Here's what jumped out at ME from your post:
They have changed to common core (Everyday) math at school, the year before when he was doing well they were doing Singapore- which he said he liked better.
This is related to MoN's post above.
Um-- the problem might be an artifact created by a horrifically designed math curriculum, IMO. The only reason that it doesn't happen to MORE kids is that (again, IMO) most of them don't see what a good elementary curriculum looks like first.
Mine did, and had the SAME kinds of problems with Calvert mathematics (which, while not the abomination and affront to humanity that is EDM, is not the curriculum that Singapore Primary is). I mean-- really-- have YOU seen that EDM textbook?
The answer is to make "math" something completely coherent again.
Singapore Challenging Word Problems workbook? I wouldn't use the regular version with a kid like this-- he's SEEN the material before, after all. That might be a way to return to a time when he felt GOOD about the math.
I have exactly the same problem with Common Core, I think many kids would be faring better if it were dropped.
