Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments Accelerating math 2 years!

Hi blackcat, DD8's school made the kids finish "Xtra Math" multiplication as part of their homework (they had it as homework every day until they were finished). It's free! We actually did this with DD starting in 2nd grade and she now knows them cold (and it was a bit painful to start - turns out DD's "working memory" is a "relative weakness" for her, as it is perfectly average, her 2 lowest subtests BY FAR on the WISC). She HATED it to start (you have to get quick with them), but boy, did she learn them!

luvedu - sorry I missed your earlier post. EPGY has "voice lectures." We've never tried the instructor-based courses for EPGY (I could not justify the cost considering the small amount of time DD has for EPGY during the school year - hopefully, she'll do more in the summer). Open Enrollment is MUCH less expensive.

You can try out Math Blocks for free. Just get on brainpop.com and search "multiplication blocks" or just "blocks" and you'll find it. We have a 4SD spread with processing speed so many things frustrated him and he wouldn't do it. He went from throwing fits about it to saying math was his favorite subject and begging for more when we added the Blocks game in our activities.

Loy--yep we have tried/used that as well. But they aren't that thrilled. DD really liked Big Brainz at first so I'm not sure what happened. Maybe the novelty has just worn off. She already made it to the end so there is nothing new to "discover". She then promptly forgot half of it. I think she knows all the multiplication facts because they now do it in school, she is just kind of slow with recalling them. She fails every timed test. Her working memory was ok on the WISC, something like 96th percentile so I'm not sure why she has such a hard time with math facts. It was processing speed which was really quite poor and below 100 so that probably has something to do with it. DS's working memory was actually a lot lower than DD's on the WISC and he worked his way through Big Brainz a lot faster (even though he is 16 months younger he was ahead of DD--it drove her nuts).

Lol, Blackcat! Your DC are so much like mine! DS5 learned multiplication by osmosis while DD was learning them. DS seems to love numbers and appears to have a great memory - drove my DD nuts, too!

Blackcat-- My 7 yr old says, "I know what it is, I just can't call it up".

He's pretty adept at verbalizing his experience. Processing speed is the bane of his existence--scary low... getting to automaticity is a huge sticking point in showing what he really knows. It's in there, he just can't pull it up in the moment with the pressure of being asked to "perform".

Teachers thought he was being difficult or stubborn or actually didn't know the answer when they put him on the spot. Sounds like your DD is similar. It is really challenging to find ways to grow that automaticity without invoking the anxiety and resistance those types of tasks usually garner.

Re. Prep for 6th grade Maths, I concur that what are called 'multiplication/division' facts have to be mastered. Also, the ideas that a) a vulgar fraction is merely an expression showing a numerator divided by a divisor and b) division is merely multiplication by the reciprocal will really clear up any confusion with fractions and especially fractional division. It is far better to understand why instead of remembering to blindly flip the divisor.

My DD's school used First in Math when she was in 1st and 2nd grade. Serendipidously, no restrictions were put in place so DD could access the higher grade work. There were plenty of speed drills there that helped her to internalize these facts. Blind memorization followed by drills seems to have cemented them in place.

My DD was very similar - eerily so.

Further practice, which increased fluency and confidence was the only thing that helped overcome the perfectionism - see previous post on drills. Also, working through the SM and the Zaccaro challenging Maths without a calculator helped.

The final thing has been the AoPS pre-algebra class, especially their coverage of the properties of the arithmetic operations and number theory.

The speed with which my DD can cover material always leaves nagging doubts about how much of what she has apparently learned will stand a vigorous shaking. What I have seen of the AoPS pre-algebra class helps to quell those doubts.

I found some blank 5th grade Singapore Math books at the Goodwill of all places for $1 so I'm thinking I'll have her do that over the summer as well as the math facts games online. I wonder if there is a way to hide/remove the Timer on Big Brainz. She says there's not, so maybe I can figure out how to cover it up on the screen. Otherwise we'll go back to Xtra Math, but with that I have to hide the "tutors" that are right there on the screen...at least that's not hard to do.
It's frustrating watching her stare at a screen blankly when it's something like 3+2. Must be frustrating for her as well. Of course she knows what that is, but just doesn't seem to process the information or respond (not sure which one). I put her into occupational therapy and the therapist had her do IM therapy (interactive metronome) in an effort to boost processing speed/motor output, but after about 3 sessions stopped doing it because DD had it pretty much mastered. I was really surprised by that...why would that be simple for her but she can't process 3+2.