - are you my long lost sister? I'm having the exact same issues w/ DS. I've always been a year behind him with math. I took someone's advice not to teach him math b/c he'd be bored in school - well he was bored anyway, and i've spent years trying to play catch up. I'm just looking at math curriculum today. The next level up - he is conceptually already through more than half of it and we haven't even started. And there are many, many concepts in Level E (two levels up) that he is ready for or needs in his everyday life.

Glad that helped, and sorry to confuse your child's gender, I got mixed up in various people's discussions. Another thing to consider is thinking about the long division algorithm as a computational thinking exercise. Have your child write out the algorithm abstractly with variables instead of numbers and then see if you can solve problems with it when you plug in numbers like a computer program. Or if you're up to it actually write a computer program together that does long division only using simpler operations. But it is tricky to do this sort of thing if you don't have a strong math background, so some help might be handy here. I'm a cs prof, so I'm always interested in ways to get students understanding computational concepts earlier in
life...

All of these things will help cement concepts and increase abstract thought, which is fun, but there *is* some benefit to drilling in stupid, boring problems (mainly speed). It might be useful to teach a bit of a science lesson on how the brain works. If your daughter understands how practicing division problems (and practicing other skills) builds faster pathways between the neurons in her brain, so that she can do the problems without as much conscious thought, she might be more receptive to that kind of learning.

Hey, all, I'm just back from a week in Wyoming. It is beautiful there! I'm catching up on some of these posts and am wondering what Modular Arithmetic is? Curious, could you write out an example of what you mean by "long division algorithm as a computational thinking exercise"?

By the way, I'm feeling pretty good about the decision to go with the private school. Now to just sort out some details and scheduling issues (and money, of course!).

Here's an article about modular arithmetic: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modular_arithmetic

You can also think of it in terms of remainders. For example,

5 = 2 mod 3 because 5/3=1 remainder 2.