Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Pre-school What to do with a mathematics gifted preschooler?

Hi,

I would like to ask for some sharing of education and development of a mathematics gifted kid. Thanks.

My son is 3 years old now, and here is his milestones on math:

20m - read and know the numerical sequence 0-9 and know lots of opposite
21m - count object one by one and estimate number of object from 0-3 correctly by sight
24m - counts objects in subgroups, counts objects one by one to 12, knows numerical sequence from 0-29
25m - counts steps to 20 (when walking upstairs or downstairs) and develops concept in fraction, knowing that 8 of 1/8 will make a 1 and 1/3 is larger than 1/5
26m - know numerical sequence from 0 -100
27m - can count at least from 0 to 30 and know how to read clock in hour (o’clock)
28m – Count backward from 10 to 0, write “0” “1” “2” “3” “6”
29m – know the days of the week, months of the year and the words yesterday, today and tomorrow
30m – start interested in addition, can do some simple addition by counting fingers, (e.g. 2+3=5, 5+5=10)
31m - write all the numbers, write equation “2+3=5”
32m – do simple addition mentally (e.g. 6+3, 4+4), intense interest in numbers, knows even and odd numbers and know 0- 600, Count backward from 500, understand simple patterning
33m - do simple additions in ten and hundred (e.g. 10+20=30, 200+300=500)
35m – do simple addition with two digits (e.g. 45+45=90, 24+12=36, 82+85=167)
- interested in and understand simple concept of negative number (e.g. 3-5=-2)
36m - love reading digital clocks, temperature, etc. Start doing multiplication (he memorized the multiplication table by reading the table himself)

I don know if he is gifted or not, (as i saw many articles and find that some kids who are gifted seems more advanced than him) but he is a good learner and he enjoy learning, he always lead what he want to learn and asking me lots of questions. I would like someone to share their experience of having a child with advanced maths ability. What will they do in maths learning in kindergarten and elementary school if they have already learn all the simple additions/substations?

I live in North California , and my son will go to public school. I know his sch have GATE program for gifted kids but it is for higher grade students, right? (The school have 25% GATE students) so what to do in lower grade classroom?

I would also like to know what do u do for parenting and stimulating their maths talent? Any great toys recommend for preschooler?

Oh I have so many questions :P. Thanks a lot!

One option would be to have him tested for early kindergarten admission. NC has a statewide policy for early K admission: your child must have iq test results at the 98th percentile or above, and they must have achievement test results in either math or reading at the 98th percentile or above. There are other, less tangible, requirements too, which you can find online if you search for NC early kindergarten admission. The policies that govern this are in state statute, so in theory, all districts should have this option.

Tests must be given after April of the year he'd be starting kindergarten, so you have a little while to think about it. We just did this for our DS and he'll be starting kindergarten this month at age 4.4. The other advantage to testing is that it helps make the case for differentiated services early on, since most gifted programs don't start until third grade in this state.

NC = North Carolina, right? Different state.

Math is so much more than counting and adding. I'm not a fan of the approach of "the kid already does kindergarten/1st grade stuff so we should move onto 2nd grade stuff."

Toys and games are perfect. Checkers, Sorry, dominos, tangrams, jigsaw puzzles, plus cooking together, and good 'ol Legos, blocks, modular train tracks, and similar toys.

The advantage of these is that they teach thinking skills that elementary schools don't have time to teach.

Whoops! Must have been too early in the morning for my eyes to be working right.

ITA. May I add: Some may put a note in the child's file to vaccinate future teachers against parental advocacy.

Or not. The negativity toward gifted kiddos is prevalent and widespread. If parents who have been through it do not alert others, each family may feel they are going through it alone, rather than possibly bringing about change by raising awareness.

The methods of undermining utilized by some teachers/schools/districts may resemble "relational aggression" (girl bullying) or Zersetzung. This may include elements of destroying self-confidence, social isolation, damaging reputation, organizing failures in their work (in this context, possibly explained as a means of introducing "challenge"), inspiring self-loathing.

While parents help their children move forward in other learning environments, the effects of the undermining are chilling, make a lasting impression, and may cause lingering mistrust and fear.

For parents who may be new to this: There are many resources for advocacy information and meeting prep. There are success stories. If the parents follow best practices and the efforts are not successful in their learning environment, the consolation is that the evidence-based, documented, unemotional approach leaves little negative to be said about the parents, to be placed in a student's file.

My DS just turned 4. Here's a list of activities he's found stimulating over the last year: learning about calendars; playing with analog and digital clocks, both toy and real; marbleworks; leapfrog discovery sets, including world and US maps, solar system, and anatomy; learning about coins and making change, and playing with a toy cash register; playing with measuring devices, such as rulers, thermometers, measuring cups, pressure gauges (tire and water), and scales; being read to and learning to read; playing with the hundreds of settings on our keyboard piano; magnatiles; growing a vegetable garden; and cooking with me (especially making bread dough in clear plastic storage containers, because he can watch the volume of dough rise.)

Also, about 6 months ago, we got a subscription to Dreambox. He chooses to play for an average of 20-30 minutes a day. Watching him work through a math curriculum has taught me that there are A LOT of steps between grasping addition and mastering all aspects of addition. Even still, it only took six months for my DS to work through kindergarten, first, and most of second... At some point, I stopped wondering what he would learn in school and settled on homeschooling. It's daunting, but I fear I just wouldn't hack it at advocacy.

Thank you so much!!

Helianthus, it is ok, I always see the words wrong too, as i always see the beginning and ending letters of a word only :P

I don't think early entrance of K is suitable for my son, as i only speak to him in Cantonese at home. Although he know some english single words and can read some words, I believe it is still a long way to go for him to learn reading. In addition, he look a bit "small" in his age already, he is only 15-25% in height and weight. He once told me he doesn't like himself because he is not as tall as daddy. So I worry that putting him into a older group may have negative impact on his self-esteem. But if he can be put in a advance class in maths, that may prefect. (Most likely it is not possible :P)

geofizz, Portia and Space_Cadet, thanks for the great idea of toys and games! Same as you, i always think that maths is not only calculations, the thinking process is more important. My son like playing cash machine and pretend shopping with me, he also like using ruler to measure the sizes of stuffs. Recently he likes to draw a digital clock, and write the temperature, keep drawing and changing them (sometimes i can't understand why it is fun, but he can keep drawing for more than an hour! "it is 10:05, and 1 degree! now it is 10:06 and 2 degree..")

Portia and Indigo, wow, you frighten me!!! Seems that it is better not to let the school know about it and better let my son to have day dreaming in the class, at least he can keep stimulating himself and not being bully. Actually i enjoyed day dreaming in class too :P
When someone see my son can write numbers, and know odd and even numbers, some of his classmate's parent already ask what i do with him at home. Most likely they thought that i am a "tiger mom" <- too bad :_(

Most likely I will homeschool him in maths, I am thinking to subscribe Dreambox too when he turns 4 or 5.

Thanks all of you ^-^

Try using his love of math to develop other areas such as dot to dots for writing practise and mazes too. We gave dd an abacus to play with and that led to a lot of fun for her. Also I read that kids do better in advanced math later if they can Learn calculations in math stories instead of just numbers ( if a farmer has 3 core etc) apparantly it helps develop the visualisation required for higher math rather than rote learning. Good luck with your boy!

Why not send him to a preschool so he'll pick up English? We know families that spoke something other than English in the home and let the "outside world" take care of the English skills.

I recall one kid in my eldest kid's daycare that spoke Japanese with his parents. (The father was Japanese, mother was American but was fluent.) The first two years of his life he heard very little English. They sent him to a daycare at two, and within six months, his English vocabulary was larger than most of the kids who spoke English only.

He'll need to learn English if you plan to continue living in the US. I've seen HG+ kids like your son learn to speak up to four languages at once - so long as each language has a place or person with which the kid speaks the language. And preschool would give him the opportunity to interact with some other kids. It could be just three or four hours at a time, doesn't need to be full day.

Good luck with the math. It is tough because one teacher can't really customize math for each student in a class of 25. However, I have not seen the other kids counting dots while only one kid understands much more math. Maybe it is the area, but most kids are way beyond counting dots in K (in the schools near here). Opportunities for math are much greater as you get to middle and high school. It is tough to wait but it does get better. My eldest knows multiple kids who qualified for USAMO, including one who qualified before high school. Yes, I'm sure school was boring for these kids, but they are now in great colleges where there are others like them. If you have colleges near you (or good high schools), maybe in a few years you could get a high school or college student to tutor him in math. I've seen others on this board do that.

Thanks Mahagogo, same as ur girl, my son loves dot to dot and maze very much. He always draws a maze and ask me to finish it, but he is frustrated when i finish it in a different route from what he think... and he draws dot to dot, patterning questions and ask me to finish too.... :P
I am trying to teach him to use maths to solve real life preoblem too, but i find that before he learn additions, he can answer real life maths very well (e.g. when he said he want 5 crackers, and i said u already have 3, how many should I give u, he can answer 2 immediately, and he is only 2.5 yrs at that time) but now, after he learnt additions, he can't answer real life problem as quick as before... :P