Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Pre-school Any good program or bk for maths and reading?

Hi,

Would like to ask any of you could recommend me some fun program or books for learning maths and reading for my 33m old son, thanks.

I find that he like phonics (and he do know some basics like the phonics of alphabet, and can read some words), as we are not speaking english as home, I don know how much he get the meaning of the words. I keep reading to him everyday, but worry that my pronunciation is not that correct. Is there any computer program to learn phonics and reading (I want to learn too :P)

In addition, he enjoys numbers a lot, i think he enjoy the pattern of numbers, he likes keep writing number 0-119, and write them in reverse order, even number and odd numbers, etc.
He starts to do some simple additions and subtractions few months ago, but not very into it yet. Should I encourage him to the next step (e.g. find some fun games for additions) or just let him stay there to write the numbers all day long (it is really all day long, he write it when he wake up before school, and then in sch, when he didn't find sth interested to do, he write again, after lunch he write, keep writing for hours.... he is so intense for sth he likes)

Thanks.

Sounds like a fun boy. :-)

We have only done the free trial, but my son (age 3.25) likes Ooka Island as a software program for reading.

When we played on Khan Academy for the first time this week, he also found it interesting.

You can probably tell I am getting a bit anxious for the weather to get nicer outside...

It's hard to recommend programs unless we know what type of computer to recommend them for. Are you using an Ipad or another tablet? Are you looking for something online?

Starfall is available online and as an Apple App for Ipads, Iphones, etc. My daughter became somewhat obsessed with that when she was around 33 months, but my son hasn't taken to it the same way. My daughter also used Bob Books sets 1,3,4, and 5 which she recently completed. After set 5, children are prepared to read chapter books.

For math, I think working with manipulatives is better than working on the computer. The Montessori bead stair, or a set of unifix cubes can be used to model simple equations. Having said that, there are Montessori based computer games, too.

Thank you very much! ��

abcmouse.com and readingeggs.com are both good sites.

My kids were always "eh" on Starfall and other websites we tried (can't remember if we tired the ones momoftwins listed), but they both loved the Clifford the Big Red Dog "Phonics" and "Reading" games for ages 4-6 on CD. And the Reader Rabbit ones, too. These are old-school so they're super cheap on Amazon or eBay.

You can get eBooks that read themselves if you have a ebook reader with sound. We have a Nook HD and I have several early reader books on there that DS likes to use.

My son is almost 4. We have a starfall subscription which he enjoys at times (it's got good variety and allows learning across various areas within a topic (such as math - add/subtract, weight, length etc).

We also have a www.mathseeds.com subscription which is meant for 3-6yr olds (my son started this before 3 easily). While it's a good program (I was looking for something to teach numbers above 10 and the basics of add/subtract) it's ordering of things (at least for my son) is a bit weird imo. They introduce addition very early on (even up to 20) before concepts like near/far, long/short. This particular website is based on a progression so you must pass each level before moving onto the next. They have tests at the end of each map (5-10 levels each) They offer a 2-4 week trial (depending on where you are and where you sign up from) and you can do a placement test.

The creators of mathseeds also do www.readingeggs.com which is also subscription based (if you sign up for a free trial you have access to both). This program is by far the best learn to read program ive come across. It's very comprehensive. It works on phonetics AND sigh words together as well as spelling pretty early on. Once you're further into the program (map 5 I think) they add even more content and a heap of early readers your child can read then gets tested on the comprehension.

My DD4 loves reading eggs and is now 'sounding out' words, She did LOVE starfall from 2-3 but now she doesn't really do anything but the games on there so we'll not renew the sub this year.

There are lots of maths based toys (cuisinere rods, mosaic shapes etc). I think maybe you should work on him doing things other than writing though. Physical play is necessary for health and it is easy for a gifted child to only do the stuff they are good at. This can lead to risk avoidance and perfectionism. I would talk to the preschool about providing more support to help him try activities outside his comfort zone.

If he can speak engish himself without much accent he will probably work out the word in the accent he has. That is clumsy but if he hasn't picked up your accent through you learning to talk it seems unlikely he will read with one.

About reading in an accent: I wouldn't worry about that. Children generally pick up the accent of the place they grow up in, not their parents. It is highly likely that he has already figured out the code-switching necessary to correlate a word spoken in his native English speaker accent with your English second language accent.

I would suggest, actually, that you read to him in your first language, as you will feel more comfortable, he will be exposed to a greater breadth and depth of vocabulary in that language than if you limit yourself to using English with him, and it will help his metalinguistic skills (abstract concepts of language), which has long-term implications for reading comprehension, writing, and problem solving in both languages. Even if you haven't been using your first language with him up until now, at 3 he will pick it up in a matter of weeks or months. Also most languages are better for math than English is. E.g., both Chinese (and many other Asian languages) and Finnish explicitly use the decimal system in the names of numbers. Compare that with English, which has the unique number names of "eleven, twelve, (thirteen,) and twenty", that don't sound much like what they are (ten-one, ten-two, ten-three, two-tens).